The unhappy German Imperial Chancellor has to play his part in this
sorry comedy with such skill as he can manage. To his German countrymen
he has to proclaim that the war has been one brilliant progress from the
start to the present time. This must be done in order to allay the
apprehensions of Berlin and to propitiate the ever-increasing demand for
more plentiful supplies of food. Secretly he has to work quite as hard
to secure for the Central Empires such a conclusion of hostilities as
will leave them masters of Europe. And, without doubt, he has to put up
with a good many indignities in the process. "The worst of it is, I must
always deny having been there." Kicked out by the Allies, he has to
pretend that no advances were ever made. Perhaps, however, such a task
is not uncongenial to the man who began by asserting that solemnly
ratified treaties were only "scraps of paper."
W. L. COURTNEY.
[Illustration: NEW PEACE OFFERS
VON BETHMANN-HOLLWEG "The worst of it is, I must always deny having
been there."]
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THE SHIELDS OF ROSSELAERE
The climax of meanness and selfishness would seem to be reached when an
armed man shelters himself behind the unarmed; yet it is not the climax,
for here the artist depicts a body of German troops sheltering
themselves behind women, calculating that the Belgians will not fire on
their own countrywomen and unarmed friends, and that so the attack may
safely gain an advantage.
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