Herr von Payer, the German Vice-Chancellor, -followed up the Kaiser's
harangue to Krupp's workpeople ,with an address at Stuttgart, remarkable alike for its admissions and its peace pro- posals. He admitted German depression, attributing it less to "recent checks-on the West Front" than to. the prospect of . a fifth war winter. -He admitted the failure of U.'-boat pitacyrand the "heavy- andaver-increasing. burden" laid, on Germany by American intervention -in France. Nevertheless his peace terms were those of a conqueror. Germany must. have a free . hand in Poland and on the Baltic, in Russia and in Rumania ; she must receive all her colonies again ; her ally the Turk must suffer -no interference by the Entente Powers, in rearranging the Near East. On these terms Germany "could restore Belgium,". apparently with Germany on the most-favoured-nation footing, and certainly without repar- ation for Belgium's material ruin, because Germany was "the innocent and attacked party." Germany had been .permitted "to pursue her work in peace, there would have been no war, no injury." A burglar might enter the same defence when charged !with-shooting an-interfering policeman.
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