New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-06-28

The participation of delegates o. the So
called majority of the German Social Demo
Gratis in the Stockholm Peace Conference that
. scheduled TO begin on July % Is ma
neuvre to further the Kaiser's war aims OF
conquest and Of solidfying his throne.
The Kaiser needs peace. and needs It badly
Any attempt to induce the Allies TO consent
to German peace is an Endorsement OF the
policy Of conquest proclaimed by Bethmann-
Holweg when he said in the Reichstag on
April ). 1915: After the war there will be
a new Belgium. Can he lAsquithl
really suppose that Germany will ever of her
own free will deliver into the hands Of reac-
tionary Russia the nations between the Bal
tic and the Volhynian swamps who have been
freed by her and her allies. no matter whether
they are Poles, or Lithuanians, or Livonians
Of the Baltic"
On the Scrapheap
Such a policy is an utter contradiction Of
the Socialist principle of the right of every
country TO decide its own future. This prin-
cple has been thrown on the scrapheap by
the majority Social Democrats as far the
annexation of enemy territory to the realm
of the Kaiser or the retention OF Alsace-Lor-
ieine, Northern Scheswig and Prussian Po-
land is concerned, but is proclaimed when it
comes to carving out of Russian territory an
Independent Poland under the hegemony
Of Prussianized Germany. The status quo
ante-bellum regarding the lost German colo
ries is favored by Noske. Schedcmann's sup
porter, while similar demands in reference 20
the Baltic provinces Of Russia and the occu-
pied parts of France and Belgium are ridi-
culed This is an example Of German con-
sistency. According 10 the "NOrddeutsche
Allgemeine Zeitung" (the official German or
gam and DR.. Solf, Secretary of the Imperial
Colonial Office, Germany wants no annexa-
tions; all she asks are cessions and extern
sions of her frontiers But this is mere
juggling of words and an attempt TO justify
the giving up of Social Democratic principles
and sustaining the war aims of the Kaiser.
II is true that the delegates Of the German
Social Democratic majority, Scheidemann,
Ebert. Molkenbuhr, Richard Fischer, Legion.
Bauer and Hermann Miller during the last
few months have not openly indorsed the an
nexation policy of the Chancellor, Won Beth
mann Holweg. But other majority Social
Democrats, for instance the Reichstag Dep
uty Goehre and the editors Of the "Glocke,
had to do this part of the work
Faithful Wardens
The Berlin government is certainly sat $
fed that Scheidemann and his co-delegates
will act as faithful wardens of the kaisers
war policy. Otherwise Foreign Secretary Al
fred Zimmerman would not have facilitated
the participation Of the Kaiser's Social Demo-
crafts in the Stockholm conference. or the
eight majority Social Democratic delegates
70 the Stockholm conference one, Sassenbach'
was refused passport by the German gov
ernment OF course, something had 10 De
dome 10 create the impression that the
Scheidemann delegation was not semi-otiiciai'
and the more so because of the three minor
itv Social Democratic delegates only one
DEPUTY Hofer was granted permission 70
on "a the Swedish capital, while the others'
IDENTITIES Haase and Adolph Hoffman, were
denied nassports. The absence Of Sassenbach
rom Stockholm is i'm no way detrimental 20
,,o Kaiser's cause. Sassenbach is a salarled
official. secretary Of the General Commlsslo"
~ .ho Free Trade Unions, and would nave
done the bddings Of his master and su-
rfrior. Carl Legion, chairman or the same
General Commission. who of all the leaders
- The majority Social Democrats is the most
s,,hr,issive servant of Bethmann-H ollweg ana
the Hohenzollerns. MI,
II is one Of the pecuiarities Of the ofhcial
German mind that it believes II coulu "Iuo
its true motives by so clumsy trlcA as tne