Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1919-11-21

1.-The admiral was stunned and
reeled, while the kaiser made sneer-
ing, filthy remark which cannot be
repeated in print"
Treaty Is Called Unjust.
Captain Persius then discusses the
treaty of peace for the benefit of the
German Michel, saying: "God knows
we cannot call it just treaty" and
suggesting that it will be utterly i'm
possible for Germany to live up to its
conditions; hut at the same time he
counsels Michel TO get Ii through his
head that he will accomplish more h
admitting and concedng what is gool
I'm the treaty, keeping I'm mind German
conduct after the treaty of Brest'
LitOvsk and the treaty Of Bucharest
Coming to the cases of the German
officers accused of atrocities, Captain
Persius gives as his opinion that they
should be tried for their crimes and
punished, a duty Germany has neg.
lected for nearly year.
"The only exception" he observes,
sis the Fryatt case, and we had bet
fer not mention that exception. The
decision of the commission appointed
to examine into the charges involving
treatment of prisoners of war in Ger
many, in violation of international law,
is enough to bring the blush of shame
into the face of every human being
He adds:
"NOw our enemies are going to re.
spond to the worlds cry for justice
and will place on trial the criminals
who disgraced humanity.
"He is a weaklng who suffers an
ulcer to destroy his body without at.
tempting to free himself by an ex-
cision. Now this operation will be per.
formed by our enemies. We ought tC
thank our enemies for this operation
and If we don't the operation is not
likely to be of benefit to us.
''It will be tough job to drive i,
into Michels head: You owe thanks
to your enemies = He still hears it al
around Our brave U-boat and Yep.
pelin commanders merely did theii
duty. Whatever they did they were
acting under orders from some one
higher up. Those brave men must moi
be dragged into an alien court!
No Reason to Be Excited.
$50 far there is no reason to get
excited. The British government, claim
ing to have evidence against twenty
commanders of German U-bOats, wants
to bring them to trial. Hands off ! our
protesting simpletons are shouting
Those commanders Of U-boats merely
obeyed the commands of their supe'
riors in rank. Had they not obeyed
they would have been punished for
| breach of discipline or even for
treason. We must not permit the en-
emy to try our hero officers!
1.-THE enemy, however does not at
all contemplate trying our officers for
obeying the orders of their superiOrs,
but for acts they committed going be-
yond their orders.
"There are or were a number of
German U-boat commanders in Eng
| land as prisoners of war. Nobody
ever thought of dragging them to court
for this simple reason; nobody ever
accused them of cruelty and atrOcity
They obeyed their orders and no more
"when our enemies demands be
came known to us our first and imme-
diate answer should have been: we
are glad to be placed in a position
where we may be able to disprove
charges that possibly are absolutely
unfounded. We welcome chance to
restore the unsullied shield Of honor
of which every one of our naval Off
GERS has been proud. We only regret
that no German tribunal was formed
to try these accused officers in Ger
many
Asks for a Cleaning UP.
"Charges made against U-boat com
manders, as contained in those news
paper articles, are of the same nature
as accusations made against other
military officers whose extradition is
demanded. Let us begin a cleaning W
all around. Let us not be content with
the trial of officers whose extradition
Is demanded. Let us try some of then
ourselves in cases where our enemies
are not interested.
"In addition we have to thank ouI
enemies for delivering us from the
octopus of militarism, that terrible
cancer which was destroying the life
of our nation and is still. poisoning
our system. Clemenceau in addressing
the German peace delegation said the
Germans did not seem to comprehend
what abolishment of military service
meant to them--releasing for labor
hundreds Of thousands of hands form
erIy occupied in the unproductive pur
suit of militarism. Only militaris'
whose mind is stunted by the fungi:
growth of pan-German madness will
fail to share Clemenceau's opinion.
"But the note issued by the French
prime minister made no impression
on us. Our newspapers failed to com
ment on II. Why? Because the note
In many respects explains In word:
of sincerity many obscure parts Of the