the legend of Dr. von Bethmann-Hollweg--one of Lord Haldane's many former German admirations—as an international" states

man receives its quietus in a chapter which makes some English editors look supremely foolish, however accustomed they should now be to this feeling. They had always insisted that the Imperial Chanceller was fighting an heroic and winning battle against von Tirpitz and the military Party, the apostles of Frightfulness" who would annex everything in sight, whereas Dr. von Bethmann-Hollweg was alleged to approve terms such as the Allies could honourably accept, and we were told if we were wise we should respond to his overtures. Mr. Noel Buxton, M.P., who will presumably recognize that some explanation is required from him, assumed the responsibility of informing a Pacifist meeting presided over by Lord Parmoor in the Central Hall, Westminster (March 19, reported in the Manchester Guardian, March 20, 1917), that he had learnt during a recent visit to Washington from "the highest authorities" (obviously President Wilson or some member of his Cabinet) that

the terms which it would have been possible to get from Germany a few months ago included the complete abandonment of Germany's claims to retain the lands she had conquered without exception, including the restoration of Serbia and the severance of the corridor to the East, and the guarantee of access to the sea to Serbia, the acquisition by Italy of the Trentino, and, above all, the absolute restoration of the territory and sovereignty to Belgium, Germany retaining no right whatever to Antwerp and giving Belgium an indemnity for her losses.

For a Member of Parliament to invent this fable would be too serious an offence even for the House of Commons to pass over, and we do not suggest for a moment that Mr. Noel Buxton would be guilty of such conduct. He was doubtless carried away by misplaced enthusiasm, though it is a strong order even in a politician to accuse the Government of the United States of categorical statements contrary to the facts.

MR. GERARD, who gives us our first authentic information concerning a German peace, as late as last January—that is, some weeks after the Imperial Chancellor's Peace manœuvres and President Wilson's Peace Notehad the following conversation with Dr. von Bethmann-Hollweg, which justifies all our warnings against that official as a double-dyed hypocrite:

A Hollweg
Peace

From the time when Chancellor Hollweg first spoke of peace I had asked him and others what the peace terms of Germany were. I could never get any one to state any definite terms of peace. On several occasions when I asked the Chancellor whether Germany were willing to withdraw from Belgium he always said, "Yes, but with guarantees." Finally, in January 1917, when he was again talking of peace, I said: What are these peace terms to which you refer continually? Will you allow me to ask a few questions as to specific terms of peace? First, are the Germans willing to withdraw from Belgium?"

The Chancellor answered, "Yes, but with guarantees."

I said: What are these guarantees?"

He replied: "We must possibly have the forts of Liége and Namur. We must have other forts and garrisons throughout Belgium. We must have possession of the railroad lines. We must have possession of the ports and other means of communication. The Belgians will not be allowed to maintain an army, but we must be allowed to retain a large army in Belgium. We must have commercial control of Belgium." I said: "I don't see that you have left much for the Belgians, excepting that King Albert will have the right to reside at Brussels with a guard of honour."

And the Chancellor answered: "We cannot allow Belgium to be an outpost (Vorwerk) of England."

"I do not suppose the English, on the other hand, wish it to become an outpost of Germany," I returned, especially as Tirpitz said the coast ef Flanders should be retained in order to make war on England and America."

I then asked: "How about Northern France ?"

"We are willing to leave Northern France," the Chancellor responded, "but there must be a rectification of the frontier."

"How about the Eastern frontier?" I asked him.

"We must have a very substantial rectification of our frontier."

"How about Rumania?"

“We shall leave Bulgaria to deal with Rumania.”

"How about Serbia ?"

་་

A very small Serbia may be allowed to exist, but that question is for Austria. Austria must be left to do what she wishes to Italy, and we must have indemnities from all the countries and all our ships and colonies back."

'

rectification of the The reader must

Upon this Mr. Gerard observes, "Of course frontier' is a polite term for 'annexation.'" not forget that Dr. von Bethmann-Hollweg is "the leader" of the German Moderates and hand in glove with Scheidemann, i.e. the tame Socialists who are but a branch of the official machinery, and the Erzbergers, equally tame Catholics, who play a similar rôle. So at last we know where we are and what a Reichstag or Scheidemann Peace really means. The Stockholm booby-trap stands clearly revealed. The "Moderate" German terms may be thus summarized:

(1) Germany to retain Alsace - Lorraine and to annex further unspecified portions of France.

(2) Belgium to become a German vassal garrisoned by a German army.

(3) Bulgaria to appropriate Rumania.

(4) Austria-Hungary to do what she likes with Serbia.

(5) All German colonies and ships to be restored to

Germany.

(6) Every Ally to pay an indemnity to Germany.

If this be the Bethmann-Hollweg Peace, what, may we ask, is the Hindenburg Peace? Bethmann-Hollweg was distrusted and ejected by the General Staff and the Pan-Germans as too "moderate" to suit their book. Note also that the slimiest of hypocrites, Herr von Kuhlmann, Germany's former official spy on her Ambassador in London, and her Press agent who had peculiarly interesting relations with our Potsdam journals, and was persona grata to British Cabinet Ministers, has succeeded Zimmermann as Foreign Secretary, because Zimmermann also was too " moderate." Von Kuhlmann is expected to reconcile his old friends in London to a Hindenburg Peace by "soft sawder," which is being eagerly assimilated by the Westminster Gazette, the Daily News, the Nation, and the Manchester Guardian, which are reviving their pre-war tradition of "trust Germany."

