THE FUTURE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12066, 23 July 1917, Page 8

THE FUTURE.

THE COMING REVOLUTION IX GERMANY. Mr Ralph Darlington, in the "Outlook," writes:.—'' Everyone, is asking, ' Will there bo a revolution in Germany?' As ouo who has travelled in Germany every year for twenty-one years, and knows something of her people and her institutions, I have no hesitancy in replying 'Yes.' Ws all know how tlu> most jrou hand of modern times has held the, people, of Central Europe in its grip for generations and Ims moulded them with discipline, specialisation and duplicity'unknown to any other member of the human family. But if a peaceful revolution is possible in autocratic Russia, what is to happen to the Kultured masses of Germany when the, truth comes home, and the. shackles become unbearable to a maddened people? It is true- tho two aMtoeratie mojiarchs stand a pace apart. I have seen the Czar of All the Russias among.his.-people and have, seen him review his troops, and. so with the Kaiser in his own country. Rut bow different is the personality. The Czar, like his predecessors, has always been ' the Little Father ' of his people, hut Nicholas I-, though ouo of the most kind-hearted of men and well-intention-ed, was ever weak and vacillating- Bun everyone will admit, that the. Kaiser is a man of action, a man of will and power; See him on any occasion, • he. if; the soul and centre of every function. Them is something so e!er-iri<\ so dramatic, so overpowering, that ail eyes are fA'od Upon his every actionSee him review his army—and no armv ever moved with such precision -bus erect though short figure, the continMul movement of his one. arm, shows the man of stem command, and everyone obeys. His knowledge of men—at. least, of his own people--and bus intellectual acumen give him colossal power. "But let us make no error; his eccentricities, his excesses, his awful dominance were ever, his undoing. 1 •inve witnessed the steady growth of Socialism in Germany during the last twenty years, and have listened again Mid again to the free, expressions of the man in the street which would have done the Kaiser good to hear. He succeeded in muzzling the Press as no monarch in history has ever done —no light achievement in modern fiiv.es and sirnong a people of Kmltf.tr. How lew realise that during the Kaiser's reign the editors of German newspapers' have, suffered at least two hundred years' imprisonment in their combined sentences for lese majeste. It seems incredible. The voice of the pulpit has been similarly vetoed—though Germany claims to have created the most profound theologians of all time, who wo now realise have had too great an influence* on the Western mind, in our own land and others. "The credulity of the German peoplo has always been an enigma to the people of our islands. But it need not be. Germany gives to the world a dear case of over-specialisation. There everything is specialised—science, diplomacy, spying, lying. But, the one specialist does not contend with the other. Each is Supreme in his own sphere. But this does not create intelligence, and initiative, and self-reliance—it creates a machine. It has indeed produced tho most wonderful machine tho world hao j ever seen, and the marvel is that it has been kept intact through three lone | years of suffering and pressure unparalleled. Look at, the German report of the Jutland battle and the North Sea fight of the previous year, when.the. Blucher was destroyed. "Yes," said tho German Chancellor, "we lost the Blucher. but when she went down we destroyed three British ironclads bigger than the Blucher, and so we won tho battle.'' The British reply was, "'YcM injured the Lion, it is true, but sh? is back in port under repair. Name the other ships and we can tell you where they are.'" ''Oh, but," says the German, "who are you British? Our Chancellor says three British' ships are at the bottom of the North Sea.; that is good enough for us. The Chancellor is our specialist, and ho knows." Can this go on for ever? Is on intelligent race like tho German to bo hoodwinked in this way to the end of the war? No. no; the handwriting is already being discerned on the walls of Hohenzoflernisra! Irresponsible; despotism in Russia has finally collapsed before an astonished world, and its effect is eating away into Germany. The ffiihmissivo German race is opening its eyes anew, and wc are on tho eve of momentous events. The whole world from Russia to America is now arrayed against the arrogant aggression of the military caste, and fires are burning in mo-ny hearts. Will a peaceful revolution evolv© inside Germany? Think of the tires within her own borders—a disaffected and disillusioned army, a/ crushed and starving people, with millions of deported subjects from the raided nations round her, compelled under penalty of death to work against their own fatherlands."