New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-05-28
Diplomat Declares Ger
man-Americans Alone Can
Teach Berlin Truth.
GERMANY SEEKING
TO CARRY OFF LOOT
Talk Due to Her Desire to With.
draw While Victorious,
Official Asserts.
LTrom Thn 1r1hune Rursau. ]

lFrom The Tribune Bureau
Washington. May 27.-"Germany IS
trying to get away with her loot That
is all that this peace talk amounts TO
now, or can amount to for some tine
TO come"
Thus a diplomat of high standing
and one thoroughly familiar with the
situation of the Allied powers summed
up to-day the present agitation. In has
opinion the Allies are now stronger
than ever before; Germany has reacled
the crest and is going down, and knows
that if she could make peace to-day the
terms would be far better than Mt any
time in the future. He admits that the
Allied nations are anxious fo- the war
to end, but declares that they will
never rest till they can be assured that
the peace terms will make any similar
war impossible for centuries.
There are only three conditions IN
der which peace can come, in his
opinion:
When Germany shall be stripped of
every bit of her conquests and forced
to pay Belgium and Serbia for the in
juries she has done them.
When Germany shall undergo a
change of mind which will lead her
people to abandon all hope of conquect
by arms, thus insuring the worle
against another eruption OF German
aggression at time when it might he
impossible to gather against it so much
strength.
When the Allied powers shall be
whipped into complete subsection.
Germany Wants Her Loot.
None of these situations IS now in
sight, he declared. Germany. he be-
lieves, is actuated by two motives in
her present agitation; an attempt to
shift the blame for continuance OF
the war to the Allies, at the same time
keeping the bulk of what she has won
and insuring herself the mastery OF
Europe; and a more pressing desire 70
draw out Of the slaughter before the
growing strength of the Allied armies
and the weakening of her own forces,
by loss of men and the pressure of the
blockade, bring a complete and crush
ing defeat
The support which the peace agita-
tion is receiving in this country this
diplomat lays to two cause.-the lack
of knowledge that a peace to-day would
give breathing time to prepare for
resumption of the struggle whenever
Germany was ready TO resume her
career and the desire of certain poll
ticians to make capital with the Ger
man sympathizers here.
"Germany's dream Of conquest is at
the bottom Of the whole trouble" he
said. "She has thought that she could
seize by force Of arms rights and land
belonging TO other peoples. Peace can
not come till she learns that she cannot
do this. This does not mean that she
must be crushed but II does mean
that she must win nothing. If she
should be allowed to gain the slightest
advantage from this war she would feel
that her whole course-her violation
OF treaties, her policy of frightfulness,
her murder of non-combatants on the
open seas, the whole brutal attempt to
play the bandit among nations-had
been providentially justified. The
Allies, for the sake Of civilization, can
never allow that.
Allies Won't Surrender.
eve have nowhere near reached the
end Of the war Germany is still
strong, and nothing in her peace talk
has suggested for a minute any other
terms than surrender of part of the
loot if she will be permitted to get
away with the rest. The Allies have
suffered terribly, but they believe that
for them TO surrender means national
death.
The neutrals would help the Allies
if they understood that peace to-day
would mean their own enslavement,
their subsection to 'kultur' at the point
Of the bayonet.
"If Germany's spirit were changed
her conquests would take care of them
selves. II peace is TO come at all from
this country il will have TO come not
through President Wilson's speeches,
but through the action Of the German
Americans. They have the chance TO
teach their friends in tie fatherland the
truth.
THE German people are being rid
den by the milieary party, Of which the
Crown Prince is the head. No wonder
they are sacrificing men by the hun
dred thousand to give the Crown Prince
prestigel Military power lives by con-
quest. There you have the whole phi
losophy that brought on this war and
that has conducted it.
"If the German-Americans could only
see these things and show them 10 their
fellow countrymenl That would end
the war. The Germans here have every
chance to learn. They know how the
res tot the world views the Kaiser's
career. They ought not 70 be deceived
by the kind OF lilies and excuses that
pass current in the censored brains in
side the empire Germany has got to
learn that she can have no peace as
conqueror"