THROUGH GERMAN SPECTACLES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XL, Issue 12540, 11 May 1915, Page 2

THROUGH GERMAN SPECTACLES.

PRUSSIAN HYPOCRISY AT ITS

ZENITH,

OUR NATIONAL VICE

When the war is over Europe will need a new dictionary as well as a now map. ■ , Belgium has already learned, to her bitter cost, that Kultur is a term which covers robbing, bestiality, licentiousness, and debauchery in their lowest and "most primitive forms. The world has learned that Honor, on the other hand, is a word that lias no meaning at all in Germany, that Treaties are scraps of paper, and promises and contracts and undertakings as the leaves of yesteryear.

ANGELIC QUALITY OE HATE. ' It comes as no surprise, therefore, to learn that Hate, in. the German word-jugglery system, is really synonymous with Love. The. authority is the Uerlincr Tageblatt:— ~,-,* "It is true we hate the English, but with a. German hatred, which is a hatred in which, on the principle that extremes meet, there is something ol love. , "Recently our troops were opposed to a detachment of English. The hearts of all of us, soldiers or civilians, | are filled with passion against England, ! hence many, of our men uttered imprecations against the English. • . "The following day, when British guns had robbed us of many a dear one, one of our troopers, whose imprecations against England had been more furious than those of any others discovered a badly wounded Englishmen in a barn. Without a moment's hesitation, and in defiance of his hatred, he bandaged the man's wound and gave. him water to drink. "Having done so, he justified Ins ap- | parent treachery towards hie own inmost feelings by shouting in English in the ear of the wounded Briton. ' I bate every English dog among you! Oh, how'l hate you!' ' "This is the German hatred —a> blend, of the demon and of the celestial spirits. While hating in our souls we are yet capable of loving in our actions. That is Germany, that is great Germania's soul, whose depth, whose nobility, whose .sweetness, whoso kinship with the souls of the angels are matters which none hut Germans will ever understand." Sweetness, nobility, kinship with the souls of angels and Belgium' laid waste, her daughters violated, her priests murdered, her unarmed peasantry slaughtered in cold blood, her churches laid "in ashes. What loathsome hypocrisy it all is!

GODLESS MAMMON-WORSHIP

While all the German newspapers

are skilled in the art of misrepresentation, the Hamburger Nachdichten enjoys a Well-won pre-eminence in this direction. Here is a noteworthy case in point:— "The fact that the war has up to

the present been a brilliant piece ol business for England, who, indeed entered upon it purely from business motives, is well known to everybody and does not need the assurance of a 11m-

ister. ••The spectacle, therefore, ol the British Minister of Trade calmly rubbing his hands with Pecksniffian glee, and dilating at a festive gathering on the advantages in pound's, shillings, and pence which this sanguinary struggle is putting into John Bull's pocket, is hard to explain. "The only, possible exportation is that the ..English Minister is too deeply steeped in the •national vice of godless mammon-worship even to feel a pang ol shame at the idea of his country making gigantic profits out- ol the blood and misery of her allies. "That is why he glorifies a crime

into a virtue, and does not hesitate to disgust all the world by openly gloating over the' swelling out of the English money-bags at the expense of the blood and tears of French widows and orphans." •WARY WARRIORS.

Though the Bedliner Lokalanzeiger announces that Germany, .following the

example of Mahomet in "forcing his faith on the infidel at the sword's point," will "implant German Kultur by force of cannon and of bomb on the nations of the world," it declares at the same time for a policy of wariness :

"The German fleet will continue to piotect the German coast against British attacks. It will continue to inflict damage on the enemy by means of mines and submarines without, however, succeeding in weakening, to any appreciable extent, England's naval power.

"The British fleet is too greatly superior to the German, both as regards artillery asd in tonnage, and the losses we may make them suffer will bo relatively insignificant. Our arsenals are working to reinforce our fleet, but our efforts will certainly be exceeded by those of Great Britain.

"Prior to the war the prevailing opinion in Germany was that Great Britain would fail through lack of men. Events have since proved that we were wrong. The only thing for us to do, therefore, is to go ahead warily but slowly; we have time, they have not." "KEEP AN EYE ON GERMANS!"

A highly instructive sidelight on the attitude of Italy is derivable from the. Munehoner Neueste Nachrichten :

"The fact is an incomprehensible one that, however things may go, whether we win or lose a battle, the antipathy to everything German .steadily grows on every hand. "In Milan a Spanish tenor was knocked down, because he expressed his sympathy for Germony. In many of the best cafes, when you are about to sit down to enjoy your hock, the waiter presents you with a- little note in which you are politely requested to leave, as you are German, or a spy, or a barabrian, which to Italians now appear synonymous terms.

"On doorposts and walls you find pasted printed notices containing the words Keep an eye on the Germans! Seventy thousand of them, a regular army, reside in Italy, forty thousand of whom are distributed all'over Lombard}-. Italians, take care, look sharp after the Germans!' " HERINGSSALAT.

From the Kolnische Zeitung:—The German hymn, ' "Deutschland über Alles," is loftiest, the noblest, the most elevating, the manliest, the most inspiring, the most tuneful, the grandest, the most poetical and glorious song that has ever welled forth from human breast. It is divine, as is the origin, of the people for whom it is was composed.

From the Berliner Tageblatt:—Proud Albion's world-Empire, like.the empire of ancient Rome, is destined to crumble into ruins under the onslaughts of the- descendants of the same "barbarians" whoso hatred of tyranny and exploitation nerved them to deeds of heroism such as the world has not again beheld until to-day. when once more the "barbarians" are called upon to scourge degenerate Europe of its age-accumulated social impurities. From the Frankfurter Zeituno: : The narrowness and the sinister character of British foreign policy are strikingly indicated in the style of the mean-looking, forbidding little abodeswhich England has so appropriately chosen as the officinl residences of her Ministers in the blind alley known as Downing-street, London. . '

From the Deutsche Tageszeitung:— Lord Charles Beresford assured his colleagues in the House of Commons that the floggings he was subjected' to in school had done him considerable good. In our opinion, judging by the sort of personage that this grim firebrand has developed into, Lord Charles has either been flogged not sufficiently or too much. If he will now come over to Germany we will endeavor to find a drastic remedy for any insufficiency in this respect.