Wairarapa Daily Times [Established 44 Years.] THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 1919. GERMANY AND PEACE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 45, Issue 13795, 27 March 1919, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established 44 Years.] THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 1919. GERMANY AND PEACE.

While the Peace Conference is engaged hi the Bottlement of Germany's future tho internal condition of Germany remains perplexing. Tho news is scanty and confused, but it suggests that German domestic politics are still in a state- of flux, and that the revolution haa not yet brought the strong man who can check and control the factions which now fight over the ruins of the Empire. The Government seem to have tided over one crisis only to bo boset by another. Tho Majority Socialists staged and produced tho revolution; thoy claimed to represent the more stable elements of tho community, who confessed defeat and were prepared to make tho best of a bad job by eliminating from German government the elements objectionable to the Allies, while they undertook to maintain good order in the country. Their task was clearly a difficult one; on tho one hand they had the baleful legacy of Junkers, officials and-bureaucrats of every class and caste who stood for the old regime and hated democracy aa much as they farted

the Allies. On the other hand they had tho malcontents, the Spartacus group, inflamed by tne example of liussia. When Germany aided Bolshevist propaganda in Kussia siie sowed a wind from which she was to reap the whirlwind; the Spartacus group has naturally thriven iji tho soil of tho national defeat, and has aroused all the instincts for excess, license and plunder which have lain dormant under the iron rule of discipline. Af one-time these could be let loose on French or Belgian soil, but now thoy turn against the force which created them. Tho Government is thus in constant danger of being ground between oho upper and nether millstone. Hitherto it has tided over crisis after crisis. In tho vote for tho National Assembly wnieh put the Premier's party into power by a largo majority, ho could claim that his policy had been endorsed by the will of Germany. But all his efforts towards ■conciliation have not yet brought him to a peaceful haven. The sporadic disturbances in what once was tho German .Empire show that a majority vote docs not involve stable government or order. Weimar, whore tho National Assembly sits with tho innocent design of proving that Germany has gone back to the days of Goethe and Schiller, is under martial law. Bavaria, which wo once believed was foreign to Prussia in culture and sentiment, has been the scene of assassinations and riots iv which both the Spartacus group and aHoyalist cabal have been concerned. In the ear--Jy days of the German revolution Berlin and tlie groat ports wore the principal storm centres. Mow tho scene has changed. Wo wonder why? Has the Premier so effectually quelled the unruly elements mat they are now placid? Has lie disposed of tho multitude throughout Germany who, for all their faults, are bred in .fidelity to the old rule and system, and would sacriiice everything be-foro their loyalty. . These arc questions which are difficult to answer. The German Government is concerned to keep the spectre of Spartacus before the Allies' eyes. Beaten in the war, -the German representatives can. uso it as another card to play. They are frank about their difficulties with the Hpartacus group,' but they tell us less of tho manner in which the Junkers, their satellites, have accepted the revolution. Are we to suppose.that all of these, and from high to low they number millions, have suffered a change of heart? What arc- they doing now? They are certainly opposed to Bolshevism in any form; they Jiate the Allies more than ever they did before because they have the chagrin of defeat, imposed as they claim, by the weakness of their fellowciti/.eiiH. Are we to imagine that this elevejith-hour conversion can bo fiincero and permanent ? When we hear of Germany's disintegration wo should also remember that there is an organised army on the Eastern front which has won successes against the Polos. Germany's record iv tho past, her diplomatic traditions, and the mistrust which the events of this war havo made us place in every promise and protestation from her, do not inspire confidence in any reports which sho sends out for Allied consumption. Germany has lately efiifl too much and too little. She has said much about her Bolshevists; she lias said very little about her militarists.