LET JUSTICE NOW BE DONE
The abdicated Kaiser is a fugitive in holland, with the ex- Crown Prince and most or all of the German Staff.
Napoleon III, before surrendering at Sedan, led a last sortie, but the Kaiser gang just sneaked across the Dutch frontier in motor- cars — a contemptible exit.
Presumably the Dutch government will promptly intern them all. It adds to the ignominy of their performance that the last of the hohenzollerns did not venture for three weeks to set foot in their own country, but chose to take shelter at Spa, in Belgium, the country which they so cruelly and treacherously attacked four years ago.
There is a touch of dramatic irony in the fact that as they sought safety, their motor- cars passed through the very villages, near Liege, where the German troops at their order burnt and murdered with such callous brutality.
In Berlin, there is revolution and a Social Democratic government, supported, apparently, by the troops and the workers.
Such a change in administration does not remove the necessity for reparation and restitution, as some members of the German Socialist Party seem to assume. The wanton damage in Belgium, France, Serbia and Great Britain was done without a single protest from the Socialist leaders in the Reichstag.
They lifted no finger to stop it when their protest might have been effective. Now they recognise that the guilt of the war rests with Germany, the least they can do is to make good the enormous loss and suffering which has been inflicted on innocent peoples.
Men can never forget that statement made by the late Count von Moltke to the King of the Belgians in 1913: ‘Your Majesty can have no conception of the irresistible enthusiasm with which the whole German people will be carried away when that day (of war) comes.’
One word to the new regime in Germany. If it wants to win the sympathy of the Allies, let it refrain from bloodshed. The wrongs done in this war are not to be redeemed by promiscuous murder. Of this, it is only fair to say, there seems to so far have been very little.
Let the new administration hand over to the Allies the men who have sinned against humanity. They shall be judged by the strict laws of justice.