THE COLONIST. TUESDAY, JANUARY 29, 1918. GERMANY'S WAR OF CONQUEST.

Colonist, Volume LX, Issue 14622, 29 January 1918, Page 4

THE COLONIST. TUESDAY, JANUARY 29, 1918. GERMANY'S WAR OF CONQUEST.

The one thing that is clear about the grotesque peace terms enumerated by the German Chancellor in the Reichstag last week is that they are as insincere as everything German seems to be. It is impossible tlat even a German official could have laid down such proposals with the expectation that any of Germany's foes would do other than toss them aside with contempt, for they amount to a demand for the unconditional surrender of tie Alliance and submission to whatever penalties Germany should see fit to exact. It is not yet, and will never be, for Germany to dictate terms of peace, imposible or otherwise. That is the function of the victor, not the vanquished, and that Germany is the vanquished las been long driven in upon her by her failure to achieve any of the objects for which she made war upon the world, except of course the very dcmbtful conquest she las made in Russia. And yet we cannot suppose that the Chancellor uttered his absurd reply to |Mr Lloyd George and President Wilson with no other object than to excite the derision of the Allies and the neutral nations. Germany proceeds to *«very goal by devious courses, but j tlere is usually some definite object in what she does. There are several possible explanations to account for her now pitting peace beyond her reach by the enunciation ol terms wtich she knows will never be conceded her until Britain, France, and tie United States have "been soundly beaten. It may be that by showing a bold face Germany hopes to dishearten the Allies and induce them to meet her wildly extravagant programme with substantial abatements of their declared aims. If that is ter idea, then she misjudges the Allies' temper, as she has always done, for there could be nothing more calculated to> steel them to finish the good work to which tley have set their hands than the Chancellor's insolent farrago and the glorification of colossal wrong-doing wtich every line of it exudes. It is possible also that the Junkers have some idea of scaring the United States oi.t of the | war before she is well into it, by drawing an appalling picture of Germany's strength, the hopelessness of the struggle against her, and tie awful humiliation she is determined to inflict upon her presumptuous enemies. Here, too, Germany has sadly miscalculated the situation with which she is faced. It seems on the whole more probable, lowever, that the Chancellor's speech is intended for the edification of the German people themselves rather than for the serious consideration of the Allies. There has been a, political struggle in Germany of which ectoes have reached the outside world, a struggle j in which the militarists seem to have re-established their ascondancy in the councils of tie nation. They are now possibly hurling defiance at the antiannexationists and committing Germany even more candidly than before to a war of conquest in the hope of destroying the growing peace agitation. Whatever the German Government's motives may be will doubtless appear in due cottse. In the meantime it seems that it has rendered a not inconsiderable service to tie Allies by hardening their determination %t the beginning of the final trial of strength.