And then what?
When Germany is thoroughly beaten, as assuredly she will be, what shall be her punishment for her crimes?
The only sensible and correct policy to pursue toward a dirty-fighting enemy is to get him down and keep him down! No greater mistake could be made than for the Allies to become "magnanimous" to brutal Germany when the time comes to hand her what is coming to her in final settlement. We want no sissies nor weak sisters representing us at the peace conference, pleading for easy terms for Germany. Any man who cannot guess how much Germany would be "magnanimous" to the Entente allies if she should win, is a colossal idiot. Think of the size of the cash indemnities that Germany would exact of America, England and France if she could win!
It would seem that no matter how rapacious or egotistic are Germany's intentions, always and everywhere there is a garrulous German ready to blab them out in public. If Germany had the chance, she would utterly ruin all of the Allies. There is no conceivable insult or injury that she would not visit upon them, just as she has upon the conquered districts of Belgium and France. The United States would be called upon to pay an indemnity of just about $20,000,000,000; and quickly, too! Make no mistake about that!
We have been reading German anticipations of the taking of British East Africa and the Congo Free State, to join them to the (late lamented) "German colonies" for the making of a vast African empire under the "dear, good, kind Kaiser" of Belgian fame. This is well known to the English; and the answer is that Germany's lost African colonies are already lost to Germany forever and a day! To give back to Germany any one of those African colonies would be criminal folly, and of a certainty it would breed no end of future trouble in Africa. Knowing this, the Boers of South Africa will see Germany in hades before any influence on earth can persuade, or force them, to hand back one foot of "German" East Africa,—a colony that was armed to the teeth long prior to 1914, and that started fighting immediately that war was declared in August, 1914!
Even if overweening magnanimity should beg that "German" Southwest Africa be given back, the dictates of humanity would sternly forbid it. After the brutal murder by Germany of 208 of the leading natives of the German capital at Walfish Bay for no reason whatever save the innate German brutality of the new governor, and the poisoning of the wells of Swakopmund, it would be a high crime against the native population ever again to place them within the power of any German governor.
No; decidedly not. Germany will not be given back a single foot of any one of her former African colonies. The close of this war will be no time for mushy sentiment toward the dirtiest fighters on earth.
The war should not and will not end until Germany has surrendered every foot of invaded territory now occupied by the Teutonic allies, and agreed to pay to Belgium an indemnity of about $5,000,000,000 with another $5,000,000,000 to France, or the equivalent thereof, and the return of Alsace and Lorraine. The delivery to England of her cowardly navy as a pledge of future good behavior is really immaterial. The German navy is chiefly a scuttling navy, great only against unarmed ships and fishing boats, but never willing to meet any foe on equal terms.
When the peace terms are written, England should take back Heligoland, as a German bond to keep the peace. The giving away to her only enemy of that immensely valuable island was one of the greatest blunders in statecraft that England ever committed. Now, there is only one way to redeem it,—make Germany surrender Heligoland before any German ship is permitted to sail the seas.
All the world now knows that the preservation of a Slavic Balkan barrier now is absolutely necessary to the peace of Asia.