New-York tribune., 1919-05-12
to throw doubts on the motives Of an
other usually does not describe the other
fellow, but describes himself.
Cerrnany's Choice

Germany's Choice
President Ebert calls the peace made
at Paris "peace Of violence" His atti-
tude reflects German opinion, and Ger
many is dazed and astounded, because
her idea of the worst the Allies could
do to her has fallen so far short Of the
reality.
The German delegates will protest
and offer counter proposals. They say:
1.-THE draft Of the treaty contains de-
mands which no nation could endure.
The Allies have replied that they "can
admit no discussion Of their right to in
sist on the terms of the peace substan-
TALLY as drafted" Notice is thus served
on Germany that this is peace of VIC
tory, and that she must either take 1t
or leave it.
Will the German government sign in
spite of Brockdorf- -Rantzau's and
Ebert's display Of balkiness? Certainly
Germany would reject the Paris verdict
if she saw any other way out of her
troubles. The peace terms consign her
to the position Of ticket-of- leave man
slowly working and paying his way back
to freedom and responsibility. The
Germans tried to set themselves up as
the taskmasters of Europe. Now they
have been sentenced to become hewers
of wood and drawers of water for a
couple of generations. 1t is vengeance
at once poetic and Mosaic
Ry1f b.
it by merely refusing to sign the treaty!
They might have escaped if they had
Bolshevized themselves three months
ago and entered into defensive and
offensive alliance with Red Russia
Then Poland, Czecho-Slovakia and Ru-
mania were weak. The German Eastern
armies still held the Russian border
provinces and bridges existed over
Courland and over Eastern Galicia and
the Ukraine to Soviet Russia. Now
those bridges have been broken down.
Poland has been strengthened. Lithua-
MIA has organized as an independent
state. Finland has joined the Allies.
The Czecho-Slav army has been rein
forced by the return of the Czecho-
Slav veterans from Siberia and Ruma-
MIA is again firmly on her feet.
A couple of months ago Hungary
tried the experiment of an alliance with
Lenlne. That man9uvre almost created
panic in Paris But Lenine couldn't
go to the aid of Hungary and the Boil
shevist regime there has petered out.
How could Germany, aroused by terri
torial losses and appealing to the ma
tionalistic pride and emotions of her
people, expect to establish workable
alliance with the Moscow Reds, to whom
nationalism means nothing and who sub
mitted without murmur to the Brest-
Litovsk dismemberment?
Soviet Russia is walled in. 1t faces a
new danger from the East. It's power
within its own territory is insecure.
Its only interest in Germany is to over
throw bourgeois government, such as the
Weimar Assembly and Ebert represent,
and to introduce chaos and the war of
classes 1t gave Germany the Berlin
Spartacides and the Munich Commune.
Would it be worth Germany's while to
now exchange 'peace of violence" i'm
posed by the Allies for the reign of vio-
lence and anarchy which determination
with Soviet Russia would invite?
Germany therefore is in hard and
fast predicament. Her only choice is a
choice of evils. Yet she can console
herself with the reflection that it is ex-
actly the sort of choice which she would
have imposed on each and all of her
enemies if she had been victorious