Wairarapa Daily Times [Established 45 Years.] WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1919. AN EYE FOR AN EYE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 45, Issue 13982, 19 November 1919, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established 45 Years.] WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1919. AN EYE FOR AN EYE.

"An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth'' —that, it will be remembered, was Mosaic morality, a morality admirably suited to tlie people for whom it was intended, and as all believers in Biblical inspiration will agree, divinely inspired. We of the Christian dispensation are, however, aware of the New Testament dicta beginning with the well-remembered sentence, "But I say unto y0u, ,, , where the emphasis lies on the pronouns. The Sermon on the Mount, nevertheless, has been taken by all practical Christians as a goal to which man may attain. Until he has, many of its precepts have to be road with a. gloss. Moses knew the type of people he had to deal with. We now know Iho Germans .far better than they know themselves. 'Their acceptance -if the Nietzschcan doctrines has put them on a par with the ancient worshippers of Thor and Woden. What modern man takes for crime of the deepest dye, they rather glory in. There is much evidence accumulating and accumulated to show that they have not, so far, a glimmering of the amount of atrocity of which they have been guilty. It is for this reason that we applaud the decision of tho Allies to bring the -facts home to them in the only possible way unless war is to be taken through Germany from end to

end. Tho determination to exact ton for ton of shipping is a perfect example of the, old law, an eye for an eye, or, as we should say colloquially, the aw of tit for tat. We hope .that this decision holds not only for the belligerents, but also for neutrals, especially for Norway, which has been so hard hit. Nothing will come home so closely to the German ports, where the destruction of British and French shipping was hailed with the greatest glee, as the sight of German vessels steaming away to come back, if they do come back, under another flag. It will be poetical justice in practical life. So too will the determination to present the Avhole Allied bill for war expenditure—a pound for a pound—in sterling parlance. The amount will be large, and the sum total may not all be available. But the bill will be presented, and the aggressive Hun will then know of a surety that there are occasions when war —his special business—does not pay. These are two of the lessons to be driven home. There is a third. Ton for ton, and pound for pound, must be followed by case for case. For every case of atrocity, a trial, with the condign punishment of tho guilty. Here, too, we are glad to know that nothing is being' forgotten. Glad, not because avc have any thought or desire for vengeance; wo are strongly opposed to anything in the shape of vengeance. We might bomb every city in Germany during the coming week. But nobody dreams of it, or of slaying or mutilating a single child or woman in reA r enge for those lost in our own lands. But we are now dealing with a people who do not understand leniency, and that fact makes it incumbent on us to take judicial measures to find the guilty, and then inflict the punishment deserved. By such means, and by such alone, can aa'o secure both justice and preA'ention.