The New Zealand Times. TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 1920. GERMANY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10545, 23 March 1920, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 1920. GERMANY

The clearance of the air by the ignominies of Kapp and Co. is now more than ever beyond doubt. It is completely beyond doubt. The last scene is typical, with the Junkers scuttling away in motor-cars to save their skins, leaving their puppet in tears and wailings. What these people would have done, had they got tho upper hand, is not a matter for speculation. Passing over details, that would have been an era of court-mar-tials tempered by executions. It is probable that something ’ similar is going to happen to them in their defeat, for, as someone has pointed out, there can he no pardon for high treason, and President Ebert has ordered certain arrests. But this is only a detail, like the final stamping out of firo after a- conflagration. The next question is of the Soviet-Spartacist au. tocrats, who have seized the opportunity for breaking out. Their great asset is Essen, with all tho war treasures of the great arsenal of Krupp yoh Bohlen. On tho other hand, their great weakness is the lack of unity, co-ordination, discipline, everything but the vapouring of nonsensical speech. As for their ultimate fortune, so far as the world’s peace is concerned, it matters little. There is reason to believe that they will fizzle out presently as the Junkers have fizzled out, though with probably far less food for ridicule. But even, if they gain their ends, whatever they may be, they can he relied on not to revive for the mastery of the world the war which has cost them and their country so dear, and offers, in tho event of victory, fruits only to tho Junker class. '

This final collapse of German militarism is tho logical outcome of tho famous Zabern affair. That ferocious outbreak of military exclusiveness pro. vokcd, as Ambassador Gerard pointed out in his “Four Years in Germany,” tho first hostile resolution in tho Reichstag, which was also tho first organised expression of tho German dislike of Prussianised militarism,. Tho fate of tho Reichstag protest —a strong majority vote of no confidence in the Government—revealed to the world the hollowness of tho democratic pretence at the root of the Imperial system. That system had been accept?d by the people in a glamour p* three vie-

torious wars which had made the Empire. The Empire had brought great prosperity, and promised world dominion. But while the promise waned, the Prussianism waxed more and more aggressive. The outburst of popular indignation on the failure of tho Reichstag protest in favour of the civil rights of the citizen, forced tho Junkers and the Hohenzollerns to turn to war as a diversion. That is the, main purport of Ambassador Gerard's book. Thus urged, the Imperial autocracy made its war, and tho war threw the autocracy into tho dust. The Kapp fiasco has proved that the wretched corpse cannot be galvanised into life. If the Soviet party wins, it will not take up the cause of the world war, and if it does the German people will throw it in its turn into the dust. That may now be regarded as the German certainty. Thus is the air clear

Tho consequence of the clearing is that the full weight of America is not required for European adjustment. Therefore the failure of the Senate to ratify the Treaty becomes of secondary importance. It creates a. first-class difficulty for America, the difficulty of deciding how the state of war between Germany and America can bo ended. But as Germany cannot again be a first-class Power, and whatever class she may bo in is never again likely to aim at world dominance, the American difficulty, groat as it may be for America, becomes for Europe little more than academic. The way is clear for what remains of the Entente Alliance to consolidate the new State of Poland rising daily into greater eminence in the East. The extinction of Prussianism paves the way as never before for tho predominance of the Polish nation, as a. firm barrier against aggres. siveness, from either the East or the West. It also paves the way for a settlement of the Turkish difficulty. Constantinople is in tho hands of an Allied army, and under the guns of an Allied fleet. The Greek army is about to sweep the Turk out of Adrianople, and Italian troops are concentrated on the littoral in Anatolia, while opposition among tho Turks wanes in hopelessness. It is -possible that among these various circumstances tho Turk may do something to settle against himself the question of Constantinople. He is certainly doing his best to forfeit whatever sympathy survives for him. If there is resolution enough among the Allies to give him the necessary right thrust, the troublesome question of Constantinople more theoretically than really troublesoffie—• will be settled by the unanswerable argument of the “fait accompli.” After that the settlement of Eastern affairs will be easier.