PLAIN FACTS ABOUT WAR.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 7920, 18 August 1917, Page 2 (Supplement)

PLAIN FACTS ABOUT WAR.

HOW GERMAN MINDS REGARD IT. SOME FACTS THAT STIRRED AMERICA. (War to-day i 3 a highly specialised and rather desperate business. The victory is ultimately to tihe nation that has the best resources and makad war most thoroughly. It is sometimes easier to curse Germany than to understand her. She has stuck at little so far. So long as she slees any chance of getting out somehow in a way that will save her face, she wifi stick at nothing. What, in face of such facts as these should a belligerent nation do? lYo’ lessor George Turnbull Ladd discus* that question forcibly and from dee*> knowledge in the New York Times, tho best and most independent newspaper in the United States.) In private, but especially in public affairs, the dangers of mis-stating 0 r obtouring or even of misconceiving the import of facts are far greater than the clangers of frankly acknowledging mid facing them. This practical conviction has reinforced the love of truth for its own sake, and has nearly succeeded in driving the obscurantist firom the circles of the accredited men of science Playing the game of the proie-uionai politician or diplomat is popularly held to authorise, and even to require, the utmost possible skill in feigning false reasons, concealing tlie real issues, and thus perverting the ends of tociui and political justice.

That this kiud of obscurantism i s largely responsible for the present European war no one who is acquainted in the most elemental way witli the history of Europe during the last 100 year?/ can entertain any sincere doubt, And no clear prophetic eye can see any permanent relief from its horrors unles3 it results in teaching the \i ;!d some relatively lasting'-lessons as to the dangers of the follies and! ( rimes which have brought it about. LEST WE FORGET. Lest we forget, then, and witli ail our talk about Americanism and prepared* ness, find ourselves in the day of supremo trial victims of an obscurantist policy, let us face anew, and lace u-ad-ily and without flinching, the following lour elastos of facts : First—Germany deliberately brought on this war in accordance with its M-t----tled policy of extending its empire by force of its army and navy. lor this it built railroads, increased its naval anu land forces, stored gold and mini, itions of war, invented new horroj .i or destruction, established a universal si-s----tem of espionage and propaganda, coquetted with the Turk, .bullied China, repressed socialistic movements and all effort? at a more liberal Government, and fostered in its youtili and children suspicion, contempt, and hatred of all foreign nations and forms of culture that seeemd , likeliest to stand in ts way. Second —Germany began and lias throughout conducted tin* war with the most ruthless disregard of international law and of all previous attempts to miigate the horrors of war by any specie’ oi humane regulation of its usages. This has been true of its armies on nil its various fronts as well as of its naval operations. Much of this conduct has been deliberate and in accordance with its policy of frightlulness. Nor should j it bo forgotten that the instruments of its cruelty were not adopted in the frenzied effort to avoid overwhelniinn defeat and the threatened invasion of tho Fatherland. Zeppelins and submarines were do- i viMed and perfected for tho very purposes for which thev have been put in use. German l>oy.s have been for years playing the game of dropping bombs j from top Zeppelins on tihe coast towns of England. The poisonous gases were compounded and tested, the liquid flames invented and proved worthy, yearbefore the war began. Germany was indeed prepared; the Entente Allies were not. The German soldiers, often after having ravaged the wino cellars of Belgium and France, have, under the orders or bv the connivance or permission of their officers, in all the territories which they have overrun, committed deeds too awful to lodge iii a sensitive memory, or to record by pen or picturesque illustration But these crimes are on record in all laoso forms. They include the murder of non-combatants by shooting end burning in their own houses, the slaughter of old men, women, and children, tho unsoldierly crimes of looting, and the beastly crimes of the mutilation and ravishment of women. Here, again, let him who doubts read the names and occupations of the 606, ai recorded in the list of civilian, massacred at Dinant in August, 1914; and let him note that the ages of these dangerous .francstireurs, whose punishment with death was required for ‘‘th* safety of our brave army,” ranged all the way from a baby of six months to an old woman of more than 70. WORSE POSSIBLE. Why allow ourselves as a nation to he deceived as to the possibility of outrages of civilisation and humanity witli which no Hague Conferences can cope, no sentimental pacifism avoid, no League prevent; as long as Teutonic power and Teutonic craft, and the Pm! sian theory of tihe State, remain enthroned incorporate, as they have become incorporated and enthroned in Germany during the pa st fifty or six*" years? A very short and ugly English word seems to me tlie only answer to most of the statements of this form of obscurantism. Not, now, if wo face these facts, do they reveal as to our National jieHk our International obligations, and the National duties and opportunities which these obligations impose? There * .still in the worLd the prosp.vt of aK* gressivo warfare, deliberately planned for purposes of conquest, made acceptable to the great body of tin* people f an elaborate system oi education, .md waged more ruthlessly and with vastl/ greater destructiveness than ever be* lore. All tliis, wlien incarnate in 11,1 Empire equipped with a mighty armf and powerful navy, constitutes a men* ace to the world’s .peace with Mid® treaties, and Hague Conferences, peace leagues, and pacifist resolution*and a sentimental quietism can nevtf. severally or collective!;'/, successfully

nope. And we belong to this world, f h’ l war is, then, not foreign lo uu. l' ro ® the very beginning it -has had, of very necessity, an immense eonomic, »oc*n and moral interest, involving f{' ( people and the Government of the bn* ed States'. And there was never our history a more unfortunate, tho end doomed to be vain, |K)licy t'* B that of attempting to make it n° n< ‘ ? the business of all the American pc®!. in n clear-sighted and actively pating way. But what do wo mean by Amen ism; and what sort of a man and c-bz' must one be to be a genuine Amen • Primarily, it is a matter of fix' It is quite in contrast with tl»* of Prusuiauism, directly oppwa t 0 spirit of the Hungarian noble or Turk, whether subject or Pa‘•bn-