PEACE TALK.

Southland Times, Issue 17654, 11 February 1916, Page 4

PEACE TALK.

Among the daily telegrams which are obviously unreliable the most obviously unreliable are those which have to do with peace overtures on the part o£ Germany. The enemy is hot yet prepared to talk peace on terms which entail any loss or sacrifice on his part That Germany would make peace is beyond doubt—but the terms would be Germany’s terms. Germany is not yet convinced that the territory which she has conquered can be regained by the Allies, and she would therefore stipulate for the possession of nearly all the territory that is at present in German occupation, more especially as she has Austria, Turkey and Bulgaria to satisfy. Most people do. not fully realise how valuable the enemy’s conquests are. Take France alone. The Germans are to-day in possession of 77 per cent, of the French metal industry, 34 per cent- of the total horse-power of French machinery, 68 per cent, of the total coal production of France, 78 per cent, of the production of coke, and 70 per cent of the production of steel. Germany cannot yet be persuaded to believe that France can recover these losses by arms. Nor is Germany yet ready to confess than in the long run she mast be beaten in the field. On the contrary Germany believes that her afmies cannot be beaten in the field and that she cannot be starved into submission. The Germans still think that the longer the war lasts the more territory they will donqner, and while the strain of the war is so severe, especially as regards their foreign trade, that they would make peace on their own terms the Germans would scout the idea of relinquishing the soil now won by the sword. If it comes to bartering for peace what have the Allies to offer in exchange for the conquered territory? Britain alone is in a favourable position to deal with Germany, for, though Germany has captured nothing British, Britain has destroyed Germany’s colonial empire and swept Germany’s merchant flag from the seas. Germany Is not able to obtain from the Allies tha terms on which she will make peace; the Allies are not able to impose upon Germany the only terms on which peace is acceptable to them, and therefore no serious proposition for peace is being made by either side. Germany is merely throwing out feelers to test the Allies’ morale and cohesion. She wants to detect the first signs of weakening resolution among them, of a declining confidence in their ability to win in the long run. She is testing the Allies’ loyalty to each othar f** hope of finding a way of making a breach iu their ranks. But she is not making serious overtures to which she expects a serious answer. The plainest of plain facts is that peace will not be a practical question until one side is able to compel the other to accept terms which it will never accept wil-

lingly, and that time is not yet. AH.

the talk of peace at the present tuna iz in the air.