23 DECEMBER 1916, Page 3

The kind of peace terms which Germany would accept are

de- seribed in the Frankfurter Zeitung in two long articles. The special correspondent of the Times in Holland says that there is reason In believe that these articles were inspired by the Imperial Chancellor. Certainly any German might be proud of them. First of all it is pointed out that Germany cannot abandon her present military system. Well, that is what we have been fighting about for two and a half years ; so that the first proposal in the Chancellor's delightfully entertaining programme is that just before we are quite ready to come to the real point of the struggle we should break off the contest. That is ,good, but better follows. The next proposal (heralded by a generous and gratifying admission that Germany has not succeeded in beating us at sea) is that we should " agree " to give up our naval supremacy. We confess that th3 fact that the Germans cannot conquer us at sea is a very good reason for asking us kindly to give up what cannot be taken from us, and so save them all further trouble ; but we cannot dis- cover any other signs of reason—or sense—in the argument.