Middletown transcript., 1916-12-30
MIDDLETOWN, DEL, DEC. 80 1916
GERMANY BEGS PEACE

her hypocritical pretence that pit.
prompts the plea, are quite as foolisl
as the plea itself. Bissing, the bruta
governor of crushed Belgium also say
"pity" made him tear 14O, 900 Belgian
husbands, fathers and sons from theil
needy families and ship them in cattle
cars into Germany-slaves.
Germany's peace plea recites that {
year ago she sounded the Allies upor
the subject. Since then she has grown
more and more anxious, until now she
is almost frantic, gong, indeed, to the
absurd extreme of sending her peace
representatives alone to the Hague to
meet those of the Allies which she de-
youtly prays may follow.
Still, she is silly enough to think she
can make the lying bluff go that altho
she is conqueror ''she does not wish to
shatter and annihilate her adVersaries-
but wishes to avoid further bloodshed
and the atrocities of war, etc )" and
therefore makes her peace plea Her
liars ought to get together and compare
notes. Awhile ago Chancellor Hollweg
said in the Reichstag that Germany
with her back to the wall, was fighting
for her life;" now, she is the pitiful
cOnqueror willing to cease fighting lest
she "annihilate her adversaries" etc |!
Were Paris and London at the mercy
of her brutal soldiery does any fool i'm
agine Germany would be talking about
peace? Peace on any terms, much less
on equal terms that would restore the
status ante quO-call it a draw. No
the eXultant Kaiser would exact the
utter destruction of France and the Sc
we're crippling of England and mole.
HolIwegs first declaration was true,
and all her actions prove it. For 18
months all Germany has had a Food
Dictator prescribing short rations; her
old men of 60 and her boys of II have
been called to the colors, aye he
school lads are being taken from thei,
studies to replace laborers that they
also may become cannon fodder
Then, too, her insolent early peace
offers are constantly getting milder and
presently will be bargain counter"
terms.
But Germany's peace proffer was not
only foolish, but dishonest as we'll
merely cunning fishing expedition for
some possible advantage-that of divid.
ing her foes, or OF putting them after
their rejection of her disingenuous offer,
in the position before the whole neutral
world Of needlessly prolonging the aw-
full slaughter.
Her impudence is almost sublime.
After wantonly precipitating this
frightful conflict wherein she has been
guilty of endless outrages upon women
and children and has violated all the
honorable usages of civilized warfare
and while still keeping her iron heel
upon the necks of heroic Belgium and
the other victims of her brutality. she
prates about quitting on equal terms
Willing to fling the dishonored corpse
Of Belgium back into the ashes of her
burned cities and to march off scott
free, her own lost colonies to be re-
stored and these half dozen ruined little
states to keep their thousands of
widows and orphans dying amid the
wrecks of their impoverished lands and |
,ities.
But her tricky scheme, (Which is blind
and evasive, offering nothing tangible |
even tho aided and abetted by Mr.. |
Wilson's impertinent interference, has
otally failed. The Allies one after
another have fatty, even scornfully re-
ected her peace overtures, in effect
'ffering her no better terms than Grant
'ffered Buckner at Fort Donaldson
immediate and unconditional sur
ender," or to quote the brief, blunt
of Premier Georges words
Restoration Restitution Guarantees
or future good behavior" -
No state or people in all Christendom
ave the bloody Turk or the treacherous
'ulgars trusts Germany today. By her
nfamous courses violative of every
rinciple of honor, justice and mercy,
he has become an outlaw to all the
'orld, the pariah of the nations des-
ised and hated by all, and the Allies
ill never desist until she is punished
)r her many crimes against civilization,
nd until she ceases to be a menace to
le peace of all Europe. u