Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 April 1920 — GERMAN GUNS AND PLANES [ARTICLE]

GERMAN GUNS AND PLANES

The allied commission has found 2,500 three-inch field guns in the vicinity of Berlin, and 9,000 in other parts of Germany. In addition to these, 6,000 airplanes have been discovered. By the terms of the treaty Germany is entitled to only 288 field guns, and to no airplanes. All the guns in excess of the limit fixed were to be surrendered to the allied and associated governments “to be destroyed or rendered useless.” Those who are talking about making a separate peace with Germany are respectfully invited to consider this situation. Not. so long ago we were all insisting that Germany must be reduced to a state of powerlessness from a military point of view. Do we still feel so? If we do we must feel a vital in. terest in the enforcement of the provisions of the treaty designed to

accomplish, that result. We, however, are not parties to the treaty, and so have neither rights nor responsibilities under it. But here are 12,000 guns and 6,000 airplanes which Germany would find very useful in the next war. In a recent note to the allied commission, dealing with the question of the excess war material, which should have been delivered prior to March 10, the Germans said that It made no difference whether the material was delivered or destroyed, and that they preferred to destroy it. It makes just this difference —namely that the treaty required that it be delivered to the representatives of the allied and associated governments to be destroyed or rendered useless by them. The treaty-makers evidently did not trust the Germans, who have neither delivered nor destroyed the guns and planes. It is said there are 36 clauses of the treaty in the execution of which little has been done, though the time limit has expired. There are many submarines as yet undelivered; little has been done in the way of reducing the army to 200,000 men, and Germany still has 12,000 field guns and 6,000 airplanes. Meanwhile the propaganda designed to effect an easing of terms is in full cry. And men are writing books designed to show that Germany can not comply with the terms of the treaty. There is nothing, of course, that this government can do. In a recent cable to the New York World it was said that French officials are fearful lest this government declare a separate peace with Germany; the result of such action, they are convinced, would be either an indefinite postponement of peace, or a renewal of war. Can we wonder? The forces back of the treaty have been tremendously weakened by our nonparticipation in it. Germany is mak-i iug all sorts of difficulties in carrying out the treaty, and is undoubtedly counting heavily on the dissensions that seem to be springing up in the ranks of her late enemies. We have no doubt that she has got much encouragement from our failure to ratify the treaty. It is not surprising that our friends in Europe should feel that we do not care whether or not Germany again becomes a great military power. But the American people, in our opinion, do care, nor do they wish to see a new German menace built up on the ruins of the old. But the treaty, as far as we are concerned, is not in force, and Germany is free to do as she pleases, again, as far as we are concerned. —Indianapolis News.