WORK peace was not July 21.
Tue Spa Conference has ended, and Germany has signed everything demanded of her. This means little or nothing, merely another step in a series emphasizing the kind of tactics which appeal to the German mind. At the same time as the German} delegates were signing the necessary conditions, the Christian Union of Coal Miners was rearing up on its hind legs and talking in the most unchristianlike way of neglecting its duty to its country, while Berlin was flinging another insult at the French. Next the Reichswehr refused to don their parade uniform when ordered to make the salute to the French flag. Tadeed! The fact that the French were prepared to accept less than a full dress salute shows an admirable spirit of accommodation, it disproves the allegation recently made in America that the spirit of militarism was rampant in France, for to the full-fledged militarist there. could only be one method of making the required amende. But the French authorities were apparently prepared to allow that point to pass, although we are glad to note that a strong protest has been entered against the; singing by the Reichswehr of the! "Deutschland Uber Alles." was an adding of insult upon! insult, and we shall be surprised! if it is tolerated. The Junker spirit certainly animated that episode; we cannot believe that it Was a spontaneous eXpression of the reaction which the men felt after having to carry through something extremely distasteful to them. By no means. As a parade soldier the German was always good, and we shall not believe that the discipline of years has fallen so readily off his shoulders. Rather does it seem a carefully prepared insult—with an excuse ready prepared.
We are unable to get away from the fact that the conduct of the Allies has encouraged the Germans in their career of deception and mockery. Mr. Winston Churchill little knew the Germans when in the early days of the war he told the world that it was not necessary for the Allied troops to march down the Lindenstrasse in order to show the Germans that they were beaten. A more intimate knowledge of the Junker would have convinced him that it was. We are not so sure that the treaty of signed in the wrong place. Had it been done in Berlin, "in the very home of militarism, with the streets of the capital swarming with "Allied troops, the lesson to the Junkers might have gone home. But-then we are not militarist by instinct we took the other way, and the Junkers remain unrepentant, and still able to carry a following with them throughout the late empire. Events have now shown that once the treaty was signed it should have been enforced to the very letter—at least so long as the Junkers were allowed a say in their country's affairs. For it is they who are making the present mischief. Their influence began to wane with the defeat of the German army in the field, and doubtless by now it would have vanished but for the unfortunate differences between the Allies, which have enabled them to re-assert themselves. Today they display their poison just as virulently as ever by gratuitous and stupid- insult to France.
Now, the salvation of—the German people lay in the breaking of the Junker power and influexxo. The late German Empire was a heterogeneous collection of peoples speaking the same language but having little else in common, There were various fierce peoples who learned to hate each other during the war, and, it is said, all of them learned to detest the Prussians because, they alleged, the influence of the Kaiser and his Junkers preserved the latter from the severest of war losses. Of course this is a common complaint to hear among all manner of people, but the point is that the war seems to have accentuated the differences already existing between the different peoples going tomake up the empire. Above and behind them all were- the Junkers—the ancient robbers of East Prussia who never discarded their instincts of plunder. Could these have been put in their rightful place as disturbers of the peace, as men beyond the pale, all might have gone well, and the rest of Germany be given a chanca to reform. The only hope for the peace treaty is to pare their claws, and it is also the only hope for Germany, and this can only be done when the intention to enforce the treaty is shown by something more than conferences and by words.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.