CONSEQUENCES

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11251, 1 July 1922, Page 11

CONSEQUENCES

In these murder cases, the world is perplexed, like monarchs when they see eclipses, with fear of change. In England it is a domestic matter. There the fierce light of sane public opinion gives prominence to the charge that precaution did not follow warning. Foi in the face of the late Sir Henry 'Wilson’s declaration tnat it would he better to be shot by murderers than to shake hands with them, and of the reception by some of his household of Mr Chamberlain, the forewarning must be held established. In the German case there is proof in the disposition made by the victim of the assassins for the revelation of tus candid opinion oi the ex-Kaiser and his fellow-reprobates, “Cowards all,’* as he called them. This, to say nothing of the mountainous clouds of report, rumour, and pro. clamation which lowered over the Rathenau nead for many months. But in Germany the matter is not domestic. Through the German people the disorganised world, over which all con ceivable birds of ill-omen are hovering, is in serious danger of violent disturbance, destined, if it comes, to resound Unforgettably. In Britain,, of course, the domestic danger is not confined to the possibility of a change of Government. The settlement of the Irish question is in danger. It makes one think of the perpetual storms which prevented the Flying Dutchman of the old story from rounding the Cape of Good Hope. On all these matters it is not possible just now to arrive at reasoned conclusion. Wo must leave it to Old Father Time, who has his eye on the distracted world.