TOPICS OF THE DAY.
A PACIFICIST PLOT.
"Ye take too much upon you, ye eons of Levi."
?THURSDAY'S Morning Post contains an interesting article from its Berne correspondent, describing an article, entitled " Le Complot Pacifiste," which has lately appeared in a Swiss periodical of high standing, La Semaine Litteraire. The writer of the article, who evidently has a great deal of information at his disposal, and is sincerely friendly to the Allies, but whose anxieties we are convinced are quite ill- founded, describes how the German Government, working through a network of international Hebrew financiers in neutral countries, are endeavouring to create an atmosphere of pity for Germany, and so favourable to a sentimental peace. These efforts are now coming to a head, and we must look out for subtle and ably urged assurances that it is an entire mistake to suppose that Germany has been fighting for domination. She has been merely fighting to save her life. "She has never really wished to impose her culture on the world, to create a political hegemony, or to annex territories that she had not acquired by right 1 The instruments of the cosmopolitan financiers, who, thinks our author, • are well-nigh synonymous with the German Jew, are the Pacificists and also the Ultramontanes. These last are particularly anxious that Germany should not be too badly beaten, but should remain in a position to recover her old power. One of the things which , we are told is helping this great Pacificist plot is that " the feeling prevails very generally that it would be dangerous to interfere with this hidden force working behind the scenes."
That there is an attempt to create such a feeling of danger we do not doubt, for it has always been one of Germany's pet, if rather cheap, psychological dodges to use the suggestion of inevitable success in commerce and in politics. "Germany," it is asserted, " is going to win because Germany has willed to win, and Germany has a will-power superior to that of any other nation." Woe, then, betide those who cross the path of the great spiritual steam-roller—an engine ruthless, remorseless, relentless, whose driver never forgets or forgives. If you make a mistake in regard to its action you are doomed, whereas with the easy- going Entente you can always hedge at the last moment. To support this view on the material side, those who are using the Pacificist puppets in the new peace movement point out that when the war does come to an end Germany will be in a much better position than the rest of the world. The other Powers, Russia, France, and Belgium, will be busy repairing the terrible ruin that the war has created in their industrial districts. The Germans, who have suffered no internal injuries, will have everything ready to begin a great commercial campaign. " At the very moment when the signal for the cessation of hostilities is given all the German vessels in neutral ports will be ready to resume their functions ; their steam will be up, the merchandise will be lying on the quays beside them, and time-tables, prospectuses, and advertisements will be despatched to all parts of the world."
The writer of " Le Complot Pacifists " ultimately becomes specific in his forecasts. After stating that the Roman Church in the United States is working in the same direction as the financiers, he concludes :- " Well-informed people know that a mice-en-scene is being prepared by President Wilson, the Pope, and the German Emperor. As soon as -the ground seems sufficiently well prepared either the Pope or the President will take the initiative, and offer his mediation. The one will immediately be supported by the other, and the Emperor will reply to the offer made him that he accepts the intervention without condition. This will be easy for him to do, for all the conditions to be demanded by the Allies will have been settled beforehand by Germany and the mediators. All the forces of the neutral countries will then be brought into play, and to these will be added the different pacifist organizations of a moral, a religious, or a Socialist nature. All will raise their voices in favour of ending the war, which they will declare to be impious."
Ne are by no means alarmed by these predictions. They repre- sent, no doubt, what the German Government would exceed- ingly like to see happen, and what they are working for, but they by no means represent what is going to happen. The British people, the French people, the Russian people, the Italian people, and indeed the peoples of all the Allies, have not the slightest intention of allowing it to happen, and the final word is with them. They have suffered too much to be deluded by any one into mating a premature and unper- manent peace. They do not want, and are not going to have, a Second Punic War following the First. They are not going to be so foolish or so wicked as to attempt to kill Germany physi- cally or economically, or to destroy her people's power of earning a living. At the same time, they are not going to make the kind of peace that Germany wants, or to put Germany into such a position at the end of the war that she will have an easy task in preparing for a new bout of hostilities.
But perhaps it may be suggested that the influence of the neutrals, if cleverly awakened by the Germans, will be strong enough to force the Allies to let Germany off easily. That is a pure delusion. The neutral Powers are not going to be so mad as to attempt any venture of that kind. But even if for the sake of argument we assume that they will try to engage in such a piece of belated Don Quixotry, they have not the power to do so. The neutrals know quite well what the answer of the Allies would be to any hortatory attempt to mediate—a polite " Thank you, but we do not think it would be in the higher interests of Europe to enter on the discussions you suggest " from the Governments ; and a very impolite " Mind your own business and don't interfere with ours " from the Allied peoples. " We have borne the agony of this war, not you, and we have won or are about to win, and the winners and nobody else are going to settle the terms." The fact is that when war is going on, Pacificists, cosmopolitan financiers, Jesuits, and Ultramontanes play a much less important part in the world than is supposed by themselves. Like the sons of Levi, they take a great deal too much upon themselves.
Though we do not think there is much, or indeed any, danger of this particular Pacificist plot coming to fruition, its existence is yet another argument in support of what we have contended in these columns—namely, that there must be no great, fat, flabby, overgrown international Pow-Wow, at which every form of intrigue will be rife, and in which undoubtedly a bribing, wheedling, threatening, mischief-making Germany might get a good deal of advantage. When the Germans come to suggest peace negotiations, with the inevitable pre- liminary of an armistice, as they soon will, we must tell them plainly that we have decided absolutely against a Congress with good-tempered, pliable neutral Powers sitting and doing their best on kiss-and-be-friends " lines. At the same time, we shall at once tell Germany what are the terms upon which we will agree to peace. They are ready for her con- sideration whenever she asks for them, but they are terms which we shall grant as Germany granted her terms to France in 1871, and are not subject to bargaining or negotiation. They will be terms dictated, not by any vindictiveness, not by any desire on the part of the Allies to enrich themselves, but solely to ensure safety for the future.
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