PUZZLED BERLIN.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XL, Issue 12537, 7 May 1915, Page 2

PUZZLED BERLIN.

.Mr James Dunn wrote to the "Daily Mail" from Rotterdam: — My Dutch friend threw himself into a chair and loudly demanded "wliisky soda," at the same time snapping his fingers in a manner peculiai' to himself in moments of intense irritation. "What's the matter; more Berlin bankruptcies ?" I asked. He had just returned from Berlin, and of late these visits across the frontier have neither been pleasant nor profitable. "Business is bad enough." he exclaimed: "but it's not so much that as the trials of the journey. You don't know what it means to travel in a frontier train to-day. One-half of the journey the Germans are dominating everybody and everything in the compartment, ana for the other half Dutchmen and Americans are speaking their minds freely on Germany and all things German. For the first lime in my life I am beginning to regret that I learned any other language than my own." He gulped his whisky soda, and I nodded sympathetically. "There were six of us in the carriage," he went on, "three Germans, two Dutchmen, and an American. We weren't a quarter of an hour out of Berlin before the Germans were declaring that Holland was an English colony, and that America was selling her soul for dollars. We had to suffer a good deal in silence, for a foreigner travelling in Germany must keep a. silent tongue, or he will find himself marooned at some station charged with spying. The officials love to detain a man out of pure malice and because it shows zeal. Better let a German shout his head off than cross him in his own country. 1 believe the whole nation is going mad; I've seen things this week that 1 would not have believed possible a year ago. I have seen hard-headed business men behaving like hysterical children, and children imitating the excesses of their elders." '

" But," said 1, "I am told Berlin is normal ; that beyond a shortage in bread and potatoes the people arc uninfluenced bv the war."

" "The man who told you that doesn't know Berlin, and he doesn't know the German people. The Berliners are like people stricken with some strange disease. It is not war l'ever ; it is not the pain of loss; it is more the dementia of .a. people knocked off their balance by a force they can neither understand nor resist. What do you think of two stout, elderly business men raising their glasses, looking like owls, and instead of a cheery •I'rosit' one solemnly chants 'God punish England " and the other gravely responds,' 'God punish her':' Well, that goes on all day. It is the first salutation of the morning and the last word of "the night. 1 tell you the German people are mad, mad with hate. They think the whole world is against them, and that every foreigner is an enemy. That is why the Germans in our compartment were so bitter."

"But I understand you got- your own back when you crossed the frontier?" The Dutchman smiled. "The American did it himself. He was a thin, rather ! sad-looking man, that American, and he | spoke" slowly, choosing his words care- ' fully, as an expei l smoker chooses a cigar. He scarcely said a word before we reached Bentlicim, but after Bentiieim he didn't stop talking. He used words which the Germans could not understand, but they could feel. He told the Germans they were liars in business, knaves in diplomacy, bullies in victory, cowards in defeat. He declared that the world wuukl not trust Germany because no German" would trust another German. He said Germans were slaves of the sword, that they knew as much about freedom as lunatics at exercise, that they were goose-stepping to the devil, aud that before the year was out they would be crying like well-whipped children. The three Germans knew just enough English to follow his insults, and not" enough give him retorts: aud what they could not understand we Dutchmen readily tiauslated. Up to a point- if was invigorating, but the American was what he called talking to 'beat the band' for tlie first time tor a month, and when we reached .Rotterdam we were limp and exhausted—all except the American, who declared that he had not enjoyed a conversation so much silica he left Tennessee.'' "Aud the Germans 1'" "Oh, th (; Germans had no fight in them ome across the. frontier! All the Germans who come to Holland complain that the German who has lived here for more than leu ycaro has lost his love lor the Fatherland ; li t - will not subscribe to the war loan, nor eveu to the lied Cross, and that his hatred of England is a milk-and-water sort of disapproval. No, if you waul, the real thing you must go to Berlin. it i- -a city ot iron crosses and cross faces."

"Is the intense hatred of 'England prompted by a knowledge that the German cause is lost?" The Dutchman shook his head thoughtfully. "No, that's the curious part of it. The Berliners do not beat the drum so loudly as they did in the first mouths of the war, but they have not lost faith in the Kaiser, nor confidence in his army aud navy. You cannot find a German who

will admit- the possibility of defeat. I have said that they act like children, and that is true; but it is aiso' true that they are

I animated by an intense patriotism and a singleness of purpose that make- sacrifice not only a duty but a joy. Even the I children realise the gravity and responsibility of the great- war. Schoolboys bring their bread cards to the classroom, comparing the, 'indulgence of their appetites', aiid a severe licking awaits the boy whose greed is estimated to have been beyond his. patriotism." "Did you find any expressed desire for peace:-?" "I -believe that in the inner circles the prevailing hope is for peace with honour, but peace talk is not favoured in public, and the papers are forbidden to mention it. You see. tho new war loan has to be raised, llie only talk of peace I heard was - coupled with the conditions Germany . would demand from the Allies. The popular idea,is that Belgium will remain under the eagle, and already the unhappy little country is called 'New Germany.' Among the Socialists, however —and these are very strong —the annexation of Belgium would not be popular, as they do not wish to 1 make another Austria-Hungary of Germany: they have had.trouble enough with Poland, Schleswig-1 lolstein, and AlsaceLorraine." "What of the women. Arc they also bitter against England? - ' "If anything, they are worse than the men. A nurse of my acquaintance had been telling me that the nursing staff made no distinction in their treatment of French, Belgian, or British prisoners, and the text moment, with glistening eyes and glowing cheeks she was reciting the 'Hymn of TTate.' 'We have one hate, and one alone,' etc. The women are blind to their nation's treatment of Belgium. One lady discussing the position of Holland said : "You Dutch should never fear interference from us: we are too decent.' And this after a long talk about suffering Belgium !" Touching "ji the bus'ue.-s >ide "f Germany, my Dutch friend, who knows, what he is - talking about, declared that the recent fair at Leipzig was a failure, only small traders attending. The banks are

lending money to depositing manufacturers and farmers in small sums only, and all banks are required to subscribe heavily to the war loan. Except ill favoured trades, booming through war conditions, bankruptcy is knocking at the door of nearly every business house; and it is ill the secrecy of his private office, with his books before him, that the German business man most fervently murmurs "God punish England!"