WHY DID YOU LEAVE US?

Waikato Times, Volume 92, Issue 14257, 7 January 1920, Page 7

WHY DID YOU LEAVE US?

VON TJRPITZ QUESTIONS JAPAN. NEW GERMANY WILL ARRIVE. Three days before the scuttling of the German Fleet at Scapa Flow I called on Admiral Tirpitz at his residence in Berlin, 'writes B. Suzuki, a wellknown Japanese journalist, in an American exchange. In response to my knock at the door in the third storey of a large building, who should appear but the Admiral in person. I doubted my eyes. Could the elderly gentleman in a whit-; working garb before me be the father of the German Navy and the author of the ruthless submarine warfare? [ could not bring myself to think that the Admiral responded to my call himself with the idea of startling a young Japanese journalist. , I was shown into a drawing-room with modern drawings. We were joined by a young man, whom the Admiral introduced to me as his son. We sat around a table with a Japanese tray on it. The conversation naturally turned on the war. I confess that the war was a subject of which I was already wearied. But the Admiral waxed enthusiastic and dwelt on how Germany was forced to take up arms and how English propaganda succeeded in persuading the world to regard the war as one forced by Germany upon an unprepared world. The Admiral then asked: "Why did Japan side with England, seeing that German victory would have been advantageous to her?" I was surprised to hear a man lik/j the Admiral nutting such a question in earnest. But, concealing my surprise. I replied: "The Japanese have felt no friendliness toward the Germans since the intervention of the three Powers. But considering the fact that, although France and Bussia did participate in the intervention. Japan has got on good terms with both. Germany might have been able to become equally friendly with us. But the policy which the German Government has followed sin-.e that event has been such as to antagonise the feelincr of the Jananese." Old Grievances. The Admiral nut in: "But n.s my knowledge goes. Germany has not taken any stens which might be construed into a slinrht on Japan."

"No." I said, "von avp mistaken. Tt was Germany which was reluctant to consent to the abolition of extra-terr : - toriality in Japan. In thr> war with Russia —a war upon which Japan's destiny denendc l —Germany secretly helped Russia. That your Government enabled Russia to withdraw her troop? stationed on her German frontiers and mnl,-e them flght in Manchuria is a fact of common knowledge. And soon after the war the Kaiser invented the "Y<>;lo'w Peril." I miffht cite many other instances in which Germany acted against us." Turning the subject. I asked the Admiral why the German navy did not. fight a decisive battle with the Englisn Fleet, to which young Tirpitz. who had hitherto remained silent, replied: "The German navy from the first stood for n rWisinn."

The Admiral, taking the cue, said: "I do? not put trust in the English reports relative to the loss of the German navy in this Battle of Jutland. According to what appears to me an unimpeachable report, the loss suffered by the English Navy was three times greater than the German loss. This shows the of the report of the German navy's wish to try conclusions. Why, then, did the Ger-, man navy not actually fight a decision?" The answer is that the faction which insisted on friendly relations with England after the war carried the day at the council. As for submarine •warfare. I stood for its being out in its most ruthless form, but I was de'er-led lw the growing party which deemed the warfare as inadvisable. If Japan Goes, to War.

Here the Admiral stopped, and I put in: "By submarine warfare Germany lost more than she pained." To which the Admiral said: "It was not our desire to 'kill noncombatants. If we lulled noncombatants it was because it could ->ot be helped. The Allied people in branding us as the incarnation of brutality and barbarity for our submarine war were forgetful of what they had' done towards the civil population of Germany. I say with emphasis that the number of noncombatants killed hv German submarines did not exceed the number killed by the English blockade." Here the Admiral rose from his seat and, leaving the room, said: "If Japan goes to war in Hie future I do not doubt that she will resort to submarines as Germany did, and am sure that Japan will not repeat the blunders which Germany committed in this war." I followed the Admiral toward the door and did not leave him until I had beard his reply to my question about the political position in Germany: "Owing to four years' blockade, the Germans are hungry and exhausted. In a time like the present nothing whole and pound will grow. True Germany cannot 'b° secn un^il after tne lapse ° r three or four years."