The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1916-05-25
WHY GERMANY
CRIES FOR PEACE

ing for peace For the first time IN,
subierfuge Of useing neutral or appar
entity neutral organs and citizens Z
express German desires for peace hal
been laid aside. II is from Berlin
that the cry for an end Of fighting
comes most insistcntly and persistent
b., and this appeal finds no echo ir
the press or among the public men OF
the nations that are fighting Germany
IL is worth remembering, too, that
the terms that Germany now suggests
are ineommensurate with her aetua
military posture at the present hour
70 far as this is disclosed by the map
and, what is most vital. amount TO O
remuneration of the precise purposes
that were in the German mind When
the war began.
In sum, after two years Of war
Germany, by her peace proposals
seems to lay aside the hope of break
Ing that iron ring which her enemies
70 use the German view, had drawn
about her before the war. The ring
is not broken; rather it has been
forged by the terrible struggle, and
what was a loose entente is now a
close alliance. The political situation
remains as Il was in 1914, but the
military situation has worsened inn
measurably, because Europe approx
imately as well armed as Germany,
possessing absolute control of the sea,
now maintains more men on the iiring
line than Germany has or ever can
hope to have, even with the aid of her
allies.
Now, at the bottom Of this whole
great war. so far as the Germans are
concerned. there has lain the convic-
ton that a strong, brave, efficient
Germany was, by reason of ancient
agreements and outworn parchments
of international law, excluded from a
fair share in the territories and pros
perity of the world, and that those
nations who enjoyed the German
rights were no longer strong enough
TO maintain them. The Germans saw
a decadent France, a slothfu, lazy,
doomed Britain and Russia poten-
tally a giant but not yet come to the
full power of its manhood
Accordingly the whole tribe Of Ger
man professors, publicists, military
leaders, who have hourished since Bis
marck went into retirement have
preached that the present belonged to
Germany and that her strength and
her efficiency entitled her morally and
would permit her physically to take
her rightfu position in the world, now
filled by interiors. They have also
insisted that if the present opportun-
ity were permitted to pass the future
would see the balance turned against
her fatally and permanently. The
numbers of the Slavs, the ambitions
of the Italians, the growth of British
overseas dominions, the organization
of French colonies, all would combine
to create forces that Germany could
not overcome and would leave the
German race hemmed in between en-
emies in a narrow European domain
and commercially limited by the tariff
frontiers of other great colonial EN-
pires.
In the years before the war Ger
many saw France take Tunis, Maua
gascar expand her West African col
onies into great empire, round II
out with Morocco, consolidate in lndo-
China colony larger than Germany
She saw Great Britain take the South
African republic, fortify her position
in Egypt, develop her South African
territory: she saw the British domains
in Australic and in America growing
apace in wealth and population. She
behold Russia expanding in Asia and
transforming the wastes Of Siberia in
10 a second American Far West. She
witnessed Japan more and more open
ly assuming the supremacy IN the
Far East. She saw Italy take Trip
oil, seat herself on both sides Of the
Mediterranean and in the Greek Isles
seize a post at the gate Of Smyrna TO
await a splendid reversion of Turkish
estates. Even the United States,
growing with the years, was becom-
ing too powerful TO be challenged over
the Monroe octrine, and South Ameri-
ca was closed to a German future.
To balance all this mighty expan-
sion Germany could point only to a
few pieces of African soil, widely sep
arated, walled in by British and
French colonies and utterly at the
mercy 81 the British feet, as tho war
was 10 prove absolutely. This was
the sa-yeft Of the present, this was
the prospect for the future, Of ma
ton II 70ooO,o00 Of people, with an
industrial organization which surpass-
- -. A., .,.,.l4 huH f,ser eeen