The New Zealand Times. MONDAY, MARCH 14, 1921. CROCODILE TEARS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10848, 14 March 1921, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. MONDAY, MARCH 14, 1921. CROCODILE TEARS

The tearful return of Dr von Simons to Berlin was no doubt intended to be at once pathetic and impressive. It succeeded only in being ridiculous. Tho tears were too obviously those of the crocodile—not, indeed, “for the dear little nigger boy I just now ate,” but; rather, for the escape of his intended prey, the Allies, to wit, who had refused to be taken in by his wiles. There is, indeed, a marked difference between the proceedings in London and in Berlin, as reported by cable. Dr von Simons, it is stated, had a triumphal railway journey to Berlin, where a great crowd sang patriotic songs; the whole thing, no doubt, admirably stage - managed throughout, as is the German way. Then Dr von Simons rearfully says to the Chancellor, “We have come to present our account’’; and the latter replies, whether also tearfully or not is not mentioned, “■Herr Minister, you have our confidence.” There seems to have been a good deal of “business,” quite unintentionally comic, about the proceedings at Berlin. Those in London, however, were free from “business,’/ yet most businesslike. The heads of the Allied delegations met and settled various details regarding the application of the Paris sanctions to Germany, in accordance with, the views of the Allied experts; and it was agreed that the sanctions—the occupation of Dusseldorf, Duisburg, Ruhrort, and so forth—can only cease when a- satisfactory solution of the questions of reparation, disarmament, and war criminals has been accepted by the Allies. Germany, in short, is to be taught at long 'last thati the Allies will stand no nonsense—of the tearful order or otherwise. The reading of the German Reparation Recovery Bill a first time in. the House of Commons on Friday, and the setting down of the seoond reading for to-day, are further indications that the Allies mean business and are not going to allow the grass to grow under their feet.

That the Hohenzollem faction is still indulging in the futile machinations "Which it has carried on ever since the Armistice, is shown, inter alia, by the fact that the Imperialists and friends of the old regime made an unsuccessful attempt to induce the workers to signalise by a strike the occupation of that city by the Allies. The workers, happily for themselves, and for all concerned, including even tho Hohenzollernista, flatly refused to adopt the fatuous course sujggested. In fact, it is reported that the Socialist and Labour classes seemed, to look upon the presence of the Allies with no unfriendly eye; and a deputation of workers interviewed the French commander and promised to assist in maintaining order if they were allowed to follow their ordinary occupations. That Germany generally, however, is still far from realising the facts of the position is evident from the fact that German guards at Strelitz wounded several French soldiers who were engaged in. seizing arms; while captured documents reveal that the German frontier police axe conniving in assisting the traffic in arms, and hidden ammunition and firearms have been discovered. There can be no doubt that the triumphal reception accorded Dr von Simons, though he returned in anything but triumph, was intended as a defiance of the Allies. Other symptoms of defiance are—(l) The manner in which German manufacturers are endeavouring to evade the 50 per cent, levy on German sales to Allied countries by arranging to transfer their operations to neutral countries and stirring up these countries to demand liberty of transport; (2) the endeavour by Hamburg and Bremen business men to arrange a national boycott of Allies’ goods; (3) the report that the bulk of the German nation is inclined to offer passive resistance to the Allies’ demands; and (4) the barefaced fashion in which Germany is drumming up out-voters, with the avowed object of out-voting the residents of Upper Silesia, and thus winning the plebiscite. Within ten days, we are told, three hundred thousand out-votere will lie distributed through the Silesian towns and villages. If Germany expects the Allies to ratify without question the result of a plebiscite thus conducted, she will, we are convinced, find herself very much mistaken. However, whatever may be the state of feeling in Germany, and whatever tho reactionaries and others in that country would do if they could, FielflMarshal Foch, by the prompt carrying out of the Paris sanctions, has sedhred a military stranglehold on Germany, the Allied forces being now within easy striking distance of the great Krupp munition works at Essen. That the Allies have also an eoonomic stranglehold is shown by Mr Lloyd George’s speech in the House of Commons. In reply to a question by Mr J. R. Clynes (Labour), as to how much of the present policy was British and how much French, the British Prime Minister, first administering the welldeserved rebuke that the effect of Mr Clynes’s speech would bo to stiffen Germany’s resistance, declared roundly that the settlement is an Allied settlement. “We shall only get a settlement with Germany (he added) if she knows we will enforce it. We are now importing fifty millions’ sterling wpr.t|l

of German goods yearly. Germany will not prefer losing the whole of that trade to paying her debts. If the Germans decline to reimburse her own nationals in regard to the levy, that is their affair. Germany has everything to lose and nothing to gain by resistance. If she stops all exports to the Allies, there will be unemployment on such a scale as no industrial cou'.ntry has ever witnessed.’’ This last clearly refers to unemployment in Germany. The state of trade industry in Germany would undoubtedly react to a certain extent- upon the Allies. But the effect of the economic disturbance would be far more severely felt in Germany herself; and that the German manufacturers who are commercial men know right well. The Germans will no doubt carry on the game of bluff and bluster a. while longer; but once they fully realise that “the gun is loaded for bear” they will climb down.