THROUGH GERMAN SPECTACLES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XL, Issue 12540, 11 May 1915, Page 7

THROUGH GERMAN SPECTACLES.

BRITAIN AT THE END OF HER RESOURCES.

BATTALION OF "WOMEN TO GO TO THE FRONT.

It is cheering to learn from the official Press of the Fatherland that so far as we islanders are concerned the worsthas come to the worst. At the end of our resources in respect of recruiting, we have been reduced to the terrible expedient- of putting women in the. field. . Football matches and theatres hold our eligible young men so. tightly in. the meshes of self-indulgence that a call has been made —and that by Lord Kitchener, .be it noted —on the flower of British womanhood. DOOMED ARMY OF AMAZONS.

"Ah!" cries the Frankfurter Zeitimg, scenting like a sli iithhound the secret purpose behind this insidious move, "but their sex shall not save them. Let them come and we will kill them!"

"The legend, 'We want more men,' stares one in the face wherever one turns in London. It is indeed painful to see how the English, are driven to the last expedients m order to obtain recruits.

"The supply, of eligible men having practically ceased, all eyes are now turned on the women. The suffragettes, it is argued, have given substantial proof ol their pugnacious tendencies. If these are in evidence in the case of so large a number of the champions of female .sulfrage. they must equally form part of the character of the great bulk of Englishwomen. Hence a propaganda, directly under the auspices of Kitchener, is now being actively carried on among the women of England. "An. address, on the subject, 'Can women light:-' is being circulated far and wide in the United Kingdom. In it the case of Joan of Arc is cited as evidence to the effect that they can, and after a pathetic lament at the shameful inditference of the men. the appeal concludes: 'To aims, then, ladies, all of you !' "In one. large girls' school not far from Dover, more than 200 wooden rifles were distributed among the pupils, who are now being daily drilled and practised in. the employment of firearms.

"In the meantime, 'Cousin Jack' and 'Brother Tom' do not forget to attend the football matches, and the theatres overflow nightly with able-bodied youths whom no one can convince of the necessity of getting themselves killed in the. vain attempt to destroy Germany.

■'Thus ivo are faced with an imiption of Amazons on the battlefields of Flanders. Let them come, the heroic furiosi W< shall receive them with a, thunderous salute of shells. Their sex shall not save them: cm the contray, it will draw against them attacks the more violent by artillery and rifle fire because we know that for every Englishwoman kiiLd a moral effect much greater than thru which, the death of six men could produce, would recoil on the heads if luck nglish authorities.

"Let them com;', then, these charmers." -

IS THE GAME UP?

Meanwhile the official German Press is still busily engaged in counteracting the efForts of those "'misguided patriots," as they are most ungratefully termed, who. have formed a new ''peace',' league for the purpose or counting Germany's extra-territorial chickens before they are hatched. According to the Koaiische Zeituhg:—

"We Germans, it is true, are convinced that victory will be ours, but our enemies also are lull of hope. This much enn easily be gathered, even without-believing in all their bluff or in their newspaper ravings.

"Very few. as a matter of fact, are the Russians, the English or the French who as yet understand that the game is up. That troubles us but little. What, however, is important is that we should not, at this stage, talk about the opening of peace negotiations before we are sure that the enemy are disposed to make concessions. "Up to this moment we have seen no sign of a disposition, and therefore our first object should now be to keep on beating them until they give in.

"When tliaf niav be none can tell. It may be soon, it may not be for years ;* but until and unless that happens, it would be useless to talk of peace, sadly though the country may need it."

But if they go on "beating" us atthe present rate there will soon be no Germany left to negotiate with.