The Daily News. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1914. AM AWFUL RESPONSIBILITY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 123, 17 October 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1914. AM AWFUL RESPONSIBILITY.

The Berlin newspapers are making ferocious attacks on Britain in connection with Antwerp, which they havo the audacity to say is "a sacrifice to Bri- ; tain's brutal self-seeking ambition and cowardice." England, they continue, was too cowardly to set its own national power in the field and tricked Belgium and brought it to the shambles, And more of the samo unbridled fulmination. Tho German newspapers, like i the German Emperor, are suffering from moral obliquity, and it in not difficult to understand how, thus lead, the Germans have been transformed into so many ruthless, devastating Huns. They are worse than Attila's hordes. They knew no better than to devastate and slaughter. The Germans are supposed to be a "cultured," civilised people, leading in science, art, commerce and industry. They deliberately provoked the war. For proof of this wc want to go no further than their violation of the neutrality of Belgium and Luxemburg. Up till then, Britain resolutely strove for peace, even to the extent of sorely trying tho patience of France and dtussia by her refusal to say that she would eomo to their support if they were attacked. Tho American Press has never been very favorable to Great Britain, for reasons best known to themselves, yet the papers that really matter there are unanimous in the intensity of their horror at the action of Germaßy in plunging the world into war and their strong approval of the high moral stand which Britain has taken. And they reflect tho views of tho people. One leading citizen, writing to the Lord Provost of Glasgow, stated: "England has the practically unanimous support and sympathy of public opinion in this country. I' do not recall Any subject of worldwide interest upon which people have been so unanimous as they are upon tho j support of Great Britain in tho present circumstances. The spontaneous enthusiasm for Great Britain in America to-day is remarkable." Let these statements bear witness: "It was inevitable that England should be drawn into the war," says the New York Nation. "No British Government that had held back under the circumstances could have lived a day. Onco more we hare tho grim irny of history that a Liberal Ministry pledged to peace and devoted to domestic reforms, should be forced to enter into war. Whatever may be tho real and deeply underlying reasons for England's going to war with Germany, it cannot bo denied that she had a sou»d reason, under international law. By invading Belgium Germany was violating a treaty to which all the European Powers had set their hand and seal, and in the observance of which England had a peculiar and even vital interest She was thus well within her legal rights in asking both Franco and Germany whether they would respect the guaran- , teed neutrality of Belgium. But the military plans of Germany could not then be changed. She admitted, through her Chancellor, that she was going counter to the law of nations, and made anxious profession of her purpose to "rectify the injustice,' as tho German Chancellor phrased it, after the war was | over; and in her natural desiro to keep ! England neutral, undertook to give the most formal promise never to nnnex any portion of Belgium. This promise, coming from an avowed treaty-breaker, was received for what it was worth by the House of Commons —that is, received with jeers. Thus Germany, in order to snatch the military advantage of a march on France through Belgian territory, brought upon herself the immense military disadvantage of adding England to the countries with which she is at war. We have long seen in the Swashbuckling, overbearing attitude of the militarists, and particularly in the activities of such a body as the German Navy League, a grave menace to the peace of Europe. We liave never had the least admiration for a Kaiser who vows that he rules by Divine right

ami not by popular consent; and we cannot now uphold a form of government which denies to masses of its population the right of the franchise." Thfl New York Independent says: "No matter what pride or insolence may say, treaties must be held sacred, and those who break them must suffer. That big lesson we have been learning, none too easily, on the matter of equal canal tolls, and we have had tho good fortune to • learn it without war. We can imagine all Europe united against as on our claim of special privilege if it had been ' worth while to light, but of our own accord we corrected our hasty error. i The real issue of the present war is i whether the German Kmperor shall be the dominant power in Europe, and this in its present stage can be settled only by force Civilisation is this hour in peril. It is the. stake, the real stake, the only real stake, in the awful game of war that is being played. This is the answer to those writers and apologists who would have us believe that England lias done, a monstrous thing, 1 has been a traitor to her own race, ha 3 raised a fratricidal hand, in casting her lot with France against tho militarist absolutism of the German Government. Whether such writers arc ignorant, or intend to deceive, is of little consequence. Tho thing they say, the thing they write, is not true. For the German people Americans have only admiration and respect, and no nation on earth will extend to them a readier good-will and a more generous co-operation than America shall, when tho day comes for them to set about the task of building a republican civilisation." These are

but two opinions of many newspapers ' of the greatest neutral country. Britain is absolved from all blame for this war, as assuredly she must be by history. The responsibility rests with Germany. Truly it is an awful responsibility.

POOR IN r BRITAIN AND BELGIUM. Belgium, the smallest of tho Allied nations at present ranged against the tyrannous, over-hearing will of the German Emperor, has suffered most. She interposed her sons.and her very existence between the Kaiser and his goal—the tearing up of treaties and the eonquest of Europe. What alio lias suffered no pen can describe, no artist can pourtray, no words convey. Her towns havo been razed, historic buildings destroyed, the whole countryside devastated. Her peaceful citizens have been ruthlessly I butchered, the German barbarians showing no mercy towards even tho women and children, slaughtering them after ' these unfortunate people had been subjected to awful indignities, and their menfolk similarly outraged and shot before their eyes. The story of Belgium's resistance will ever ho one of the most glorious pages in European his tory, and Germany's treatment of her the blackest. Belgium is to-day a ruined territory, but tho gallantry displayed in its defence will ensure some day a return to prosperity. Meanwhile her people are suffering tho pangs of starvation, and we in this distant and prosperous land probably owe it to her that the German eagles have not already sought the invasion of England. An appeal goes out for help. How'shall we respond? If our people ponder the question, ponder the enormous sacrifice and pitiful plight o? Belgium, ponder the fact that Belgium did all this because she relied on Britain, the Now Plymouth Town Hall this afternoon will be filled with men and women ready and anxious to organise so that the unspeakable distress of this grand little people can be relieved. Wc do not forget that the meeting will also deal with the matter of relieving distress in England. No special plea is needed H rouse us to our sense of duty in regard to those of our own flesh and blood who are suffering privation as the result of the war.