WE only wish we had the space for unlimited "Gerard," but must content ourselves with one or two selected gems. He tells us

More Gems from Gerard

that on one occasion Wilhelm II declared that "he would blow up Windsor Castle and the whole Royal Family of England" sooner than allow his own family to be starved by the British Blockade. The dynastic freemasonry of which we hear so much does not apparently extend beyond creatures like the ex-King of Greece. It is an unalloyed satisfaction to know that Wilhelm II hates our Royal Family. It should effectively silence the idiotic idea that some tenderness on the part of the King is responsible for Mr. Lloyd George's hesitation in proclaiming "No peace with the Hohenzollerns " as our policy. On the same occasion the Kaiser informed the American Ambassador, "There is no longer any international law." Nor will there be so long as any Hohenzollern occupies the German throne. At an evening party at the house of Dr. Solf, the Colonial Minister (January 1917), "a large German "--to wit, the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin-planted himself at a distance from Mr. Gerard, whom he thus harangued :

"You are the American Ambassador, and I want to tell you that the conduct of

America in furnishing arms and ammunition to the enemies of Germany is stamped deep on the German heart, that we will never forget it, and will some day have our revenge." He spoke in a voice so loud and slapped his chest so hard that every one in the room stopped his conversation in order to hear. As he wore on his breast the Orders of the Black Eagle, Red Eagle, Elephant and Seraphim, when he struck all this menagerie the rattle alone was quite loud. I reminded him politely of The Hague Convention, of the fact that we could not change international law from time to time with a change in the situation of the war, and that Germany had furnished arms to England to use against the Boers; but he simply answered, saying, "We care nothing for treaties," and my answer, That is what they all say," was a retort too obvious to

be omitted.

That the American Ambassador learnt the right way to treat Germans from the Emperor downwards is plain from one small but highly significant incident which will not surprise the readers of the National Review, who know that if you are polite to a Prussian he will insult you, but if you are curt with him he will kotow to you. After many refusals by the arch-bully to receive him between March and October 1915, Mr. Gerard had the happy thought of writing the following letter to the Chancellor :

YOUR EXCELLENCY,-Some time ago I requested you to arrange an audience for me with His Majesty. Please take no further trouble about this matter.

Sincerely yours, JAMES W. GERARD.

As he tells us, This seemed to have the desired effect. I was informed I would be received by the Emperor in the New Palace, Potsdam, on October 22nd." We should like to think that this pregnant lesson would not be wholly lost upon Downing Street, though we fear they are "too proud to learn." It was on this occasion that the Emperor made a remark which could only come from him, that "he would not have permitted the torpedoing of the Lusitania if he had known it, and that no gentleman would kill so many women and children.” People have been asking themselves ever since how many women and children a German gentleman may kill without forfeiting his character? At the same time "The Emperor showed great bitterness against the United States and repeatedly said, 'America had better look out after this war,' and 'I shall stand no nonsense from America after the war.'

IN home politics Ministers move rapidly from one gratuitous humiliation to another, for none of which is there the faintest shadow of excuse, as none of the intolerable things they do are demanded by any section of public opinion to which any self-respecting Cabinet would or need

Home Affairs

pay the faintest attention. The country is sound and solid on the war. Our Fighting Men need have no misgiving on this score, though many of them are naturally alarmed at the performances of our Parliamentarians, who habitually behave as though there were a vast mass of Pacifists who must be conciliated at all costs. The so-called "British Socialist Party," which holds a brief for Turkey as well as for Germany, and would hold a brief for the devil if he were at war with England, only claims to have 10,000 members in a population of 45,000,000, and probably not a third of these are voters. The so-called Independent Labour Party, whose finances would repay investigation so that we might know who finds the money for what is virtually an enemy agency, contains 30,000 members! Nevertheless our War Cabinet treats it as though it were a Great Power, and prostrate themselves before Mr. Ramsay Macdonald, whom they send abroad with one of their own number, furnished with a British passport, that he might do Germany's dirty work in Paris. Mr. Ramsay Macdonald is not a working man and never was a working man. His name is execrated by 999 bona fide working men out of 1000. Unfortunately the Government, which lives in a little world of its own, never takes the trouble to find out what the real people think, preferring to make a bogy of Labour, and then are surprised and grieved that they are so generally distrusted. What have they done to deserve the confidence of any section of the community? We feel sure our readers will not allow themselves to be deceived by Ministerial misrepresentations concerning the attitude of the industrial centres, for which there is as little justification as for the suggestion that a vast wave of Republicanism threatens to engulf the Monarchy. Where is it outside the brain of a few cranks? Echo answers, "Where?" Even the voting at these Labour Conferences, despite the manner in which for some mysterious reason the frogs of the Independent Labour Party are allowed to swell themselves into oxen, give no countenance whatsoever to the suggestion of our Invertebrates that there is any wavering on the part of the working men of England, of Scotland, of Wales, or of Ulster, while their magnificent fighting as well as that of other Irishmen should protect them from calumny. We say unhesitatingly we would far sooner entrust any Peace negotiations to the Trade Union Congress than