THROUGH GERMAN SPECTACLES.

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

THROUGH GERMAN SPECTACLES.

GAOL FOR UNECONOMICAL WOMEN. "WHACK AND PRAY" THE TEUTON WATCHWORD. The x>osition of women in Germany has never been a conspicuously happyone. Even in the households of the Hch the wife has never beeit more tllau a, sflrfc of stiperior iioiisekfceper who must be on hei- best .behavior if. she would enjoy the inestimable privilege of dining with her lord and master. Quite suddenly, as a corollary to the alarming shortage of food, the German hausfratt has attained a new status. She has become in Hamburg (and other cities are to follow its lead) the subject of a proclamation by General voii Roehl, the military commander of the city, threatening her with all sorts of dire penalties if she fails to obey certain new regulations. LAWS FOR THE HOUSEWIFE. In the happy German way these are called "the twenty commandments for the German housewife," and they are printed in large type in all the Hamburg papers: — "The woman who fails to obey these commandments is an execrable traitor to Germany and a direct party to her country's ruin. "The failure to obey will be visited with heavy penalties, and even with imprisonment. "As supplies of rice have failed, lentils, peas, beans, wheat, buckwheat, green vegetables, potatoes, and turnips must be used. "There must be no abuse in the consumption of meat. Only those who are engaged in severe bodily or mental labor are entitled to a daily meal in which meat is included. "Butter, cheese, and cream must be used most sparingly. "Four-shillings a week at least must be economised in the purchase of such articles in every household of persons. "Bread may only be spread with the thinnest possible layer of butter. 'The employment of fat in cooking must be greatly diminished. Kidney fat, tallow,* rapseed oil, and similar oils must be used. "Beer must be replaced by sugared water. to which a slice of lemon may be added. "Do your cooking without the addition of condiments of any kind. These are very scarce, and are daily growing scarcer. Use salt instead." BANK CLERKS IN SKIRTS.

Few of the German papers can rest tranquil without- printing a gibe at the expense of our "x>hantom army of three million men." The Weser Zeitung has a special correspondent in Loudon who says : "The English military authorities, hard driven as they are to obtain more men for the fabulous million army, are now exercising pressure on the large banking concerns to substitute women lor their male clerks and cashiers. "What' a glorious chance this for the suffragettes! Imagine the petticoaied Pankliurst warriors in charge of the treasure house of the Bank of England; imagine them, too, being called on to cash the cheques of their own frivolous husbands and brothers who need money to spend on their female acquaintances at teasliops. and picture houses. "Truly the war is not without its humorous- side, though humor would have been the last thing one would go in search of in the panic-stricken, darkened city where the very word Zeppelin is uttered with bated' breath and heard with palsied terror!" NO IRISH FIGHTERS.

The Deutsche Zeitung touches the fringe of tiio same subject with the. aid oi another special correspondent:— "Meagre as was the Irish response to the bitter cry of the English mililary brotherhood, lew as were the Irishmen who, in the early days of the war, enlisted under the luiiou Jack, their numbers have been dwindling away since then, until at this moment not a son of Erin can be found willing to take up arms in the defence of the hated Englishman. "On the other hand, Irish emigration to America is proceeding on ;i scale never before seen, aud each fresh arrival of these people on the other side of the Atlantic will swell the already powerful wave of Germanism which is bound before long to submerge every other sentiment in America. "Meanwhile, we can regard with the greatest equanimity the blusterings of of a certain clique of money-grubbing British and Anglophile contractors, in the certain conviction that the United States is too good a pupil of the old English school of business to jeopardise the business of dollar hunting by falling out with its past and future best customer—Go rma ny. " 'Business is business.' thinks Uncle Sam."

SKIN OF THE GERMAN DOG. The refusal of the British Government to protect the aniline dye scheme which if lias called into existence inspires the Hamburger Naehrichten t-o declare that, whatever the world may say about German barbarity, the world cannot exist without German products : England and I'ranee have for some tune been very busy calculating the money they are going to receive, for the skin of the German dog. which not only has not yet been killed, but which still frolics about, full of bark, bite and vim.

"This dog represents the German foreign trade, which the Allies imagine they have already got into their own hands, but, as a matter of fact, neither English nor French arc likelv to succeed in imitating the German goodswhich hitherto have found such a ready market in those as in other countries.

'They cannot do without" the Germans. Englishmen and' Frenchmen no doubt are very delightful people; all the_ same, they do somewhat overestimate the power of their charms in believing that for love of them tfhe world is_ going to pay them good dollars for inferior wares. "The would-be builders of this wonderful commercial Tower of Babel are forgetting that- it is still the might of arms that calls the tune and commands the players, and therefore that these little things will yet have to be decided at the conclusion of peace. "Let them, meanwhile, go on building towers and dreaming of fairy palaces. We are also going on, not with building air castles, but" with whacking our i'oes. " 'Whack and pray,' continues to be the Germans' watchword." IMBECILE TWADDLE.

America- least of all is able to.dispense with Germany, and all statements to tho contrary arc, in the elegant words of the Berliner Lokalanzeiger, the "mere vomiting of insane folly." The journal goes on to say:—

"The statement made in the Anglophile New York Press that tho whole American people stands firm as a rock against Germany as the provoker of the war is nothing but imbecile twaddle. "After the multi-millionaires aud their wives and daughters, who are hardly to be considered as real Americans. the next bitterest Germanophobes are met with in those circles which come directly under English influence. Until now they have had the field- to themselves. We may calmly leave tliem to say and write what they choose.

"The fear of the politician's -that a considerable number of voters may turn, against them rend them if they continue in their inane hatred of Germany constitutes for us an ally of fargreater value than any argument whatsoever.

"We know that- in the end America must corne back to sanity, because it is unthinkable that she can do without German products and Gorman markets." •.