NEWS OF THE WEEK.
IIIHE Peace Conference is reported, unofficially, to be nearing the completion of the Peace preliminaries. The corre- spondents in Paris indicate that, at the instance of Mr. Lloyd George, the Allies have decided to require Germany to disarM and to abolish Conscription. The new German Army, they say, is to be limited to one hundred thousand men, recruited for twelve years on a voluntary basis. The General Staff and the War Academy are to disappear. The Army is to possess no heavy guns or tanks, and is to abandon the use of poison-gas and liquid-fire. It is, in fact, to be no more than a police force, incapable of aggression. We trust that the forecast is justified, and that such terms as these will soon be presented to, and en- forced upon, the enemy. The preliminary Peace has been delayed far too long. Confidence cannot revive nor unrest begin to abate until the state of war has been definitely brought to an end.
