The Waikato Times With which is incorporated The Waikato Argus. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1918. GERMAN INTERNAL CONDITIONS

Waikato Times, Volume 89, Issue 13891, 17 October 1918, Page 4

The Waikato Times With which is incorporated The Waikato Argus. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1918. GERMAN INTERNAL CONDITIONS

It its, of course, inevitable that recent developments on the Western front should have had a corresponding effect upon internal feeling' in Germany. The appointment of Prince Max of Baden to the position of Chancellor was an effort to meet this feeling by calling to powar a moderate man, who was known to be opposed to the extreme demands of the pan-Germans. II is clear, however, that his advent to power has not inspired unity and that, on the contrary, the different parties in the country havf taken the opportunity of a change of Chancellors to push their respective views. On the one hand an obscure Socialist paper says, with what seems to us undeniable logic, that the Kaiser, who has never ceased to proclaim that every man must be prepared to sacrifice himself for the State, should now put his doctrine into practice and abdicate. On the other hand the panGermans, who arc totally unable to learn from events, and who stand intellectually just where they did when Germany was advancing in March and April, have protested loudly against the new Chancellor's acceptance of President Wilson's terms, and are reported to be bringing officers back to Berlin with the probable intention of effecting some coup d'etat and closing the Reichstag-, and with it any pretence that the Chancellor's offer is made on behalf of the German people. We have always held the belief that government in Germany has been conducted on a system which must lead to revolution if disaster came, but we admit that we did not expect that it would be the panGermans who would inaugurate that proceeding. As matters stand at present it looks as if the first movement towards the repudiation of civil government is to come from the officers. Such a course is a mere counsel of despair, for the world of dreams in which they have lived for the past four years is collapsing around them like a house of cards. Bulgaria has withdrawn, Turkey is smashed, Serbia well nigh recovered, and Austria openly announcing that if the peace offer made jointly by herself and Germany is not accepted, she will make a separate peace upon any terms. Even this does not represent the whole of the catastrophics which have befallen her, for Russia is stirring iineasily and may yet throw off the enemy occupation, and in any case is quite unable to afford any relief to the internal conditions of Germany. Yet, while the outside world has failed her, and her own troops are retreating in utter disorder from the lines which they believed impregnable, the army continues to carry out the policy of destroying everything that they cannot carry away, and systematically burns every town from which it is driven. It certainly appears to us that the Allied Powers are remiss in this matter. They should officially warn Germany that at the conclusion of war all those concerned in these outrages will be tried in accordance with civil law, both those who give the orders and those who execute them, and that murder, arson, robbery and rape will receive their appropriate punishment. If such an announcement were made it might check the crimes that are now being perpetrated, and if duly carried out it would go farther to check the glorification of war than many Hague Conventions. In the present instance the Ger- j mans are persisting in their career of crime under the same impression as that with which they commenced it—namely, that they could frighten the world into submission. Yet the results of four years' lighting should have shown the futility of such ideas, though they are evidently incapable of learning anything. President Wilson could very well at Ibis juncture make it absolutely clear to our enemies that no offer of peace from Hohenzollern or Hapsburg will be accepted, for it is ;t matter of supreme importance that the conflict which has been carried on for four years* by arms should nol be continued indefinitely in the sphere of commerce and economics. If the Kaiser remains, and he and his junkers retain power, it is certain thai every conceivable rU\> will bo taken to prevent Germany's recovery to hamper her trade and to impoverish Tier people. Such a course will injure the peoples of the Allied Powers, and will lead to further war at an earlier or later date, but such considerations will not prevent tru3 adoption of a course dictated by passion. The greatest service that President Wilson can render the world at present is to make it clear to the. German people that their best chance of a moderate peace is to shake off,

once and for all, the aristocrats and junkers who have brought their country to its present state and made the German name stand for all that is treacherous, cruel and wicked.