THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1916. NO PATCHED-UP PEACE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16824, 13 October 1916, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1916. NO PATCHED-UP PEACE.

The Staats Zeituiig, a New York paper catering, as its name implies, tor the " hyphenated " Americans, is responsible for some hysterical utterances on the subject of peace which are regarded as expressing sufficiently closely the views of the German Government. The Uniled States, in the German opinion, should immediately appeal to the belligerents to end the war. In other words, the United States should exert its energies in favour of peace at a time when, on the evidence of the war map, upon which Herr von Bethmann-Hoilweg has laid so much stress, Germany might be able, in the settlement, to claim consideration in respect of the territory occupied by her. No proposal for a settlement based on existing war conditions would, however, be regarded by the Allies as worthy even of consideration. This has been made perfectly clear by the Prime Minister in a reference to the subject in the House of Commons. " This was not the moment," Mr Asquitli said, " for faint hearts or wavering counsels. All the sufferings they had undergone could not be allowed to end with a patched-up, precarious, and dishonouring compromise masquerading under the name of peace. They were not vindictive, but they required adequate reparation for the past and security for the future." In these terms, which are certainly not ambiguous, we have the most direct, uncompromising, and satisfactory statement that has been made by the Prime Minister or by any other member of the Imperial Government on the question of peace. The pronouncement is opportune and welcome. A considerable number of people in the Old Country have been apprehensive lest the Government should show itself prepared to deal with Germany in a spirit of excessive leniency. For this reason the view has been strongly expressed that the Government needed some organised influence that would stiffen its back in relation to the settlement, and counteract the danger, as Mr Harold Owen expresses it, of the mischievous activity of irrational sentimentalists and perverted humanitarians who will betray infinitely more concern j and tenderness for a beaten Germany than they have ever shown pity for Germany's victims or anxiety for the tragic chance of Europe under the Hunnish heel, and who, when the arm is lifted to drive the last nail of victory home, will try to clutch at the arm and check the downward blow —will endeavour to frustrate the national will when full reparation and complete security are within our grasp. There has, indeed, been no lack of warning to the Government to take careful stock of the temper of the nation in considering what peace terms might be accorded to the enemy. Mr Hilpire Belloc has scathingly commented on the probability of an endeavour towards the end of tho war to create a current of opinion leading towards an inconclusive peace, and has lucidly pointed out various ways in which the danger of a false policy, proceeding from what he terms the new plutocracy, may manifest itcelf. A spirit of distrust has been abroad in the Old Country as to the ability of the Government to resist, or as to its sincerity in a desire to resist, powerful influences that might tend in a direction contrary to the conception of a satisfactory pcace ' settlement founded on truly disinterested and real British patriotism. ■ The existence of such a feeling renders Mr Asquith's vigorous repudiation of the idea that Great Britain will give any consideration to anything in the nature of a patchod-up precarious peace both timely and reassuring. The great argument for the conclusion of an enduring peace is, of course, that the world must be preserved from the menace of another such war—-a menace from which it would not be free if Germany were not crushed—and that the enormous sacrifices which the Allies have made shall not have Jjcon offered in vain, but shall bear rich fruit from which posterity will benefit. No peace can be termed sound, or will be likely to

bo endurable, iliat does not prescribe and enforce (.hp complete abandonment of tko German policy of aggression and effect the removal of the weapons which Germany lias employed against the small nations of Europe.