“You are to understand, then (whatever anybody may say), that everything done in Germany that bears immediately upon our relations with your State is of prime concern to us.  Our desire for peace is as strong as your need of it; but we cannot afford to make terms with a Government whose word, as we have proved, is not worth the paper they write it on—­who would treat any peace as a mere armistice to give them breathing-space for preparing a fresh war.  No, if you want peace you will have to displace your present rulers.  You are so good at ‘substitutes’ that you ought to have no difficulty about that.

“And the sooner the better for you.  For as this War drags on we are not getting to love you more.  Even now it will take you at least a generation to purge your offence and get back into the community of civilized nations.  But there is another thought that is more likely to affect your thick commercial hides, and it is this.  Unless you take steps, and pretty soon, to put yourselves in a position in which we can treat with you, you will be boycotted in the markets of the world, and you will go bankrupt.  It is for you, the German people, to decide whether you choose this fate.  Meanwhile Time presses and the sands run low.”

Such was the matter of the leaflet that Mr. Punch rained down from his Bouverie biplane (fortunately invulnerable) upon the cities of the Fatherland.  Till now the German people, fed on windy tales of triumph in place of solid food, had borne their sufferings patiently as trials incident to all wars even when you are told that you are winning them.  This was the first intimation they had received of the facts.  For the first time they had a chance of seeing themselves as others saw them.

He carried no bombs, but as he flew over Potsdam he could not refrain from letting fall, by way of reprisal, a weighty souvenir upon the purlieus of the Imperial Palace.  Dropped at a venture, there is reason to believe that it fell within measurable distance of the head-piece of the All-Highest.  It was Mr. Punch’s

[Illustration:  “One Hundred and Fifty-Third Volume.”]

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[Illustration:  INDEX]

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CARTOONS.

  PARTRIDGE, BERNARD. 
    At Bay, 319
    Belgian Menace (The), 239
    Betrayed, 399
    Birthday Greeting for Hindenburg (A), 255
    Breaking it up, 157
    Brusiloff Hug (The), 25
    Business of the Moment (The), 41
    Dance of Death (The), 271
    Freedom Renews Her Vow, 97
    Here To-day and Gone To-morrow, 287
    How it Strikes a Soldier, 351
    How to Lose the War at Home, 303
    If Everybody Helped, 383
    Inexpensive Luxury (An), 431
    “Knightly Manner” (The), 137
    Last Crusade (The), 415
    Long Live the House of Windsor!, 57
    Privileged Disloyalty, 335
    Real Voice of Labour (The), 117
    Russia’s Dark Hour, 77
    St. George Out-Dragons the Dragon, 367
    Saving of the Race (The), 9