THE TERMS OF PEACE.
(To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1 submit that it is of the most vital importance that the terms of peace which the Allies intend to dictate should be promul- gated without another day's delay. Also that it is quite time that responsible journals in this country ceased from " dis-
cussing " enemy peace overtures. The terms should have been published to the world three years ago. The postponement, as I have again and again urged, was bound to have serious oonse- quences. As one who has perhaps unequalled opportunity for gauging the temper and opinion, not only of the personnel of the Imperial Navy and Army, but of my fellow-countrymen and women from north of the Tweed to Plymouth Sound, I wised that there is a general demand that -the definite facts and a clear issue should be set forth.
We ate dog-weary of the inflated bombast of politicians and of leading articles. A newspaper may suitably reproduce by way of a comic supplement to the journal German peace offers, but any discussion of them is playing the enemy's game, and therefore traitorous to the cause. The British Commonwealth knows pre- cisely what it wants and what it intends to have. It is demanded that these facts should be published by a responsible authority to the enemy and to the Allies. The fighting forces fear only that their striving through four years of hell should be rendered void by a negotiated peace concluded over their heads; our men and women folk at home that their sacrifices should be proved pur- poseless, that their beloved dead should have offered the supreme gift in vain. They need no pretentious " explanations " why the Allies should not listen to the latest piece of German treachery. They know. And they demand that there should be an end once and for all of this insensate fooling with the subject. We want the points definitely set forth—not in terms of diplomatic ambiguity, but plain writ that all may read. As, item (1) The immediate surrender to trial and justice of all concerned, from the Hohenzollerns downwards, as principal or accessory, in the murders, rape, and pillage upon land and the high seas. (2) The Immediate return of all property, or its equivalent, stolen from Allied countries. (3) The reconstruction of all devastated areas by German men and women under the direction of overseers of the Allies. And so forth, item by item. It goes without saying that no word of peace will be breathed until the enemy has surren- dered every yard of ground to which he is not entitled, from before or since August, 1914. The German people shall pay to the uttermost farthing, not merely for the hell which they have let loose upon the world, but for the monetary'cost involved by the police of civilization in hunting them down. The cost in human lives and suffering can never be recovered, but, at least, the penalty shall be paid. And, so far as human wit can devise, there shall be an end for all time of this bloody business.
The promulgation of such terms may, for the moment, render desperate the German people. That matters not. The fighting faros& of the Allies are determined to fight on until the dictated terms are accepted. Nothing else will serve. Their determination will be the more grim when they realize that they have this sound backing from the Government. We demand that these
terms be get forth.—I am, Sir, &c., ARTHUR CORBEIVSNITH. Forest Row, Sussex.
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