The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-01-28 00:00:00

A GERMAN VIEW OF THE WAR.

The following is an extract from the letter of a
German genth man to a friend in London, the writer
of n hith, it will I, 'nem takes a common-sense and
practic d view of the

" We Laro in the opinion of many good people d um a
very wrong •ind wicked thing ; we have heat,. the French
too hard. We were quite justified, our censors are kind
enough to say, in warding rfY an iniquitous anti unprovoked
attack; but when that was done, we ought to have gone
home quietly, with the comtortlag ommelouanem that If

itse .. • 'tacked ns • efeeond time, we could beat them
it we on our side of the channel, not having
such • safe rampart ita 25 miles of salt water, would like to
have something like a security that we. can live In peace
for the future. We do not like the idea of having to
again escrili,e 100,000 men and more of our nation to keep
in check the meet reckless and unquiet people in Europe.
At some future time the French might choose 'helr
time batter, be better prepared, have better Generals,
perhaps • foreign alliance, and we might perhaps not have
a Moltke and a Rum and a liifmarck. We will. therefore,
now mourn such a frontier as will mAO us tolorably safe
without such enormous sacrifices as we were obliged to
make this time. Nothing is more foolish than to talk of
generosity. The people in Euglaild who preach on this text
would find noel, different one If they wrens. close neigh.
hours to the French as we are. Generofity to a breaker of
tho peace iv cruelty to the public. National safety is the
fist and most indispensable object of every civil community.
It is for Oh i, In the fist instance, that every Sate has been
organired since the beginning of history. A statesman who
would sacrifice ally consideration to this primary one would
be a traitor to his country.

"To hear some of the shallow, Ignorant newspaper writers,
one would fancy that we U tended to treat Franco as the
Spartans did the aleseenlai s or as Rem. treated Capita is-
Berthas" But we mean neither to suAugate France nor
even to ' dismember hot We only mean to take back what,
during the time of her supremacy in Europe, and during the
time of our internal divisions, France took from us. That
la our settled urpose, and nothing will alter it. It argues a
very Imperfect knowledge of the temper of the German na-
tion to :uppose that we shall give up what we have once sct
masa:yes to do. All counsels to conclude peace should be
addressed to France.

" It has always been the rule and the natural practice in
rest times that the conquered should sine for peam Why
does Fr face, If she suffers so much, not do oh a? Ilithert.s
the men who, la an unlucky hour, se's ,d the helm of the
ulyindoned Government haw only declared what they will
taut do. ' Not one inch,' et 1, has been the rabid beast, like
that of Napoleon I. after his defeat in Germany. Unit
the Amick come to underetend their real position we are
obliged to go on, though we suffer never so cruel teases
The longer the war las'n the heavier wall be the conditions
of peace, and if France is crippled in consequence fer a
great number of years she has to thank hoe present rulers
Meanwhile, we are delivering Europe from the burden of
French supremacy, we are completing the en): k of William
lii, and no country In Europe, next to Germany, will be
more brnentrd by the overthrow of French predorntnanoo
than England. It 19 SllrpriZing to me how any Eegitahruan
can fall to see this. It is such an evident necc.ity for
England to moderate French pretensions that at the very
outbreak of the war statesmen endowed with even a little
foresight and spirit would have taken up a position clesrly
tip' led to the bodly-concealed aggressive policy of the hoe-
pent. When the secret treaty project beesnie known I felt
confldeni IC,••gland wield at 011. dictate war against France,
for that treaty was in reality aimed ng.:lnst Englor 11, and
showed that the unscrequiloua stair: men In Faris were
wactliing the flret opportunity for seizing Belgium in spite
and In the teeth of England.
- ••

•• U England had stepped In boldly at the beginning of the
war, it Is probable the E nperor Napole in would Inane
quaßcd and retired from Me untenable position. But now It
Is too late. Any interfersmce, or even a show of partisanship,
in favour of France would make the war general. It would
nipel Bbmsrek to conclude a Itusidan alliance, in sacrifice
the intertats of agland in the East, and perhaps to meek
allies beyond the Atlantic. We should deplore such a result
as much as Engibihmen could deplore it But the necessity
of meltdielence strips oil all ii)mnathies. It Is my full COIIVIC•
tion that the war will resister isolated between Germany and
France, and, moreover, I think It will not last much longer.
After the fell of Perin, whi ti Is now Imminent, the French
will see that further resistance Is suicidal, and we shall not
exact unfair conditions of peace. Probably the line of the
Vokes and Moselle, including Bulled, Strasburg, Ifolz. and
Ifhlonville, will be all that will be naked In territory. rhou4h,
by reason of our successes, we might claim a great deal
more, I bell, news shall TiOr. But If after the fall of PAM.
the French should flatter themselves that they could under
no circumstances lose more than Alsace anti German
Lorraine, they may be mistaken."