England, Canada and the Great War Part 30

She would have claimed the recognition of her imperial paramount power over the Balkans, which she would have united under the direct sway of her ally and va.s.sal, Bulgaria.

Victorious over all continental Europe and equally over Great Britain, she would most likely have claimed the cession to her of the great British autonomous Colonies for the purpose of pouring over to Canada, Australia and South Africa her increasingly overflowing population. And to better achieve that most coveted result, she would have destroyed at once the free inst.i.tutions they enjoy under the British Crown to replace them by her autocratic rule.

In one of his illogical pamphlets, abounding in extravagant views, the Nationalist leader has denied with scorn that Germany had ever intended to acquire Canada by force of arms. He supported his a.s.sertion by the declaration made to the contrary by a German Minister. But he failed to explain that this German public man said so only when the Berlin Government had fully realized that they could not succeed in breaking asunder the mighty British Empire. The Teutonic declaration was hypocritical, intended to deceive, and to supply our Nationalist "_pacifists_" with what would seem a plausible argument to cover their sympathies for the gentle cause of the tender hearted Huns. It is very easy to disclaim any aspiration to possess what one is sure never to get.

Triumphant Germany would have bargained very hard to lay her powerful hand on the great Indian Empire.

She would have dismembered Russia, as she has effectively done--at least temporarily--by the infamous Brest-Litovsk treaty.

She would have strongly supported Austria in destroying for ever Italy's legitimate aspirations to round off her national territory by the annexation of that part of Austria's possessions called _The Trentino_, which is hers by nature.

Following the precedent she had laid down, in 1870, after her triumph over France, Germany would undoubtedly have exacted from her fallen enemies, billions and billions of dollars as indemnities of war.

And Germany, with such a peace treaty imposed to her despairing enemies with her sanguinary sword at their throat ready to murder them--as she did at Brest-Litovsk--would have swayed the world with her UNIVERSAL DOMINATION.

But I hear--I must say without being the least frightened--the thundering clamour of the Nationalist leader crying that Germany does not NOW claim such peace conditions as above enumerated.

Very true, and why?

Only because she is no longer able to exact and impose them!

In 1914, Germany being victorious over all Europe, England included, after a four months overpowering campaign, as she expected, would certainly not have been satisfied with less than the conditions just specified. They were the goal for which she had been strenuously preparing for fifty years, her success, in 1870, being the preliminary opening of her conquests.

To bring Germany to renounce--temporarily--to her fond hopes of domination, it has required the heroic efforts and the untold sacrifices, in men and money, which Great Britain, her Colonial Empire, France, Italy, Belgium, j.a.pan, betrayed Russia, and, LAST BUT NOT LEAST, the United States, have made during more than the last four years and which they are pledged to make until a successful issue.

The kind of peace as above would have been what can be very properly called--Germany's "OFFENSIVE PEACE." In Germany's opinion this would have been the just and durable peace dear to her so kind heart.

But having failed to carry the tremendous victory for which she had so powerfully prepared, Germany would NOW likely agree to negotiate what can be as properly called a "DEFENSIVE PEACE."

By "DEFENSIVE PEACE", I mean Germany negotiating NOW with her opponents with the determination to repulse, as much as possible, their just claims, to prevent them to the utmost limit to reap the legitimate fruits of their admirable endeavours, to thwart the realization of their n.o.ble aspirations to protect the world hereafter against her guilty and barbarous militarism.

Germany--I mean, of course, the Teutonic Imperial Government--has yet given no sign of a change of mind on the vital points at stake in the consideration of the restoration of peace. If the fortune of arms was once more to favour her armies, her blood stained for Colours, she would, to-morrow, be as mercilessly exacting as she would have been, in 1914, had she triumphantly entered Paris inside of two months after her challenge to the civilized world.

Germany is surely not a convert to sound Christian principles. She will not repent for her crimes. She does not feel the tortures of remorse at her foul deeds. She would certainly be a relapser, in the near future, if the Allies, unwisely heeding the clamour of the "_pacifists_", imprudently gratified her ACTUAL wish for a peace compromise.

And before long Humanity would be forced to go again, in much aggravated conditions, over the way of the cross she has been threading along for nearly five years, steeped to the knees in the blood of millions of her heroic sons, with a reorganized Germany this time straining all the Huns' acc.u.mulated power to lead Civilization to her Calvary.

