Since the signing of the Armistice, there has come to our attention at regular intervals the matter of bringing before a court of justice those persons who were responsible for the war. This is a very good idea, but it seems that the real question is not to bring those persons to justice, but to determine who really was responsible for the war.

I repeat, the punishment idea is very good, but as put forth by the French politicians, it takes on more of an aspect of vengeance than of punishment. Society punishes criminals to prevent crime, but not in a spirit of vengeance. The Good Book warns, "Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord." Who are these French politicians that they should set themselves up as "Solomons" in an issue that concerns the whole world?

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You will notice that in signing the Peace Treaty, the Germans signified their willingness to give up everybody and everything asked by the Allies. But once the document was signed, Mr. Clememceau engineered his vengeful demands. The Germans saw fit to regard these vengeful ideas as a joke. At least, they have not surrendered to anyone. Nor has Holland. Nor has any other country. Why? Because they do not know to whom they should surrender.

European politicians seem to be laughing up their sleeves at Mr. Clemenceau, while they are playing his game of "Should we give him up, or should we not give him up?" Let me repeat that this trial idea is a good thing when the responsible ones are found. But the trial should not be before a court. It should be before the people and the punishment should not be banishment to some comfortable isle or peninsula. The guilty one should be sent to but one place: The lamp post!

What crime did Wilhelm Hohenzollern commit? As far as I can see, none. He tried to bring his nation out of the war victorious. What did the officers of 3his army do? They fought for their country just as we did. To punish such as these would be vengeance and nothing more.

What sort of crime did the Habsburgs commit? None, whatsoever. It does seem as though they committed a crime, against Hungary, which has been suppressed for centuries. The Hungarians were forced to go to war because of treaties made by the Habsburgs. If punishment should be inflicted on anyone, it should be the Habsburgs. But have they not been punished enough? This is an affair that concerns Hungary alone and no one else, not even the long-nosed politicians of France.

I cannot see how the feeling of revenge which prompts this call for punishment can be directed toward Hungary, because it was there that war prisoners were treated the kindliest as evidenced by the fact that thirty per cent of them sought permission to make their homes within its boundaries after the war. I contrast this with the spirit of hate that existed within French prison camps 4toward the men of the central powers. I have never heard of any former prisoners who wanted to stay in that country after the war, have you? For this I blame the politicians who have blinded people.

If it does happen that some one must be punished for the crime of war, the searchlight of justice should be turned on the acts of those politicians, who were busy before the conflict began and after it ended. They are the ones to be punished. They are the back-stabbing assassins of the nations. Mr. Clemenceau has committed the gravest of sins against the peace and welfare of the world by making secret treaties with vengeance as his motive.

When he signed the Armistice under which the warring nations put down their arms with the precise stipulation that Mr. Wilson's fourteen points be carried out, did Mr. Clemenceau have any intention of carrying out even one point of 5this program? Previous and subsequent action on his part proved that he did not. That, in itself, is a crime against the people of the world.

I know I am inviting argument in the following statement, but on the part of the central power the war was a war of defense against other European powers. That it developed into a world conquest is another matter. But at the beginning I can truthfully say and do believe that it was a stroke of defense for the central Allies. Defense against what, you ask me? Against French political schemers and insidious leaders, I will answer.

My proof is very easily presented. Notice the number of secret treaties France negotiated before the war as brought out at the peace conference. While the central powers were accepting President Wilson's fourteen points, Mr. Clemenceau sent the Roumanians into Hungary to occupy and plunder. Was this not a crime, a punishable crime? These Roumanians would be there yet had not America put 6forth such strenuous efforts, and stook staunchly behind General Bandholtz in his efforts to put an end to these robberies. Talking about crimes against the peace of the world, I need not name the arch-criminal. I will leave it to your intelligence and sense of justice.

When Mr. Clemenceau went out to get America's help, did he mention any of his secret treaties? He did not, because he knew he would not get America's help if he did. Another indictment against Mr. Clemenceau: dishonesty. When the American people found out about his policies, they turned their back on him, and would have nothing to do with his schemings.

Permit me to make a prediction: Mr. Clemenceau's hysterical ambitions will never be realized. In the first place, America will never agree to such policies nor sanction such action; and in the second, the countries upon which he 7attempts, or his successors may attempt, to impose his policies can be counted on to resist to the last man. This is human nature and human nature is the same in a nation as in an individual.

I am sure that the Hungarian nation, which has borne up under the policies of the Habsburgs for a thousand years, will continue to bear up under any burden. If the signs that point to the election of Archduke Joseph are true pointers, then Hungary will speedily take her place among the great nations of the world. I am sure that Joseph possesses the strength of character, the determination and the intelligence to lead his people to political and economic preeminence.

As for Mr. Clemenceau, you mark my word, he will live to reap the harvest of his insane policies, and to rue the day he gave them birth. That I know!