PENITENCE FIRST

Such scant crumbs of information as Americans are able to gather from under the still veiled and mysterious Table of Peace are tending more than ever before to reveal a moderate and negotiating spirit on the part of the victorious Allies in dealing with their vanquished enemies. To an extent, at least, this is a hopeful sign, for after Germany's military claws have been once and forever clipped, the less economic punishment inflicted upon her, the better will it be for the population of the world at large, as well as the more humanitarian and in accord with the frequently and loftily expressed Allied aims. To kick a nation that already lies grovelling is poor economics as well as poor humanity.

But at the same time liberality has its limit, and justice for all the nations concerned is at this juncture an infinitely more important consideration. Justice does not require that Germany be admitted at once to the League of Nations. In fact, it seems to require the very opposite, namely that it would be unjust to all the well-intentioned parties to the League, if a nation that had acted from consistently selfish and reactionary motives for forty years, and had constantly broken faith with its more honest neighbors, were admitted to the League, before showing even the smallest signs of a change of heart.

If last night's reports are true, the balance of sentiment in the Peace Congress has lately turned in favor of admitting the German Republic to the League on the same basis with all other nations, as soon as she carries out all the obligations of the peace imposed upon her. The only argument in favor of such a move seems to be a hope that Germany as a League member can be better watched and more regularly inspected for illicit accumulation of war materials, than as a non-member. If the peace terms are as adequate and effective as it is hoped, such inspection will be carried on quite thoroughly enough in any case. When Germany enters the League, she should not do so as a vanquished nation requiring especial watching but as a finally vindicated nation, on exactly the same moral basis as all the rest. But surely she should not be admitted until she has satisfied all the other contracting nations that she is a new Germany, worthy of a place in their midst.