The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. MONDAY, MARCH 5, 1917. GERMANY AND AMERICA.

Southland Times, Issue 17965, 5 March 1917, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. MONDAY, MARCH 5, 1917. GERMANY AND AMERICA.

It is not surprising, but it is very gratifying all the same, that the American Parliament was so overwhelmingly in favour of the arming of merchantmen, anti it appears probable that the larger powers sought by the President will also be granted. America has striven, with a patience that has generally be construed as weakness, to avoid entanglement in the European conflict. Germany’s open contempt for international law, and her callous disregard of the lives and property of neutrals, have been carried to extremes that appeared to make a continuance of American neutrality impossible, but as each delicate situation has arisen means have been found to effect a diplomatic settlement, not always without compromising the dignity of the United States, or without affecting her status as a world Power. Germany, however, betrayed an equal anxiety to avoid an open rupture, and it has long been evident that she would make every possible concession to prevent America entering the field against her. The fact that Germany is now prepared to see the greatest neutral country join the forces opposed to her, in spite of all she has done to influence American opinion, shows that!’ Germany is casting diplomacy and caution to the winds, and is staking all on a last desperate throw. If the submarine campaign is successful, and forces Britain to accept an inconclusive peace, then Germany will not be concerned about the enmity of America, and if, on the other hand, the submarines fail in their object and Germany’s utter defeat becomes assured, it will matter very little at the finish whether her enemies number six or a dozen countries. In either case she will have to pay to the uttermost. Germany, however, was too cunning to risk a breach with America without preparing a counterstroke, and the latest revelation of her deviltry, the proposal for enlisting the aid of Mexico and Japan, was intended to nullify anything America might be able to do by w r ay of assisting the Allies. The plot was a fine sample of Germany’s brazen and conscienceless methods. Germany cannot understand that any nation would allow a mere treaty to stand in the way of its material advancement. Germany cannot understand that any nation would refuse to sell its Ally, provided the price was big enough. Germany could not understand why Britain could not be bought off in 1914, and thus she was led to make a proposal which the Japanese regard with contempt and indignation. It is an insult to any nation to make to it the offer that Germany suggested; to think that it could be capable of such dishonour and treachery; but the German mind is so constituted that it simply cannot see that point of view. No doubt the discovery of Count Bernstorff’s latest activities had an effect on the attitude adopted by Congress towards the arming of merchantmen!. The people generally

bitterly resented the outrage, and tha prevailing feeling seems to be coming round to the point of view of the Allies, that the power known as German militarism is simply not fit to live and must be destroyed. The arming of American merchantmen! appears to be all that President Wilson proposes in the meantime, but it is difficult to see bow America can continue to act solely on the defensive. The first clash between an armed American vessel and a German submarine, involving the spilling of blood, must lead to America actively co-operating with the Allies, at least on the sea. America will have to fight the submarine, and she will have to employ all the means at her command. The President, moreover, would surely commandeer the 500,000 tons of German shipping now lying la American ports, and the great shipyards of the United States will concentrate upon the construction of new shipping with an energy and a perfection of organisation that will have an important effect on the results of Germany’s latest campaign. Unrestricted submarining has not achieved the results so ardently hoped for in Germany. British and neutral shipping has certainly been seriously affected, but if Germany’s policy brings the resources of America into the scale against her, even to a limited extent, then the menace to the Allies will be decreased to an almost negligible quantity. Every move that Germany has made in this war seems somehow to have ended in failure, though promising success, and the doom of the latest effort appears to be already sealed.