Evening star., 1925-03-22
Peace Is Declared Cermany's
Chief Desire After Wide Survey

practically everything which made
life possible, at least during 10 fright
full years.
You cannot inflict any new punish
ment. humiliation. deprivation, upon
the German which will much add to
his own present sense of the mean
ing of war. The danger would rather
seem to be that you might convince
him that all hope of escape was quite
non existent, that his enemies OF the
war We're resolved TO destroy him,
| having disarmed him, or to let him
| be destroyed.
l have seen too much of the misery
of war on the other side OF the old
battle lines to become sentimental
over the German sufferings. The dew
astated areas of France and Belgium
are memories which survive in my
mind even now in a German world
where l am finding every courtesy
and obtaining every facility, official
and unofficial. But the fact of the
suffering impresses me: it impresses
me immensely; it means that the war.
the meaning of war, has been brought
home with inescapable force to every
German. There is no illusion, no
faintest glamour, no conCealment. 1t
was the most terrible thing in the
human experience of all the men,
women and children who lived
through ii, and the time of strain
lasted not four years and q half, as in
| allied countries, but practically 10
here.
Points of Similarity.
Now you must believe one of two
things: Either the German is funda-
mentally and totally unlike all other
peoples, of d mentality which has no
resemblance to ours, or, despite cer-
tain differences, the German is, after
all, like other human beings, aG-
fected by the same things, suscep-
tible to the same pains, capable of
learning the same lessons, anxious to
escape hunger, cold, privation, just as
we others are.
The war took from the German al
| most everything he believed In; it
deprived him of nearly all of the
things, big and little. which counted
in his life, and it left him impover-
ished, isolated, shaken mentally and
| morally. You don't have to be in
Berlin long to realize this. His re-
covery has begun, and physically must
inevitably continue. His vitality is
| unmtstakable.
To imagine that the German now
or ever will plead guilty of moral
CUNT LOT the war 1SJ am sure, out
of the question; to imagine that he
will secretly acknowledge such guilt
is too, unbelievable. To believe that
he will accept the decision of the war,
provided that the contract as written
at Versailles and al London, so far as
western Europe is concerned, is now
maintained, seems to me humanity pos
sible-but on the terms of an evacua-
tion of German territory and future
treatment as an equal
A year ago, after visiting London,
Paris and Geneva and talking with
statesmen and people from many
other countries, 1 wrote that, in my
judgment, outside of Germany, which
had not visited and could not speak
of, / had the impression that Europe
was in a new mood, and that there
was a dominating sense of general
desire for peace. L have now the
same impression as to Germany, so
far as Berlin is indicative. l do not
believe, despite the presence of ex-
ceptions, that the German people are
militaristic or revengeful. l do not
believe that their leaders are secretly
preparing a new war or less honestly
eager for peace than those of France
and England-and I mean peace, not
a truce. In fact, l think that in Ger-
many also the war is over.
SCssSEisats 1sssA ----.x-