With G.o.d's grace, that shall not be. Five years of martyrdom have deserved and will receive JUSTICE.

After having explained what Germany, from her stand-point, considers a JUST AND DURABLE PEACE, let us see what such a peace means from the Allies' stand-point.

Every free man has a right to his own opinion. However, he must never forget that Liberty of opinion does not mean--never meant--absence of knowledge, ignorance of the basic principles of political society.

I do not hesitate to expound what the real conditions of the coming peace MUST BE to make it JUST AND DURABLE.

Let the inveterate opponents of Political Liberty say what they please, it is undeniable that the present war has rapidly developed into a deadly conflict between Autocratic Power and Political Freedom.

Consequently a peace patched up to uphold Autocracy and destroy free inst.i.tutions could not be JUST and DURABLE.

Under the dominating circ.u.mstances of the present struggle, to bring it to a satisfactory conclusion, peace, to be Just and Durable, must be restored with all the necessary guarantees that Political Liberty will hereafter be safe against the foul attempts of military despotism.

This _sine qua non_ condition is general in its nature and equally interests all the contending Allied nations.

Let us now consider the peace conditions which, though of general importance so far as they are NECESSARY for its permanency, are essential from the particular stand-point of each one of the Allies separately.

I shall begin the review by considering the particular case of Great Britain.

To be JUST and DURABLE for the British Empire, the future peace treaty must not be so drafted as to supersede British sea supremacy by that of Germany.

The question of what is to be done with the great German African Colonies, conquered by the South African Dominion army, is next in importance to England's sea supremacy, from the British Empire stand-point.

Germany, very far from foreseeing what was to happen, deliberately opened that question when she precipitated the present conflict by coercing Austria to crush weak Servia, herself challenging Russia and France, and thundering at Belgium in violation of her most sacred treaty obligations.

Great Britain, as in honour bound, standing by Belgium, was forced to fight with Germany. The great autonomous Colonies n.o.bly rallying to her support, the South African Dominion, Boers and British admirably united for the purpose, undertook for her share to conquer the German African Colonies. She has grandly succeeded.

If, as we all hope, the Allies are finally victorious, would it be just to relinquish Great Britain's right over the German African Colonies, more especially if the South African Dominion is strongly opposed--as there is no doubt she will be--to their retrocession?

And what about Belgium and France? No peace treaty could be called JUST nor could be DURABLE, which would not completely restore Belgium's independence; which would not oblige Germany to indemnify Belgium for the damages wrought upon her, more especially those which were inflicted to the Belgian weak but heroic nation out of sheer barbarous destruction.

To France, the northern part of her presently occupied territory, together with Alsace and Lorraine, MUST be restored.

The Germans are loudly crying that in exacting the restoration to France of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, the Allies would be partly dismembering the German Empire.

Quite so, and why not? Does the victim of the highway man lose the right to claim his property from the ruffian who has stolen it by brutal force?

In 1870, under the circ.u.mstances all know, Prussia imposed upon France the cession of Alsace and Lorraine, rounding off the territory of the new German Empire.

France naturally smarted under the cruelty of the condition which she could not help accepting. For many years she cherished the hope that the lost provinces would ultimately return to the parental home.

But it is well known how TIME is an efficient cure of many ills.

France's yearning for the restoration of Alsace and Lorraine had gradually subsided. The general opinion was spreading that the Alsace-Lorraine matter was more and more becoming a finally settled question.

Before the war, no Power, European or American, would have countenanced France in any attempt to break peace to run her chance of reconquering Alsace and Lorraine. France knew it perfectly well and at last bowed to her fate.

Who has reopened the closed question of Alsace and Lorraine? Is it not Germany herself?

Great Britain, Russia, the United States and Italy, who would not have supported France in an OFFENSIVE WAR with the objective of getting back her lost provinces, are now a most determined unit in favour of the restoration of Alsace and Lorraine to France as a result of the DEFENSIVE war Germany forced her to wage.

That would be JUSTICE pure and simple: the peace treaty MUST do it.

Germany having run the risk of reopening the Alsace-Lorraine acute question, the Allies MUST close it anew but this time against the Huns.

Germany MUST also pay for the devastation she has savagely spread in France.

I stand firm for a final settlement of the Austro-Italian too long pending question by giving to Italy the Trentino territory to which she has an evident national claim supported by the best of geographical conditions.

Servia's independence MUST be once more secured, and Poland SHOULD be resuscitated.