New-York tribune., 1919-12-21

imperial government, the Great Army
He Hdquarters, the Kaiser, the navyl" ]"
such was. in fact, the state of things
behind the scenes, while the leaders
on both SIDES were publicly giving
sorth beautiful camouh ge about tho
perfect harmony with which all were
working together.
Now. il is but natural that a man 50
m "ch under Tie sway of his passions
rs LNdendorff showed himself to be
should play fantastic tricks with log
when it ceme to giving the ground.
'pon which he acted. And that is
what Ludendorff and Hind enbNrg did
The two chief contentious of the gen
arals were that the Weakening o. M
rale on the part of the home popul.
the war-es IIiNdcnb lrg pvt it. tn
rmy was stat bed in the back; and
rrthcr, that unrestricted u boat wal
re had to be resorted to. becaus
lere was no other way to end the Wa.
other words, if the people had only
stood firm and had he'd out and given
ull moral su port to the army, Ger
many would have won ont. And ye
linden burg turns around and defends
the C-boat declaration. the ground
that there was no other mems of
brrginG the war to an end, and Lu-
dendorff backs up that assertion.
Eoasting Carried Too Far
Orc would have supposcd tat TIE
~er erals. after seeing that there wss
no prospect of ending tNe lard var
u rorgh victcry-as Trey explicitly
admitted one nigNt have expected
4 EN- TO trim their sails accordingly
other words, to try to get q mode
"ate ne9ce without annex 7tions. Yet
Hin de, burg i'll his tes imonial to
= derd riff tgiven just after the lat
nrs violent crset "c9irst ernstortf)
certified that his coadjutor "was ever
peace but, of course, an honorable
neace, W!ich we tNen hoped to win
hro "gh a German victory" What tie
generals tNoug't as to their German
'nace was s own in the Germen peNce
Ter OF December 10. 1916, with its
, bastic and offensive boastirg Of
crmary VS. military srcccs -es. P OF
'ethmann IIolwege! He aCmi ted that
military leaders d ctated Il a. part
{ Gernary's peace offer ard that they
verdid tie b sir ess. All the wy d
srees with him in that one point at
st.
The trouble with these great gen
rails WAS that they could rot shake
HcN-SelNVS rec or Ctat ldea or Ger
an peace." Tfat was why they
wanted u ilson to keep his tirrer ont
# tie pie" as Zimmerman expressed
|. For national reasons and in con
iideration Of Cermany's strong mill
airy p, sltion it was now mp ss bile for
-crmary to accept Wise S peace
fort so Nindeubrrg told the rep
rcsentation OF the Foreign Office after
ne declaration OF slbmarine warfare.
when a report arrived that the Prcsi-
dent was disposed to make another
sfort toward peace. Which, being in
terpreted, means that tie generals
we're still under the spell of that
hal uciration Of 'an honorable peace"
or big anr eNations~they would make
one more desperate dash for it!
Deny Political MCddl.ng.
Yet these generals, and Lud andorff in
paiticu ar, now reject the idea that
they were mcGdling in po itcal affairs!
They insisted pom debating the politi-
cal features OF the forthcoming peace: :
md yet they would mt have it tina
they had interfered IN the political af-
fairs Of the covntry. Bethmann Ger
tain had different impre sion, and
he should know. At the same sitting
o. the subcommittee a letter was read
which Be Imam wrote to Prince Max
aNN'+ wear a~O exp aiming the i'm