... ‘We shall be told that once peace is concluded the Junkers will become moderate, and all those who wish to believe this will readily accept it without further question.
‘But, while we in our innocence may be priding ourselves on the conclusion of peace to Germany it will not be a peace, but a “respite.” ... This “respite” will be exceedingly useful to Germany not only for propaganda purposes, but in order to replenish her exhausted resources necessary for future aggression. Meanwhile German activities in Asia and Ireland are likely to continue unabated until the maximum inconvenience to England has been produced.’
If the reader will carry his mind back a couple of years, he will recall having read numberless articles similar to the above, concerning the duty of annihilating the power of Germany.
Well, will the reader note that the above does not refer to Germany at all, but to Russia? I have perpetrated a little forgery for his enlightenment. In order to bring home the rapidity with which a change of roles can be accomplished, an article warning us against any peace with Russia, appearing in the New Europe of January 8th, 1920, has been reproduced word for word, except that ‘Russia’ or ‘Lenin’ has been changed to ‘Germany’ or ‘the Junkers,’ as the case may be.
Now let us see what this writer has to say as to the German power to-day?
Well, he says that the security of civilisation now depends upon the restoration, in part at least, of that German power, for the destruction of which the world gave twenty million lives. The danger to civilisation now is mainly ‘the breach between Germany and the West, and the rivalries of nationalism.’ Lenin, plotting our destruction, relies mainly on that:—
‘Above all we may be sure that his attention is concentrated on England and Germany. So long as Germany remains aloof and feelings of bitterness against the Allies are allowed to grow still more acute, Lenin can rub his hands with glee; what he fears more than anything is the first sign that the sores caused by five years of war are being healed, and that England, France, and Germany are preparing to treat one another as neighbours, who have each their several parts to play in the restoration of normal economic conditions in Europe.’
As to the policy of preventing Germany’s economic restoration for fear that she should once more possess the raw material of military power, this writer declares that it is precisely that Carthaginian policy (embodied in the Treaty of Versailles) which Lenin would most of all desire:—
‘As a trained economist we may be sure that he looks first and foremost at the widespread economic chaos. We can imagine his chuckle of satisfaction when he sees the European exchanges getting steadily worse and national antagonisms growing more acute. Disputes about territorial questions are to him so much grist to the Bolshevik mill, as they all tend to obscure the fundamental question of the economic reconstruction of Europe, without which no country in Europe can consider itself safe from Bolshevism.
‘He must realise to the full the lamentable condition of the finances of the new States in Central and South-east Europe.’