THE GERMAN MENACE.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19829, 19 June 1934, Page 6

THE GERMAN MENACE.

To the Editor of " The Tlmaru Herald " Sir—“ Touchstone” seems to have been captured by the clever propagandists employed by those who have muUe themselves masters of the entire world, through the simple expedient of plunging the various nations into unpayable debt, by selling them arms on credit, involving them in war, and advancing them fictitious loans of money. Saturated with what he has read on one side of the subject, “Touchstone” believes that, all the war-mongers of the world have, for some unaccountable reason, taken up residence in Germany; and he would have us go there and exterminate the last one of them, forgetting that it cost us £SOOO for every man we killed in the world war. But, suppose we found the necessary money, and succeeded in entrenching ourselves round the Fatherland, how would we avoid being betrayed, as the armies of both the Allies and the Central Powers were betrayed during the late war? Before 1914, the great iron mines and smelters of the Briey basin, provided 70 per cent, of the iron ore used by France. Early in the war, the Germans wrested them from the French, and thenceforth drew from them three-quarters of the iron ore she consumed during the war. In 1916, Briey again came within range of French guns, and the mines and smelters could have been blown to smithereens, and the war shortened by two years. But not a shell or a bomb burst over Briey. Why? Because a small group of men, the world masters, had power enough to order military chiefs not to bombard the establishments in the Briey basin, but to leave the Germans in control, pouring out tons of raw material daily, which was turned into weapons of death against the French. Was this a put-up job from the first? It certainly looks like it. Our first duty is to put an end to such treachery. When we do that there will be little need for armies and navies, and no talk of war.—l am, etc., A. M. PATERSON. Timaru, June 18.