THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Wednesday, may 22, 1913.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17321, 22 May 1918, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Wednesday, may 22, 1913.

GERMANY'S EASTERN PENETRATION. The Incw Ttork Times gives prominence, not surprisingly, to the view that the Allied Governments have some reason to fear that the situation on the ■Western front may roach a deadlock unless steps are taken to stop German progress and domination in Russia. Since the Bolshevist Government accepted the disgraceful capitulation upon which Germany insisted the situation in Russia has gone steadily from bad to worse. That Germany would respect even her one-sided agreements with Russia and Rumania was scarcely to he expected. Hers is the creed of the opportunist. Nothing seems more clear than the fact that she is aiming at the complete domination of Russia, and that she lias already progressed far towards this goal. Tho capture of Sebastopol furnishes simply a- fresh example of the vigour with which tho German policy of penetration is being prosecuted. Germany is intent upon tho exploitation of Russia and the East' to her own advantage and with all the driving foroe of an aggressive ambition. She is bent on making out of her favourable position in the East such capital as -will be a heavy offset to relative failure in the West. It will bo her hope that her dominat'-on in the East will give her new sources of energy for the prosecution of the war and that it will be a factor that will enable her to seoure a German peace. The French press is urging the need for a combined effort on the part of the Allies to solve the Russijui problem, and p»v€jit the reorgonia&tian. of Bo«cia by

Germany in lier own interests. In the course of an interview published sonio weolcs ago in th© Daily Chronicle, Dr W. T. Ellis, a well-known .American writer, retailing the impressions which he had derived from a lengthy tour of the Russian Empire, Rumania, and part of Turkey-in-Asia, laid stress upon the fact that the Russian nation is made up mainly of 160,000,000 peasants, with superb physical potentialities but totally illiterate—plastic material easily moulded by whomsoever comes first, and observed: " The Bolshevists seized on this plastic material. There is gravo danger that the mass, which has been shaped for Bolshevism, may be seized and shaped for Prussituiism." We have no reason to doubt the purpose behind Germany's methodical promotion of the conditions of disorder and disintegration in Russia. By the terms of her peace if peace it can be called—with Russia and Rumania, she has already secured advantages, including a new road to the East, to the importance of which the Gorman press has shown itself quite alive. The project of a great trade route, via the Danube and the Black Sea " which can never bo hemmed in by England, a route penetrating into the innermost recesses of Asia," has been freely discussed ia German quarters. The prospect is thus* described: —" Every widening of our free access to the south-east will weaken the hope of our opponents that by continuing to blockade they will be able to destroy us economically." The fact remains that Germany has, for the time being at any rate, access to a new route to the East through Odessa, Batum, Baku, and across the Caspian Sea to Merv and Samarkand—a route far superior, in the judgment of more than one experienced observer, to that other route through Turkey and Asia Minor to Bagdad upon which German eyes were formerly set. The publications used by Germany to further her propaganda efforts in neutral countries contain interesting references to the future destiny of Persia and Egypt as Teutonic ambition "would shape it. "While the dreams of German visionaries need not disturb us, the reality of Germany's eastern penetration and the problem with which it confronts the Entente Powers cannot be disregarded. Lapse of time, with the war still in progress, only gives the enemy further opportunity to mature and carry into execution plans for the exploitation, as an aid to his military campaign, of the resources of Russia. President Wilson reiterates the intention of the Allied Governments to stand by Russia. The declaration is made in a spirit of sympathy. Russia is not to be forsaken, grievous though her blunders have been, and grievously though she has paid herself,, and caused her Allies to pay, for her inconstancy. But the present problem is the question as to what the Allies can do for Russia in their own interest, as a counterstroke to Germany's schemes, and to prevent tho enemy from drawing from the East m the future the power to resist the crowning effort which—the present enemy offensive baffled— the Allies look forward to being able to make in order to secure victory and dictate the terms of an enduring peace. The practicable and effective solution has yet to be evolved.