TILE GERMAN ATTITUDE.
[To THE EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR.") Sta,—There is much in the German attitude, as illustrated by Count Itantaates speed% of February 10th, that is plausible enough if we agree to the two main assumptions made. But what are these? The first is that, whether Germany did or did not wantonly cause the war, the Entente ought not to punish New Germany for the crimes of the old regime which she has repudiated. The weakness of this erg •at is pretty evident when we recall the fact that the nation which no professes to be a New Germany hacked up the old regime until it failed. A new name cannot wipe out resimnsibility. The second assumption is more subtly conceived, and involves, a fallacy that is not so obvious. It is that the group of enemy nations now in consultation does not form an impartial Tribunal. Plausible enough at first sight! But what is real'', involved in this statenient? During the first period of the war America would have been reckoned by Count Mantann as competent to sit on the Tribunal to which he would now appeal. But because German crimes of piracy compelle•i
America to join in the effort to arrest and punish the criminal, therefore she is no longer competent to sit in judgment. In other words, because America did not sit still and watch Germany triumph, she must leave the settlement of the world's peace to such States as Denmark and Holland. An absurd argument. I have spoken of America only, because there is no question as to her reasons for entering into the war; even the Germans blame the " unrestricted ' '-boat warfare" as a mistake just because it converted this great neutral into an
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