OCR Text |
Show UNWARRANTED STAND. The refusal of the German commissioners commis-sioners to the Spa conference to assent to any save their own proposition for provisioning Germany stands out as an utterly unwarranted procedure. Admitting Ad-mitting that Germany needs foodstuffs and at once, the entente nations are under no obligations to Germany to bother themselves about conditions in the Teuton country. Nevertheless, the allies have declared their readiness to act in accordance with the dictates of common humanity and facilitate the. distribution dis-tribution of supplies amoug tho population popula-tion of this enemy nation. For the Germans to lay down the terms on which this is to be done, is an assumption assump-tion quite in keeping with the Hun character as it has been revealed to the world since July of 1911. If Germany is in want, so is all of continental Europe. There 'is not a country directly engaged in the war, with the exception of the United States, which has not been forced to short rations. ra-tions. Many of these countries are actually but a short distance removed from famine conditions, while in others this situation is upon them. Neutrals, too, have been subsisting on gTeatly diminished di-minished supplies. Starvation reats its head in Kussia, Kuniania, Montenegro and other lands. The entire world is to some degTee reaping the fearful penalty pen-alty for the orgy of bloodshed through which civilization staggered for four long years. The cause of all that misery originated origi-nated in the very nation which now puts its demands for immediate succor before the allies, coupled with conditions. condi-tions. Germany is responsible for tho famine which stalks over practically the whole of Europe, as Germany is responsible re-sponsible for the blood-letting, rapine and wholesale destruction which marked : her advent as the militant evangel of Prussian kultur. Tho uicirch of her ' armies through prostrate Belgium and ; occupied Fi-ancc, was signalized by de-' de-' struction intended to starve the nou-' nou-' combatant populations. Fields were 1 laid waste and rendered infertile for years to come. Property which could ' not be seized and carried to Germany : was utterly destroyed. With Germany possessed of but one desire, to subjugato the world, all industry in-dustry in Hunland was subordinated to that of making war. And so it came that tho very madness of the Germans turned to curse them, for agriculture, ' neglected, no longer flourished. German Ger-man farms, which before tho war suf-, suf-, ficed to supply practically the entire , population of the empire, now cannot sustain half the population. Wheu the reserve supplies are exhauster, and they 1 are being rapidly drained, Germany will tasto precisely the medicine it set out i to mako tho world swallow. l They that take up the sword shall perish by tho sword. If Germany is threatened by famine, Germany first made famine an actuality in tho nations ) she set about to conquer. If Germany : is face to face with anarchy, she fostered fos-tered that anarchy iu other lands as a - means to make easier her plan of goose-; goose-; stepping over a prostrate continent. 1 Having sowed the wind, she is about to . reap tho whirlwind. Now, defeated but 5 unrepentant, Germany asks for food r from the nations she affected to despise t and undertook to subjugate. Common 1 humanity suggests that a victorious-. victorious-. civilization take the measures necessary to save Germany from the fearful re-1 re-1 suits of her own criminality. But if ? the Germans arc not lost to all sense of . the fitness of things, they will put an end to their preposterous assumptions. |