The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-07-21
kuehlmann and Ca
dorna Latest Ones
to Be Forced Into
Oblivion by Fatal
Errors of Judgment
BY F. CUNLIFFE.OWEN.


~ some statesman or some military or
naval commander being discarded and
relegated to the scrap heap. The war,
which fortnight hence will enter the
fifth year of its existence, has proved
the greatest Kecatomb of human life ever
known. 1t has likewise proved TO be a
monster grave of the regulations of the
majority of those who have figured most
largely in the public eye. War is in every
sense of the word the trial by fire. There
tests.
Within the last two weeks Richard Won
Kuehlmann, the Minister of Foreign At
fairs Of Germany, and Count Cadorna,
the former Generalissimo of the Italian
army, have been laid upon the shelf in
such fashion as to render it improbable
that they will ever be recalled into the
service of the State. In the case Of Kuehl-
mann be has conducted himself with such
an utter absence Of self respect and of
dignity as to ALLEVIATE even the great bus
mess interests Of Germany, which had re-
garded him as their representative In the
Government, and to render him useless
for their purposes.
Forced to Eat Words Publicly.
After having made a remarkable speech
in the Reichstag in which he gave ex-
preston to their views as to the necessity
on economic grounds for an early peace,
even without victory, he allowed himself
to be forced by the military junta and
the pan German leaders at Berlin to de-
liver another address in the Reichstag in
which he ate the words Of his former
speech, and that, too, in the most abject
manner. Moreover, his abandonment of
the suit for criminal libel against those
Berlin newspapers which had charged
bin with fragrant immortality while en-
gagged at Bucharest in negotiating the
terms of peace with Rumania can only be
construed as a public admission of his
guilt and of his readiness to compromise
the interests of the State and of the Ger
man nation at a critical moment by that
proHigacy which has dishonored many of
the diplomatic representatives of the
Kaiser.
The members of the militarist junta are
thoroughly aware that peace without vic
tory would mean their own downfall and
disgrace. For the Kaiser and his precious
son, the Crown Prince, have already
clearly shown their determination to sad
die upon others the responsibility for the
horrors of the war, for the failure to
achieve victory and for the national ruin,
in the hope that by thus offering scape-
goats upon whom the people can vent
their fury and their despair the house of
Hohenzollern may be preserved from its
inevitable doom.
War Directors Fall, Too.
Field Marshal Helmuth Won Moltke,
Chief of the General Staff of the German
Army at the time of the outbreak of the
war, paid the penalty for the Kaiser's
interference in the General Staff's plan
of campaign, an interference which was
responsible for Germany's failure to
reach Paris and for her defeat at the
battle of the Marine in the fall of 1914.
In the same way Gen. Won Falkenhayn,
who superseded Helmuth Won Moltke as
Chief of the General Staff, was sacri-
feed in order to appease popular dis
and indignation caused by
the Crown Princes failure to capture
Verdun, notwithstanding the colossal loss
of Teuton life entailed by his unsuccess-
full operations. There is no doubt that the
Kaiser and the various Teuton royalties
are seeking to saddle upon the formerly
idolized Field Marshal Won Hindenburg
the blame for the lack of success of those
German drives which have been going on
ever since the spring and that still con-
tinue on the front in France and Elan
ders.
With regard to Count Cadorna, his
downfall has been entirely of his own
on6 h., E,,- h. xv.kl ,