END OF THE WAR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12088, 17 August 1917, Page 4

END OF THE WAR.

.* VIEWS 01' THE ANZAC'S. Regarding the statement of Herr Max°Harden, tho, great Gorman publicist, conoerirng the possible end of tho war, ho is quoted in the, I,oudoii papers as having urged, iu the latest, issue of the Zukunft, ' that, Germany should fall in with tho. aspirouons ol the majority of the world. " Our enemies*' goal is democracy and independence for every race ripe tor ireodom, a real and not a sham reduction of armaments, and a Court ot .Justice before which all who are suspected of being responsible to a greater or lessor degree for the outbreak of war must present themselves, and for an executive power of •which all tho Stated within the union of civilised will be responsible. They aim at aj condition of affairs which gives weapons to the right against the arrogance of force, and will threaten with peril any enterprise of attack and remove from one mortal man the decision of peace or war, and which will impose that decision on the people. They aim at preserving the prerogative of all countries a.s jealously as Socialism protects against the prerogative of individuals." It. may be worth saying here, and now (telegraphs Captain C. E. W. Bean, Australian press representative with the Australian forces, from London on sth in.st.), that there lias never been a. .statement more closely resembling and embodying thousands of conversations of Australian .soldiers regarding the objects for which they are fighting. Jn scores of discussions, from the very first, when men were laying down their lives in Gallipol', and hundreds of times since, I have heard exactly those ideals enunciated and argued in very different language, but almost alwiiys with the samp intention. Max Harden says that if Germany agrees to that goal, then peace would bo within r<>ach to-morrow. "Hut if that condition of things for which millions of people, sigh appear to her ignominious, then she must fight on till one group conquers and the other f;dls from exhaustion. The people alone can be responsible for what is to come." Unfortunately there is small evidence that the German people are yet capable of independence!, and still follow their leaders, who abhor that ideal, and without that I do not think that there is the slightest hope of finishing the war tlii9 year or until the democratic view is forced upon the German Government from without, and which cannot be forced on it Jrom within. That I believe to bo tlio present position iu was-