Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, MONDAY, NOV. 5, 1917.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14446, 5 November 1917, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, MONDAY, NOV. 5, 1917.

.... ASi'SEEN7IN7GERMANY.. ; . The diversion •' created by .the descent upon Italy w.ill jdoubtless be used'to its fullest ' extent .by the ; German war > lords to recover ' prestige .andl keep up the spirits of « a • war-weary •> riatiOn, but we doubt very much whether the new situation that has been, .created offers cheerful prospect' to the. intelligent^German. If the people ' v of Germany , are . given to ! think for themselves^ they must surely see how greatly the odds are multiplying against them. . The Westminster- Gazette, j m 'a recent issue ,eiidoavored- to present j the military situation . as . it appears or should l appear . to .■ -the : aver^go . cit-izeii of tlie Gei'maii Empire. ', The fact must "by [this time v liave;daAy*iiedl^up6n; tlje "people lof the FatherlWndT that^ the pretentious i promises made regarding^ the starvation and subjugation of England' by means of submarines within a given time have come to naught; indeed there is good evidence through neutral sources from : Germany that the failure of the sub- ! marine campaign to accomplish its' purpose has caused: great disappointment and disillusion among • the middle and

working classes, who had relied on the promise of a victorious peace at the beginning of August; The food situation must get worse > and it has .been necessary to intin.ate that the increase of the bread ration promised! \vith the new har* vest will be accompanied! With a reduction of the meat ration, ''which thieans on balance a lower and Hot a higher scale of diet. That announcement appears to have caused a'jjreater depression of spirits' .than; any other Single evertt m recent weeks 'and the -comments iii tlie German newspapers dis.crose widespread scepticism about the ability of the Government lo keep its promises either or food or "victory!" Looking' t6"the future", says the Westminster Gazette, the German public appears at length to be beginning to realise that the American expeditionary,force- is not a*.' joke," us it was led to believe;, but a grim reality which is already casting its shadow before. All this, and perhaps most of all the cumulative effect of the casualties-— now;- mounts ing from five millions to six— iV clearly producing a great war-weariness which* makes the. idea Of another winter campaign deeply repugnant to the masSesypf the people. Hence tho talk is perpetually of peace, even though large sacrifices have to be, made to obtain ity, The newspapers are full of it, and no Minister or Deputy can address the Reichstag without protesting that, a pacific Germany is ardently longing to make an end of slaughter, and) to {substitute right foi* might m the government pf..,,the world, "'.if only an insatiable' and! *»ggi*&sive enemy did- »not force her to go en waging a defensive'. '"war'' for her very 'existence. Such was the gist of M.ichaelis's speech to the Reichstag on .the Pope's proposals, "and 1 still more of the homily on , the virtues! of an ethical foreign policy "Vjiich Herr yonTKulmaiih, the „iiew Foreign Minister, delivered to the same audience on the following' day. "How ought we to treatthesej'manifestations?'" asks the Gazette. ''Some newspapers make the mistake Of dismissing jthem as a hypocritical pretence specially •gpt up to deceive us;" They aertaiiily are not that, so far as the mass of people are concerned. No one who reads German newspapers or attempt's to weigh the evidence that cornels through neutral countries can have the least doubt that the public mood has greatly changed m Germany siride the.7 beginning -'of the year, and! that. the high-flying ,Jingojsm of 1915 and the early paiVof 1916 ik' all but "extinct among the .mass of people. But what counts apparently m Germany is; not the opinion of the masses but that of the Kaiser, and the little junta of militarists who are apparently m full command*. We have no proof as yet that, if we proposed to negotiate* '•'• with them, they nvould not immediately produce 'the conqueror's terms,7*. Which, as we have learnt from Mr Gerard, BethmaiuvHollweg had up his sleeve for the conference proposed with such a flourish of trumpets and! such a false appearance of generosity last December., The root difficulty of entering into any' riegotia- ' tions with Germany is that the men who made the war, who violated Bel- : giuhi, and invented' the barbarisms of ruthless tyarf are .are still m control of the German machine, and we have had it from their own" lips that German j necessity acknowledges no law and no obligation of . faii£dei_ing with other countries. Herr Kuhlmann may get up andl say that which is based on might is. doomed t6 failure/ but we know that his predecessors* have foi* the last sixty years notXorily acted on the opposite principle, but actually boasted pf dbing so. and l , flatly declared! that there could) be no 5 other test of right * be--tween'- States than might.'' Not urifll I the German people have given sortie tangible evidence pl-^disavowal of the tenets they andl ! their rulers have cherished) v so long caii there be any suggestion for one moment of negotiations j> for peace. Britain and her Allies will l stand firm' andl fight on till the doctrine that might is right has no possible .chance of revival m Germany. Mean- | time we dan take it that the average I German is slowly but surely beginning to admit , thb awfulfteSs of war and the poor prospect that continuation of the war gives for the satisfying of German ambitions. Fritz m the trenches has long since realised who is the better man — his steady evacuation of territory m Flanders and France is an open ad*mission that he has met his equal. This fact must surely be impressing itself on! the German _ public and. when they see strong position after \ strong position yielded! to the enemy— to-day it is the Chemin des Dames that has v wholly gone from their grasp— there cannot but come the quaking fear that the multiplication of such defeats must eventually mean a great military debacle against which the inclusion into Italy will count as naught. The German citizen, , living ' on short commons and diluted) beer, caiinot possibly have a- rosy view of life as he looks round! arid sees the extent of world forces arrayed agaftist Germany, the great organisations sat work on both sidles Of the Atlantic to bring death and* destruction to the Fatherland ; the economic pressure that is beiiig imposed, crippling German .industries and causing widespread' losses and suffering ; the forfeiture* -"■ of- 77 G&rmai* 'shipping and securities abroad, the depletion of the mark, the Very determined threats of a commercial boycott 'which will exclude Germany from world! markets- after the war— all these 'thihgs are calculated 1 to depress and dishearten the .people, and though tho German leaders speak lightly of fighting through Another -.winter- we may take it that neither- the German soldiers nor the German people relish the* pjositioiil nor can they face with equanimity the prospects of a long-con-tinued campaign.