The Cordova daily times., 1919-12-12

head that he will accomplish more by admitting and concedlng what Is good in the treaty, keeping in 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, lis the Fryatt case, and we had bet ter 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 weakling 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 to thank our enemies for this operation, and if we don't the operation is not likely to be of benefit to us.
 Ut will be tough job to drive 1t into Michels head: You owe thanks to your enemiesp He still hears it all around: Our brave U-boat and Zep- pelin commanders merely did their duty. Whatever they did they were acting under orders from some one higher up. Those brave men must hot be dragged into an alien court!
 No Reason to Be Excited.
 "So 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 offH 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'
 "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 a chance to restore the unsullied shield of honor of which every one of our naval off, cers 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 up all around. Let us not be content with the trial of officers whose extradition Is demanded. Let us try some of them ourselves in cases where our enemies are not interested.
 "In addition we have to thank our enemies for delivering us from the octopus of militarism, that terrible cancer which was destroying the life If our nation and is still poisoning our system. Clemenceau in addressing