SHOULD GERMANY BE IGNORED AFTER THE WAR?

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 29, Issue 48, 22 June 1917, Page 8

SHOULD GERMANY BE IGNORED AFTER THE WAR?

Many people have already made up their minds as to what the attitude of the British nation should bo towards the Germans when the war is won and the world is at peace once more (says an exchange). But the matter is one that connot be decided hastily. There are many things to consider, and very difficult problems will have to be solved. The best results cannot be obtained unless the right means are adopted. Without professing to state what should or should not be done, let us recall to mind certain factors that must be considered. In the first place there must, of course, be a peace ensuring the safety of the Empire and our Allies and the small nations of tho world, and the reparation for wrongs committed. Once this is secured, will it be right to have absolutely nothing to do with Germany! If this question is to be answered in the affirmative, some very important factors will have to be ignored. Of the revelations made by the American journalist, Mr Curtin, in the columns of "The Times,” tho the most pathetic and at the same time the most discouraging, are those which demonstrate what wo believe to be the complete misunderstanding of English aims and of English character. When this is considered, the wonder is not that the war has come, but that it was postponed so long. For if English aims and English character are what a majority of the German people are being taught to believe that they are, Germany would have been justified in declaring war against England long ago, Mr Curtin says that millions of German children have been taught a song which is full of hate towards England, but says a writer in the Contemporary Review, the knowledge that the coming generation in Germany will start life with bitter prejudice against the people of Great Britain,"so far from encouraging us to adopt a corresponding attitude, should cause us to redouble our efforts to be fair to the achievements and virtues of the German people. He is of the opinion that by far the greater part of the ill-feeling entertained for the English by the German people is the result of ignorance. We have, therefore, says the writer, welcomed the action of the British Government in according to the German prisoners in England kindly treatment such as has never previously been accorded to prisoners of war, our hope being that the many thousands of Germans at present in the misunderstanding of its people that at present exists, and to pave the way, if not in this generation, at least in that which will succeed it, for mutual friendship. The great question is: If our hopes are to be realised, if peace and good will are ever to be established, what attitude does it behove us as individuals to cultivate! In dealing with this question the writer points out that suggestions have recently been made in English newspapers, that the studying of the German language should be banished from English schools and that the study of other languages should be substituted for it. Language is the greatest of the artificial barriers that separate nation from nation, and to abandon the study of the German language would be to abandon all hope of appreciating what is best and most attractive in Germany, Of uniting ourselves in bonds of friendship to the German peoples. We pause to look at these latter words, so strange do they seem at this juncture, but it should be remembered that we are considering the attitude to adopt when the war has been won and guarantees obtained for future security. But who is there who will deny that there can be no hope of the permanent establishment of real peace upon the earth until the members of each nation are prepared to make efforts, corresponding with the military efforts they are now making, to break down all artificial barriers and to destroy mutual misunderstanding? So far as individuals are concerned it often happens to-day that two persons, who are both actuated by kindly feelings, misunderstand each other’s motives and each comes to believe that the other entertains feelings of hostility towards himself, whereas if they could read each other’s thoughts they would be firm friends. We know that in Germany the autocratic forces have poisoned the minds of the people against Britian to suit their own purposes. The autocrats must be brought to their knees and punished and a fair peace established. Then, and only then, can the Allies, while safeguarding their own interests economically and in every other way, strive to remove the prejudices from the German people.