New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-07-01
The Wrangle Over
NO-AnneXatiOnS
TN HIS own weekly paper, THE New

IN HIS own weekly paper, The New
Witness" G.. X. Chesterton writes
with more than his usual earnestneSs,
and with an obvious stunning of puns and
rhetorical posing, about the German
Russian wrangle over no-annexations.
Ideals, as this Englishman pointed out
short time ago are the only instruments
that will help in adjusting the Russian
revolution. But
We must recognize a certain Russian
spirit which can only be called innocence
and We must learn to talk Of innocence with
out talking of it with a sheer. We must TELL
the Russians that we are not fighting TO
achieve annexations. but to prevent anrexa-
tions. We must then tell them the rlain
fact (which can be proved that it is ir'pos-
sible 10 prevent annexation without dissrm-
ing the one power that has openly dedicated
itself to an endless career of annexnS
everything.
To attempt the ideal of Russia without the
mastery OF Prussia is exactly like proclaim
ing vegetarianism for all living things IN
London and then letting a tiger loose from
The Geological Gardens. That the Prussians
Lave always been annexationists IS 1act
easily established by everything tha' mas
ever been said in praise of them
That the Prussians must go on being an
rexationsts, il they can, is equally eV'oeht
rom everything (even now and in the pres
ent war; that is said in excuse Tor them'
That Germany is content within her present
borders is a doctrine that is damned, no. by
arti-German diatribes, but by the whole GER
man defence.
II is the chief argument for modern Ger
many that she wanted new territories into
which TO overflow. 1t is not we VINO say
;hat Germany is driven TO demand new col
cnies; it is the apologists of Germany. 1t
is not we who say that she needs an outlet
on the North Sea; il is the Germans them
selves. Il may be possible to justify TINS on
ennexationist principles; it is obviously I'M
nossible TO Justify it on anti-anneXatlonlst
principles
The vision of Petrograd, like the retirth
q, Poland. simply cannot be carried out at
all without cutting into the heart OF frus-
sia. For the most precious treasure oil
Prussia is pirates treasure, and where the
treasure is there will the heart be also
Mr.. Chesterton calls attention to "a
small incident Of great moment'-the Ut
terance of the German Socialist paper
"Vorwarts" about 1.-The sheer impossibility
of returning Alsace-Lorraine to France
These Socialists say, as arrogantly as all
The other Germans say it, that 1t is Ter
nan land, and there is an end OF It, lhey
tav it is German land because they nave
been taught, like all other Germans, TO test
al history by German hypothesis about
race. and not by the common sense OF
Chr,stendom.
So long as this local creed is fixed there
i really no arbitrament except battle be-
tween those who rest their claim on race
and those who rest theirs on history and
good government.
There runs through all the pacifist and
semi-pacifst publications one simple fallacy,
which is expressed IN Iet'e: 10
.-rbe Cambridge Magazine "For l. is
Ignorance of our neighbors which produces
the Misunderstanding which eliminate IN
war" With sincere respect, we would sub
nit that it is nothing Of the sort People
can sometimes differ because they do
understand each other, and not because they
don't,
In other words. there are people who do
think differently and do not merely think
that they think differently. 1t is not igno'
rance Of each Others aims that makes the
french and Germans fight over Alsace; It Is
knowledge of each others aims. No IDEAL
ism. not even true idealsm, can eliminate
this possibility.