Of peace offer
German call for `great powers’conference
In a Christmas message to readers, printed 100 years ago this week, the Observer gave short shrift to a socalled German peace offer.
The offer was made in December, 1916, and called for a conference between the great powers.
However, the Observer was not alone in treating the amnesty call with cynicism, accusing Germany of a “consuming desire to put this country in the wrong”.
The paper said: “It represents an attempt to impose upon the Allies the responsibility for continuing the struggle and all the suffering it entails.
“But it also reveals a consciousness that Germany is never likely to be in a better position to ask for peace on terms favourable to itself.
Germany can have peace tomorrow but it must be on our terms.”
There was a determination, said the Observer, to continue the war not to crush Germany as a nation but to “exact reparation for German crimes and put down the overweening pride and tyrannous determination of Prussian autocracy and the great military caste”.
The paper admitted it was a “bitter irony” to be wishing others a merry Christmas in the midst of so much slaughter, sadness and misery.
And there was an acknowledgement that thousands of loved ones would be absent from Christmas celebrations either because they had been lost to the war or were away with the Colours
Nevertheless, said the paper: “It would be a crime against all who have made the sacrifices of this war, as well as against posterity, if we were to conclude a peace which did not guarantee stability in Europe, the righting of wrongs and the opening up of a new and better era for mankind.
“All must be done to obtain “adequate compensation for all the carnage and misery that Germany has caused...
“Then we shall obtain peace which is founded upon freedom and justice, a peace which will take us a long step toward the ideal which is enshrined in the Christmas message.”
It represents an attempt to impose upon the Allies the responsibility for continuing the struggle and all the suffering it entails