AGGRESSIVE GERMANY

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14768, 6 October 1921, Page 5

AGGRESSIVE GERMANY

EX-AMBASSADOR'SLETTERS AMERICA'S EFFORTB FOR PEACE. RECEIVE A CYNICAL HEARING. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Assn.) Received October 5, 9 p.m. LONDON, October 4. The letters of Mr Page, ex-American Ambassador in London, which are being pubiished in the World's Work, reveal an attempt by the United States In May, 1914, to prevent war. Mr Page, in August, 1913, wrote to Colonel House, who had the close confidence of President Wilson, suggesting that the land-stealing business should be ended for ever, and Europe should be invited to co-operate in cleaning up the backward lands in Africa and elsewhere. After Mr Churchill's nav?.l holiday speech Colonel House was going to see the Kaiser in the spring and "try to win him over to the thought which was uppermost in the minds of the English Government and ours." When Colonel House arrived all the German leaders, except Admiral von Tirpitz, gave the proposals a respd-'i-ful but cynical hearing. Admiral von Tirpitz was openly hostile, denouncing England. When Colonel House spoke to the Kaiser he found the Kaiser obsessed by the Yellow Peril- The Kaiser saM there could be no question of disarmament while this danger to civilisation existed.

Mr Burton Hcndrick, who compiled the life and letters, says that the Kaiser walked with Colonel House on the terrace at Pottsdam for half an hour while the German generals stoo I at a respectful distance. Apart from the Yellow Peril the Kaiser was alarmed about Russia. He spoke contemptuously of France and Britain as enemies, but the size of Russia exposed the eastern frontiers of Germany, and it appalled him. He discussed with decision Mr Bryant's arbitration treaty. It is curious to recall that if the Kaiser had accepted, it the Uniti.-d States would not have been able to enter the war until April, 1918, and Britain might have been starved into surrender, while Germany might have crushed Europe with her armies.