PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3364, 4 September 1918, Page 57

PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

WAR A PRUSSIAN PAYING INDUSTRY. "Hang together or hang separately,'' said Benjamin Franklin when the American patriots had signed the Declaration of Independence; and the same applies to the Allies, who must hang together and defeat Kaiser ism, or hang separately if Kaiserism is triumphant. Not only must we defeat Kaiserism, but it must be purged from the Prussian military system. We know that, as far as we can see, the Crown Prince will succeed his father, and Mr Gerard says of him, after referring to his more than ordinary ability : " There is only one defect in the character of the Crown Prince, and that is his fondness for war, his regard for war not as a horror, but as a necessity, an honourable and desirable state" ; again, " The one dark shadow in the background is the Crown Prince's real love for war"; and further on in the same chapter he writes: "Should the German people fail to take unto themselves the war-making power, _ they will before long be decimated again for the amusement of the 'Crown Prince, or, as he puts it, 'for his fun.' " All this and more he writes to back up his statements against despotic monarchs in such sentences as these: "Absolute monarchs and Emperors and 'Crown Princes and their attendant nobles—all spell war. They are the products of war, and they can only continue to rule if the desire for war animates the people." . I told you some weeks ago that a friend of mine travelling in Germany a few years before the war asked a Prussian lady if something could not be done to lessen armaments and militarism, and was met with the unexpected reply, " But what would our men do, then?" That, unconsciouslv, is the keynote of Prussianism'. In 1864—1 think that was the year; I have not a reference book by me as I write —war was declared against Denmark, and Schleswig-Holstein was filched from her; so that war paid in territory besides of its value strategically, for it was worth a high purchase for the Kiel Canal, which united the Baltic and North Sea fleets in war time, just as the Panama Canal is of stategical as well as of commercial value in linking up the Atlantic and Pacific by the canaf route instead of having to take the long route via Cape Horn. The eeven weeks' war with Austria in 1866 was also of great value, because it paved the way for the next war, and at the same time" squashed the South German Federation, and left the North German Federation to consolidate and gather power. By the bye, it isn't generally known to the present generation that in that war

Saxony, Bavaria, and Wurfcemburg sided with Austria, so were involved in the disastrous defeat. Saxony had to pay an indemnity of 10,000.000 thalers (about £1,500,000) and Wurtemburg 8.000,000 gulden (about £700,000). The war was short, inexpensive, and decisive, largely because of the improved needle gun, but mainly because of the statesmanship of Bismarck, and the strategical genius of voa Molke. There came the' Franco-Prussian war in 1870-1, which was also short and decisive, for it ended in an indemnity of £2oo,ooo,ooo—enormous in those days, but a sum only double the debt we have incurred during the present war, though we are only a million against 35,000,000 theii in France. But there were also the beautk fill provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, fertile on the surface, and having incalculable wealth below. Indeed, had it not been for the coal and iron fields of Alsace and Lorraine, and what has been stolen from the coal and iron fields of Belgium and Northern France, Germany would have absolutely collapsed in three months, I gave a Ghat or two upon the coal and iron fields some time ago, and if readers would like to read further upon this, I recommend them to beg, buy, or borrow " The War of Steel and Gold." Well, these three wars paid Germany purely from a commercial point of view, and so the German Empire, dominated by Prussia, which constitutes about the half of it, has made war a paying proposition. I should have reminded my readers that the Franco-German war cost Germany about £70,000,000, so the money gain wa¥ £130,000,000. But what about the present war? It was intended that it should pay its way, too. Has it so far? By the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk Prussia got control of the Baltic provinces, and have since practically annexed Finland t then there is Russian Poland. And what about TJkrania? Here we have over 500,000 square miles, about five New Zealands, carrying about 50,000,000 of people, roughly about 50 times our population. And what about Rumania, Serbia, Monte*-, negro, Belgium, and the north of France? " The Germans can swagger down the streets of the capitals of his enemies in Brussels, Belgrade, Bucharest, Warsaw, and Cetinge,-and Prussian greed exacts tribute from rich cities, from Lille on the west to Wilna far within the borders of Russia." Elsewhere Mr Gerard tells of the 60,000,000 francs levied monthly on Belgium, or about £2,375,000 a month I And what I have mentioned do not take into account the organised ■ system of plunder that has enriched Germany. But that is not all. The Bolshevists agreed to pay an indemnity of £300,000,000! At any rate, so says Robert Blatchford. This is how he sums up the Russian position: "The policy of no annexations, no indemnities, and no economic war has resulted in the enslavement of a Russian population greater than the population of the British Islands, in the infliction of an indemnity greater than that paid b v France in 1871, in the annexationof Russian territories larger than the whole of Austria and Germany combined, and in an economic subjection which will bleed Russia white, and make it impossible for her ever to cast off the yoke of her greedy and brutal enemy.And there is to be no Russian democratic propaganda, Russia is not only to be denied democracy; she is not even to be allowed to talk about it.' _ Are we not justified in saying, War is Prussia's industry," and that in waging war Prussia is trampling underfoot democracies that have been working for freer dom for centuries? A NOTE FOR PACIFISTS. The following is not from Mr Gerard's book, but from Blatchford, and with it I'll close: "If our democrats want to 'discuss the policy of no annexation, no indemnities, and no economic war with the Germans, they had better discuss it with those Germans who have power to carry their war aims into effect. The same Germans, who talked and dealt with Comrades Trotsky and Lenin. Why trouble poor Comrades Fritz and Hans for an expression of a merely pious opinion/ Aa the German Socialist papers point out, the disastrous blunders of the Russian Bolshevists have ruined the poor, anremio German hope of a German democracy. The absolute and irredeemable rum of trie Russian Revolution has frightened the tef German revolutionary democrats into their funk-holes, and has Hindenburg and the Kaiser more firmly than ever into their saddles. If there Was any hope at all ol a German democracy, that hope has been utterly blasted by Comrades Lenin and "Meanwhile the anti-democratic factsthe German facts—remain as solid as the everlasting hills. No words or wishes can remove them. No inverted reasoning can change them. Germany—not poor Frita and poor Hans, but. Germany—is out for world-power ov downfall. _ The German nation willingly and knowingly submitted to iron discipline, endured grinding drill, made enormous sacrifices for four decades of years with the object of foreign conquest The German nation went to war to achieve that object. The German people have fought and bled and suffered and paid to achieve that conquest. Is it likely that after all they have done and given and endured they are .going to be argued or persuaded out of their spoils and their reward by a handful of persons who reason backwards and ' ought not to be allowed about'? "Germany has fought for the plunder. She meant to fight for it. She is prepared to go on fighting for it. She recognises no argument but the stern argument of defeat° She abides by the decision of the sword. Otherwise she need not have drawn the sword. The spectacle of a party of talkative Allied Labour leaders hob-nob-bing round a table with Comrades Frita and" Hans -will interest the Men of Blood and Iron, but it will only wet their par. pose. The more her enemies babble of peace the better will Germany be pleased."