Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY, MAY 1. 1917. THE TEUTON AND THE SLAV.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14286, 1 May 1917, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY, MAY 1. 1917. THE TEUTON AND THE SLAV.

Russia's lea']/- from • the •despotism of centuries to the liberty of democratic control is having ;a wider influence on the conduct of the war than the mere reorganisation of Russia's fighting forces which it is expected, to 'bring, about; It is necessary at this time, writes Mr Frank H. Simonds, one of the foremost of the American war correspondents, to think of the political effect, of an 'emancipated Russia upon the- destinies of Europe. It is^ell to recall the fact 1 so frequently forgotten' that this war liad its 'origin, as .well as its immediate occasion, in the .conflict between the Slav and the Teuton, and 1 a Russia liberated and democratic! must necessarily be the champion of theSlav races in the future as an autocratic Russia never could be. German autocracy, like Gerv man world-politics, dreamed of " f asteninjj. its system upon. the Czech, the .Pole, the Slovak, the Slovene, the. Serb and the Bulgar.. That great Mitbel-Europa of Gei-mau dreams wa3j,';?n fact, a Central European State, in whicli Teutonic supremacy was assured, but a State in which the Teuton made use of millions of Slavs as his slaves and servants, his "cannon fodder,'" and his industrial machines." The German statesmen have Jong- perceived' that unless Germany could divide the. Slav world and" bind the Poles and the Austrian as well'-'as the Balkan Slavs to her chariot, the inevite able expansion of Slavdom might; some j day, eliminate Germany as a world-; power. Considerable as was the annual ; increase of German population., that of Russia was growing by leaps and bounds, ' and the hour when Russia should 1 organise herself was, recognised by thoughtful Germans as the hour which would ; see the- .extinction of f 'German ch'earag of World! power. Germany struck' in 1914, when Russia had succeeded in building in Serbia' a/. temj)oyary> Slay

harrier {(gainst Teutonic expansion to tlie Near East. Berlin calculated that Russia was still too weak, too unorganised, too divided, to oppose thai resistance, which, a few later, would he ■, beyond Teutonic resumes to stem. The 1 Germans foresaw an inevitable conflict! between the Ten toil' and the Slav. Thef saw that if the Slavs were united Germany would not /only be outnumbered but her pathway to the Near East would I be forever barred along the Danube and her eastern marshes on the Lower Vistula threatened. She saw that Bohemia would be a Slav citadel in the heart of Germany, and that in the longer future Germany herself, like France and Italy, would be relegated to the position of a sedondary power in a. world which belonged to the Slav and- the Anglo-Saxon Beneath all else, this war was 'a German war to ensure for Germany' a position in the world of the future commensurate with that held by Germany now. Her ''place in the sun" could only be assured if Russia were turned back. from her westward' and southward advance and a string of Slav States depending upon Germany were erected on ; her frontier ; states comparable to l those Napoleon erected in Southern Germany in the days of his European domination. The Slav people instinctively perceived that the question at issue was a fundamental question; a question of the liberation of the. Austrian Slavs, the protection of the Serbian Slavs, and the acquisition, of that gateway to the warm seas so long denied, first by the British' and then by the German veto. They accepted the war; they have now- declared that the war shall be fought out. It is perhaps too early as yet to forecast what will happen, but it is. not too early to indicate how tremenndous may be the consequences, politically and racially, q{ this Russian' revolution. It may have consequences affecting the map of Europe more permanently than did the French revolution and affecting the Slav peoples as deeply as the Italian and,German struggles for, •unity affected ' the Italian and Geririari peoples' in 'the last century. The future 1 of Germany was 'imperilled by,' :: the promise of a, Slav ntaikening, 1 btitv'the present existence of Austria is 'immediately in danger; For twenty-six millions of Slavs living with-. in^th(* 'Hapsbnrg. dominions, the supremacy of democracy; in the great Slav state must give -a- new and' irresistible impulse both to strike for liberty and to seeli Ojloser- association with Russia, However w-eak the racial tie may have been, the moral and 1 spiritual tie with a. democratic Russia must be strong at once and must grow stronger; If the. revolution in Russia follows {he course which seems to be marked put for it, if it becomes as completely an expi'ession of the will of the people as did ..the" French, revolution, then, says Mr Simonds, R.ussia will necessarily play in Austria and for the Austrian Slavs the part that France played in Italy and for the' Italians in the revolution and afterwards, and the election of the independent Slav states bh the Adriatic and the Danube, and in Bohemia, will effectually and permanently bar German pathways to the N-ear East ; Germany will lose her only great Ally in Europe; Austria-Hungary will disappear as a. state, and Germany wifi find herself, as France found herself after the Congress of Vienna — her dream of supremacy permanently shattered and her avenue of expansion closed by new and strong states along her frontiers. Hussia is to : day a nation of 180 million people ,occupying one-seventh of the surface of the earth, the greatest potential state in the world, because her territory stretches unbroken from the Balkans to the Pacific and from the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea. Xo man cam calculate the numbers those frontiers, will hold "a. 1 century, hence, but it is plain that if Russia can achieve her unity and her independence now, the mere passage of time will make a new German attack futile. It is far too early to attempt- to prophesy, but viewed even in the present state, the Russian revolution promises to realise all that German; statesmen feared',' and may prove the rock upon which ■will be erected a permanent' peace' in Europe) as it may. prove the ultimate and enduring barrier to all 'German dreams of world, empire^ and European domination. We have been accustomed for years to-thihk o:f- great changes -to come Avhen the day of' the Slav arrived. ,It is hardly too much to see in what has now happened at least a first sign of the dawn of a new dav.