PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3327, 19 December 1917, Page 69

PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

WAR ON THE WESTERN FRONT. Last week I promised a few words on this phase. You remember that I said the Germans had two distinctive objectives in view : "The German Road to tho East" as the immediate objective, and the absorption of Denmark, Holland, and Belgium on the West, to be preceded, If necessity arose, by bleeding France white and bringing Britain to her knees. According' to the U.S. ex-Ambassador to Berlin, Mr Gerard, the United States were to follow ; and then, of course, South America would be wolfed by the insatiable German maws.

Just before I sa,t down to write this I read in the London Times a most amusing German account of the present war: and in it Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey are represented as the three great peace nations, and France, the British Empire-, and the United States the three great war nations, out for blood and conquest! One can hardly credit it. There is just one simple question I should like pro-Germans and pacifists to face squarely : If Britain wanted war and conquest, howwas it that the Germans found us in such an absolutely unprepared state? If we willed war, why didn't we get ready for it?

If we read "Germany and the Next War" (Bernhardi), a book I grave some Chats upon when it first came out in English—in 1913, I think; —and "Imperial Germany" (Prince von Bulow), a new edition of which came out recently, but a book I have not yet given a Chat upon—if we l'ead these we can see that Germany willed the war. Bernhardi , says, "War is the greatest factor in the furtherance of culture and power," that "no "nation need passively submit to the pressure of circumstances" —he is referring to the fact that Germany has a fixed policy, and that other nations really drift; that'the Hague Congresses were used by the weak who feared the strong; by England to protect her rear in the event of a war with Germany; and by the United States to have a free hand in Central America and to get exclusive control of the Panama Canal* Then, having justified war, he then justifies stealing a march on his enemy; for, says he, in the next war —the one that has come—"we can only emerge victoriously . . .if we gain a start on our probable enemy as soldiers" —emphasis his, not mine. But, to return to my point, Germany's Western aims—and these involve extraEuropean territories,—and to quote from "The New German Empire," an article from the March number of the Round Table: "Germany's Western aims, as German imperialists conceived them before the war, can be summed up as follows : To decoy or to intimidate Great Britain, or (if needs must) to defeat her; to ci-ush France once and for all; to overawe Holland, Belgium, and Portugal; to extend her power in one form or another over Rotterdam, Antwerp, Calais, and the mineral deposits of French Lorraine; to break up the extra-European dominions of her victims, including, in the end, the British Commonwealth, and to build upon their ruins a greater Germany beyond the seas."

This is a comprehensive programme, but by the speeches and writing of German authorities it can be shown to exist. The remarks by the King of Bavaria, the second man in the Empire, and the exChancellor show that a direct aim is the control of the Rhine to _ the North Sea: the economic position is aimed at as shown by the carefully-designed campaigns by the General Staff in Belgium and France; and the manifesto as issued by the six Economic Associations show that all coal and iron fields in Belgium and bordering on the Franco-German frontier must be in German hands. These points do not concern Britain immediately, though they are of tremendous importance eventually. But what about the extra-European aspects of the programme? " 'With regard to extra-European politics,' says Prince Bulow, in his frank and revealing book. 'England is the only country with which Germany has an account *to settle.' The challenge could hardly be more plainly stated. The same theme runs through speech after speech by the Kaiser and his representatives in their campaign for the growth of the German navy, from the Kruger telegram onwards. Germany, already predominant in Europe as the first military PoAver, was to become an extra-European or 'World-Power,' with a 'place in the sun' beyond the ocean, enjoying the 'freedom of the seas,' which has been denned on different occasions as 'the Empiro of the Atlantic,' the command of the Suez Canal, or a balan'ee of naval power with Great Britain; but which, closely examined, really means, or meant, a substitution of German for British Supremacy."

RE GERMAN INDIA. Professor Del-brack, in April,- 1915, wrote an article from which the following is taken : —'"The first and most important of all national demands -which wo shall have to make when the time comes for the signing of peace must be a demand for a very large colonial Empire, a German India. The Empire mfSt be bo big that it is capable of conducting its own defence in time of war. A very largo territory cannot be completely occupied by the enemy. A very large territory will maintain its own army and provide numerous reservists and second-line troops. If its main centres are connected by rail its different districts will be in a posifiion to support one another in case oi need. A very large territory can have its own munition and arms factories. A very large territory will also have harbours and coaling stations." Again: "The Beli gian and French Congo by themselves cannot suffice for the German India which we must try to secure and have a right to demand after our victories. This equatorial territory may provide us with um suspected treasures in the future; but so far as the next generation is concerned its extraordinarily thin population will prevent it from being profitable to us j indeed, it would cost money. Only wheri the rich districts lying around it, which are now in English hands, ark added on, shall we have in sufficient measure the practical pre-requisite for a German India."

Just one more, this time from an article by Baron Albrecht von Rechenberg, an ex-Governor of East Africa, in "Nord and Sud," and summarised in the Westminster Gazette, January 27, this year: "If Belgium-, as we hope and as the Belgians hope, is to be divided after the war batween France and Germany, vast portions of the Belgian and French Congo will have to be included in German's colonial em-< pire, which we .would then complete by the acquisition of British East Africa- and Uganda, in exchange for Kiau Chan, New Guinea, and Australasian [note he doesj not say Australian] islands. Such ari empire could easily be defended from the sea, and it would have to be considered! whether we could not exchange Togoland, which is isolated, for Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Germany would theri have a colonial empire worthy of he» enterprising spirit, and it would yield us all the raw- material we need."

All small capitals are .mine. Note ko - w, moderate her African demands are (!) jj how the writer disposes of territories Gor« many has lost, or has never possessed { how she wants "a compact colonial em« pire in place of our present haphazard ac* quisitiqns" ; and how she wants to pos* sess a vast colonial empire, compact, selfsnpporting in peace and war, and possessing the advantage of internal lines of communication in times of offensive anqi defensive action. Notice, too, how all Other nations are absolutely ignorepl in thflj rearrangements and the assumed tions.

As usual, my space is mora than filled ; but I should like to quote from Bernhardi on our delusion as to the value of, our recruits (written before the war), and how the "militia of our self-governing colonies" "can be -completely IOXOHED as far as concerns anv European theatre of war" ! I should like, too, to quota from "Hurrah and Hallelujah: The New* Spirit of Germanism : A Documentation.'* by J. P. Bang, D.D., Professor of Theology at the Copenhagen University, but) cannot.

My next Chat will be the last for this year; and 1 promised to avoid war;, buf> shall I write on the Crusades, seeing that, at last, Christian peoples—Central Powers excluded, as not being Christians, buti pagans!—are at last to possess the Holy; Place?

By the by, spend a few minutes over the map of Africa, and see what modest diinenion the colonial empire would ba as outlined in this Chat, and what would be left of Africa for others.