2 FEBRUARY 1918, Page 3

Dutch correspondents, quoting the censored German newspapers, roport that strikes

on a large scale have began in Berlin and in the shipyards at Kid, Stettin, and Hamburg. The Berlin strike leaders, including some of the Majority Socialists, who co-operate with the Government in deluding foreign opinion, are said to have demanded peace without annexations or indemnities, electoral reform, and more food. The German Government, like the Austrian, are per- fectly capable of arranging a fictitious strike to encourage false illusions in the enemy countries. But the Bolshevik bacillus, as a Cologne paper points out, is a poison that may spread unawares. If the German militarists are really promoting these strikes, they may light a fire which they cannot put out. We have written on this subject elsewhere.