"TIE PEACEFUL BOYCOTT."

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12193, 17 December 1917, Page 4

"TIE PEACEFUL BOYCOTT."

WHAT A " RUTHLESS " POLICY INVOLVES.

iBY FRANK FOX.)

(Supplied by the Royal Colonial Institute.)

Germany's rulers justifying them-st-ive.s against the objections ol the more sober German peoj le, plead that it is useless to be troubled by the harvc-r of hate which they are .solving all over the world, for a, victorious Germany will compel the world _ to be friendly with her. Apart- Irom all question of the utter improbability, not to f.ay impossibility, or Germany ai this stage of the war winning Mich annihilating victories that she could compel the Gov i union t;s not only ol her European enemies but of the United States, Japan. China, Brazil, the Argentine- and ihe rest, to be friendly, and to agr:e to treat German trade after tin war on her own terms, what would be the position suppn.sing all that? Let us suppose that German armies have occupied Vans and Rome and London , the Gorman fhots have annihilated those of Great Britain, the Glided Staves and Japan, and the world must submit to a German pence of ilie militaristbrand. The victors of course would try Io insist on safeguarding their trade inicrests. \r.nn of th-• conquered nations v.ould be allowed to c'iiierentiate by tariff against- Germa i goods or to intfi'tere by export duties with the flow of their raw material; to Germain. But how would victorious Germany provide, against a peaceful boycott of German interests all over the world- a world tilled with hate of the German name? There is a modern historical example of a peaceful boycott on national lines. In I'iUO China was luridly aggrieved bv Japanese participation with European Powers in Ihe expedition to put down the Boxer rising. Causes of discontent- between the two peoples gre v. '1 ho victories of Japan over Russia did nothing to conciliate Chinese feeling against- Japan, though they made it, quite plain that the naval and military strength of Japan was so great that- China, could not hope to argue with her by fleet or army. Tt is not ihe purpose of the writer to discuss who was right and who was wrong: but to point our that after B'Oo the position of China vis-a-vis Japan was precisely what the position of the world would be vis-avis Gerirany, supposing that by, say. l!)l'o German navies and German armies had succeeded in imposing a German peace on the world. The Chinese people felt bitterly aggrieved against Japan, hutcould make no naval or military protest. Thev adopted the peaceful boycott.

Quietly til p. woi'd went round China that Japanese goods were not nice goods for a Chinese household. In the bazaars the Japanese merchant and the Japanese article were ignored by the. people: in the offices and the counting--houses the Japanese commercial traveller could get no orders. No Japanese article could find a sale, no Japanese merchant n customer. All was done with the utmost politeness- There was never a rude act of looting or destruction. never even a. rude word. But it was dea.dlv hostility all the same.

Finding Japanese interests seriously menaced, the Japanese Government protested to the Chinese Government. As was necessary in view of the naval and. military situation, the Chinese Government responded with all possible iexpect and engaged to do all that it eouid to repress the peaceful boycottBut it could do nothing. There was nothing to get hold of. It was impossible to make people buy Japanese goods. It is said, whether truly or not, that the Chinese Government, at its wits' end to placate lite J a pan:.no Government, was anxious to have a lew riots, so that these could be repressed in prool of sincerity. But the peaceful boycott refused to riot. It. kept stolidly to its peaceful objection to goods. Then the Japanese Government, being a. wise- Government, adopted a policy ot conciliation. It sought to show to the Chinese people that it. had no unfriendly intentions. _ It might have started submarining Chinese ships and destroying Chinese towns. It did not because it recognised that that was no way io conquer hate. As in the fable of the contest of the sun and of the wind to make a, man remove his coat, gentleness and conciliation succeeded where violence failed, and the peaceful boycott was dropped. Presuming Germany to end the war on the "present note of hatred and sublime indifference to any human interest except that of keeping German militarism in power, it will not matter •that terms she may get, or impose her trade and industry will never win back to their old world importance, the peaceful conquests of German genius will never bo it sunied. A universal dislike of the German name will be the foundation of a universal boycott of German trade inf erects. The German coming into i.he -Market to buy raw materials will find no one to sell, "'he German coming into the market to sell manufactured goods wiil find no one to buy. The harvest of unlimited war will be unlimited bale. In a few cases commercial greed will overcome other feelings and a furiive buyer or seller will patronise, the German trader because it is profitable to do so. But. such poor underhand scraps of trade wi1 1 he a very poor substitute for the old prosperity which German industry and skill had won. That guerdon was won after a hard struggle and in spite of ke; n rivalry. It cannot, he recovered in face of a universal hate.

The fact is---as any thinking German capable of calm reflection must recognise---!hat Ger-m'inv. win or lose, cannot hopo fo get, back" to her olr; prosperity if she is. faced by r> universal hatred. Ifer ''ruthless - ' militarists have plunged her into an oce:in of hate and would drive her farther and farther to its depths until there can he no hone of n-souo Rut hating -md koine hated is nn unprofitable burners The bate bus would snml and iiulkfy oven '< Gorman v'ciovv. If it is i.(i>i-led in it will add vastly to flie di<aslrnit« penalties of the imnendmg German defent If there n any wisdom left in Germany she will pot herself a« nre.mmly ns possible to putting herself right, with the world. At present she is looked upon as n mad dog Pov-t, eager to bite Avorybodv and anybody. Of eourse that, is not the Gentian character, but If i- the eharaeter whi<h Germany's rulers show to the world, and which is responsible for the present, worldhatred of Germany. f,of the intelligent German ask the wildest of his pan-Gorman leaders what direct, results hp hones to get from carrying on the war and sef. those results against a world-bat reel of Gorm:my and a peaceful boycott." of German trade, the balance would show n disastrous loss to Germany. let xhe intelligent German sot down c oberlr what he in his own mind considers to he the likely outcome of th** war ap regards territory, etc., and ask if it. is worth the price of universal hatred and universal boycott. If he docs that be will rush to put his nation's house in order so as to got. out of the quicksands of this ruthless war against the world.

Tt. would be foolish and not nt all friendly to Germany to pretend tih.a-'tl it would lio easy , now for Germany to declare that she is sorry for tlrp' '' unlimited war" policy and that all tho nations then shake hands and be friends. T.t will not bp easy to work hack to a policy of reconciliation. Bnt every day makes the position harder. Far, far better for Germany to put a term now to her sacrifices and make the befit of a had job. There ha,s beiesn already a. hint (by a. neutral citizen, profoundly hostile to Germany) that it

might bo wise to decide "to exterminate tho Germans." That, of course, is wild talk, as But the world at. large is drifting to a dangerous mood of looking upon Germany as like Carthage which mustj bo destroyed if peace is ever to come, or like the Barbary ? irate state which must be rooted up. t is not reasonable; for the German people have been misled into this "ruthless war" frenzy. But fihe time has como for them to declare themselves-