The Waikato Times With which is incorporated The Waikato Argus. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 1919. THE PEACE TERMS

Waikato Times, Volume 90, Issue 14021, 26 March 1919, Page 4

The Waikato Times With which is incorporated The Waikato Argus. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 1919. THE PEACE TERMS

The military, naval and aerial conditions which ll>o Peace Conference has decided to impose; upon :v;u.'n/

are indicated in our cable news. We think they are sufficiently drastic to satisfy all people that the Prussian •Ragle has been effectively bereft of his plumage and will not again seriously threaten the world’s peace. Germany’s army, navy and air fleet are to he limited to such dimensions as, while enabling her to maintain law and order within her own borders, preclude all possibility of her waging an offensive war. Her liberty to construct fortifications, manufacture munitions, etc., is strictly curtailed, Conscription is to cease, many of her present strongholds are to be dismantled at her own expense and hy the utilisation of her own labour, and the’ ■carrying out of the terms is to-be supervised by an Inter-Allied Commission. Thus is Germany humiliated, and her people made to realise the bitterness of defeat. By no stretch of the imagination can the terms imposed be regarded as anything hut humiliating, and the potion must ho a hitter one for a people who believed themselves competent lo subjugate the world. They set out confident in their ability to conquer, but they have themselves been conquered, and to-day they present lo all people a striking example of vaunting ambition overleaping itself, and bringing ruin in its train. What (ho. effect will be on the German people time alone'will show. They have had sharp lesson, for in the comparatively short, sfidch of five years they have been hurled from the pinnacle of national greatness lo the very depths of humiliation and despair. Five years ago Germany was powerful, arrogant, domyiccring; today she is weak, abject, servile, ready to accept any crumb that is offered her and to caress the hand that tenders it—not in gratitude, hut in fear. Herr Ebo'vt may affirm that Germany

will not accept the conditions and j sign the peace; hut the world knows' that Germany will not hesitate when commanded to do so, and that her cup will be drained to ‘lie dregs. j Germany, having been brought to the dust, much depends upon how she proceeds with her work of reconstruction. Will she renounce her past ideals and ambitions? Upon the answer to this question hangs the hopes of the future. Lord Reading, Chief Justice of England, says;— “More than once recently I have heard tlicw opinion expressed that the future', happiness and security _of the world depends ddiVtfist entirely on our ability to work' & s=s cti’fnplctc transformation of the German psychology. If this is actually the case—'and, personally, 1 am inclined to believe that it is—what reasonable hope have wc that wc w.Il we able to -accomplish so difficult a task? Is it -possible to effect any really profound alteration of the German psychology? It is really a very important question for us, for if the answer is ‘No,’ then not all the Leagues of Nations that the wit of man can devise can make us feel sure that the sword has been sheathed for good and all.” Lord Reading then refers to the kindly disposition of the German people, other than Prussians, and while he admils that these natural traits have not been much in evidence during the war, ho does not despair that with the coming of peace they will ro-assert themselves. On that hope he builds the future. If the Germans profit by the sharp lesson they have had and seek greatness in other directions than in ’force and world domination, there is no reason why they should not regain the respect and goodwill of the world. But the process will he a long one, for the crimes they have committed will assuredly be visited upon the third and fourth generations.