Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1917-06-15

man policy as rather the dream Of
minds detached from practical affairs,
as preposterous private conceptions
of German destiny, than as the actual
plans of responsible rulers. but the
rulers Of Germany themselves knew
all the while what concrete plans.
what well advanced intrfques lay back
of what the professors and the writ
ers were saying. and were glad to go
forward unmolested. filling the thrones
of Balkan states with German princes.
putting German ofi,cers at the service
Of Turkey to drill ber armies and
make interest with hor government,
developing plans Of seditdon and re-
bellion in India and Egypt, setting
their fires In Persia.
1.-THE demands made BY Austria up
on Servia were mere single step IN
plan which comprised Europe and
Asia. from Berlin to Bagdad. They
hoped those demands might not
arouse Europe, but they meant to
press them whether they did or not,
for they thought Themselves ready for
the final issue of arms.
"rheIr plan wsas 70 throw
broad belt Of German military
power and political control across
the very center Of Europe and be.
yond the Mediterranean Into ths
heart Of Asia; and Austrsa-Hvn-
and pawn ae serwa or Bulgaria Or
Turkey or the pondsrous states Of
the East. AustrIa- Hungary, In.
deed, was to become part Of the
Central German empire, absorbed
and dominated by the same forces
and Influences that had originally
cemented the German states them
selves.
1.-THE dream had It's heart at Bar
lin. It could have had heart nowhere
else! It rejected the idea Of solidarity
Of race entirely. The choice Of peoples
played no part in It at ALL It CON-
templated binding together racial and
political units which could be kept TO-
gether only by force, -Csechs.
Magyars, Croats. Serbs, Roumanians.
Turks, ATmenians,-the proud states
of Bohemia and Hungary, the stout
little commemorative of the Balkans,
the indomitahle Turks, the subtle
peoples of the East.
THE SITUATION TODAY.
"And they have actually CARRIED the
greater part Of that amazing plan into
executiou look how things stand.
Austria ia at their mercy 1t has acted,
not upon It's own initiative or upon the
choice Of It's own people, but at Ber-
Inns dictation ever since the war be-
gan It's people now desire peace, but
cannot have It until leave ia granted
from Berlin.
"The so called central powers ara
in fact, but a single power. Servia is at
its mercy, should It's hands be but for
a moment freed Bulgaria has consent
ed to its will, and Rumania Is over
run. The Turkish armies. which Ger
mans trained, are serving Germany,
certainly not themselves. and the guns
of German warships lying IN the ha-
Dor at Constantinople remind Turkish
statesmen every day that they have
no choice but to take their orders
from Berlin From Hamburg to the
Persian gulf the net is spread.
''is Il not easy to understand
the eaoerness for peace that has
been manifested from Berlin ever
since the snare was set and
sprung7 Peace, peace, peace has
been the talk Of her foreign of'ice
for now a year and more; not
peace upon her own initiative,
but upon the initiative Of the M.
tions over which she now deems
hsrself to hold the advantage. A
little Of the talk has been public,
but most OF II has been priv
nate. Through all sorts Of channels
Vt has come to me, and in all sorts
d guises, but never with the
tSfms disekosed which the German