The Waikato Times With which is incorporated The Waikato Argus. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1918. GERMANY AND PEACE

Waikato Times, Volume 89, Issue 13892, 18 October 1918, Page 4

The Waikato Times With which is incorporated The Waikato Argus. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1918. GERMANY AND PEACE

The nows that the Kaiser lias abdicated ami Germany capitulated was received with manifestations of great joy throughout the Dominion yesterday afternoon. Though not ofticially confirmed. it was hinted that credence could he given to the report, as "wellinformed circles were not disposed to reject it." It was a dramatic and unexpected development, hut subsequent messages indicated that there was a feeling in London that the termination of hostilities was imminent, and Mr A. J. Balfour, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, expressed his conviction as to the sincerity of the Herman overtures, as they emanated from "a people who have given up." These are weighty words when uttered by a British Cabinet .Minister, and they to a large measure corroborate the statement that Berlin has accepted Mr Wilson's terms. These terms were most explicit; there was no invitation for Germany to continue to negotiate. An "irreducible minimum" was laid down, and the enemy notified that he must either accept or reject it as it stood—it was not a basis for discussion but an ultimatum. President Wilson informed the Imperial Chancellor that nothing would be done to jeopardise the Allies' military advantage, and il is inferred by this that the conditions of the armistice will be left to Marshal Focli lo dictate, in which case it can be confidently concluded that i! will mean the end of the war, for the enemy will he reduced to such impotence that it will be impossible for him to enter upon another campaign. It would he a crime were it otherwise. During the four anil a-quarter years the war has been in progress Germany has repeatedly shown that she is absolutely devoid of integrity and can be trusted in nothing. She opened the war by consigning her national honour to the scrapheap: she has since denounced all solemn compacts and ignor. Ed the claims of humanity and mercy. She has committed the most horrible, debasing and revolting crimes against the innocent and the helpless, and her record will go down into history as the most fiendish and terrible in the chronicles of man. 11-now transpires that even at the moment Prince Max launched his last peace offer submarine commanders were actually under instructions to perpetrate a crime approaching in magnitude that id' the sinking of the Lusitania, and which by its ghastlinoss and cruelty stupefied he civilised world. A nation capable of such atrocities must be given no consideration. They must, metaphorically, be bound hand and foot and rendered powerless for evil. The safety of the world demands it. and the Allied statesmen must take every possible precaution to ensure that they barter nothing of what the men and women of the Allied countries have won by their blood and sacrifices. But if (iermany is ready at this stage to accept the inevitable—if she unconditionally agrees to the terms dictated by the Allies, then there can be no possible justification for carrying on the conflict for another day. Her surrender, however, must be abject and complete. Iler fleet must be either given up or dismantled and her army reduced to the minimum; while, to bring the fact of defeat right home to the masses of the people, an Allied army must be placed in temporary occupation in Berlin. These are the essentials to an armistice. There will lie many matters to discuss and decide after that stage lias been reached, and the Herman people will be compelled for many years to bend thenbacks under the burden imposed upon them through the mail ambition of one whom they had been taught to hail as a heaven-sent guide. They decorously followed their leader like sheep along the path which they fondly imagined would bring tlieni to prosperity and comfort, but they now realise that they are confronted hv ruin and despair. The experience, however, has rid them of the incubus of the All-Highest War Lord and his military retinue. This should compensate for a lot of their suffering. (Since the above was written word has boon received thai the reported capitulation is not correct. Gerinanv, however, in spite of President Wilson's emphatic declaration, still manifest a desire tr> continue the negotiations, and the report from Rotterdam may yet prove to he only a little premature.)