FROM GERMAN SOURCES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 50, 27 February 1915, Page 11

FROM GERMAN SOURCES.

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I AS OTHERS SEE US. /- n In the '-Hanover Kuricr" there appears gn article en "What 1 Saw and Heard in | london." written by "A Chilian." who f jljjjjjs to have been in London very recently. Some of his statements are T *at such as to bear out this claim. He t vrit ;-.— c Tfowhere in London can you escape c the recruiting drum. The young man { •triio harden* his heart against the appeal to his patriotism which is thrown on j the screen at all the picture palaces falls t Jnto the hands of the dear "Suffragettes" ( en emerging. These women now wear < ■B armlet inscribed "Women Engage- r Bent Corps." I myself was accosted by s one pf the Amazons as I was mounting , g motor "bus. Seizing mc by the arm . i and pulling mc on to the pavement, she i addressed mo as follows: "You miserable i > coward! Why are you not a soldier?" ; Mv answer, which I need not reproduce, : showed her at once that I was no stay- . at-home hero. The papers publish gigantic advertisements appeal™? for men to bring various regiments up to war strength. All the efforts being made by the Press and the < Government show that recruiting does not proceed on the scale desired. If Lord : Kitchener has really obtained a large number of volunteers, this is principally due to the terrible unemployment which prevails in England. The activity of the cruisers Karlsruhe and Emden. together j Triih the fall of Antwerp, struck London like a tempest. Firms which formerly had 100 employees now manage with 10. Many shops have discharged all their people. The theatres and cafes have suffered terribly. The latest effort of the Government directed towards the defence of the city is represented by a huge placard which covers the whole facade of the Mansion House. It reads: — Citizens of London. Can you all shoot? If not. learn before it is too late. Instruction Free. No speech by Lloyd George or his followers illuminates the singular attitude of the Government towards franctireur warfare so well as this poster. DELUDING THE AUSTRIANS. To all appearances Germany controls the Austrian Press as completely as she does the armed forces of the Dual Monarchy. Nine-tenths of the news published by the Vienna journals comes from Berlin and it is obvious that an attempt is being made to arouse among the Austrian* the same morbid hatred of Britain which possesses the Germans themselves. A good specimen of the "news" which Berlin foists on -the docile Austrian Press is provided by the following Berlin telegram to the"Neve Freie Presse": — • A Lausanne paper publishes an important confession by its Paris correspondent with regard to the discord between France and England. The people murmur everywhere— street, the cafes, and in the saloons. The bitterness against England is unmistakable. England's Army does not correspond to England's policy. The help hitherto given has been insignificant, and England is now making efforts far too slowly. In fact, she deliberately to prolong the war, to her own advantage." Such behaviour is now out of place, for Belgium has been crushed, and a sixtb part of France groans beneath a foreign yoke. Things cannot possibly go on in this way. The Government in no sense controls French public opinion. Should the people become convinced that England is sitting selfislirv in her own safe island, instead of rendering full aid, they will listen to . the suggestions now being made, and ' conclude a separate peace apart from England. A post card written from the Ypres district by a Berlin schoolmaster contains the following sentences: — '"Horrible weather. We lie in the trenches, which are full of water. Rheumatism slowly spreads, and next year I shall have to Visit Wiesbaden. The French come over to us in troops, and display a strong hatred for England. I think they vnll be our friends once more." , LIBELLING THE BRITISH. Writing in the "Hamburger Xachrichten" of the prisoners' camp at Doberitz. Herr Guenther Thomas has some pleasant observations to make on the character and behaviour of the British captives: — The English (he writes) are lazy, unruly, and unbearable, and they steal like ravens. It i≤ they alone who make difficulties for the administration. The French are very clever and active, and at the saifie time trustworthy and quite contented with their lot. The Russians are •willing and clever. Both sorts of prisoners have discipline, which the EngJieh entirely lack. There is plenty of opportunity for special work, such as breaking up waete land, and the French and Russians are eager for it. The men thus employed receive from the contractor Sid. p"er day, although only Id. is actually paid out to them so that they can purchase tobacco. The English, on the contrary, refuse all work, preferring to loaf about and grumble that they have no tobacco. They look down superciliously on then- allied comrade;, and cannot even agee among themselves. The sailors despise the "land rat;." whom they regard as refuse —and perhaps they are not co very wrong. The real English will have nothing to do with the Irish, and the Scotsmen keep to themselves. When one gets to learn th?se conditions, one recalls the saying of O»d Fritz: "And I have to %ht with this riff-raff!" It need only be said that the foregoing remarks in so far as they concern the Brith* are totally at variance with the testimony of the " Frankfurter Zeitung," one of whose correspondents recently paid a warm tribute to the splendid discipline which k maintained among Britfen prisoners of war by the men themEelves. "THE INFERIOR ENGLISH." Under thig heading the journal "Vor*arts" publishes a most interesting-let-ter written by a German soldier, shortly tefore he was killed at Dixmude. "'No sooner had we arrived at the front (he wrote) than we were sent forward. Our opponents are for the most part English, the French and Belgians being in a minority here. When, after °ur first fight, we had a few moments' rest and I thought of those who had fallen in this struggle—a large number, namely forty-three, had been killed in my company alone — I could not help being struck.by the thought that these losses jad been inflicted on m by the inferioi hordes of mercenary English. Such, at least, they are often called by some ol Our papers at home. For fourteen days *c have now had an opportunity oi making ourselves closely acquainted with these 'hirelings.' I will teH yot '»ter on the details of our fight with the English, hut first of all I want to express toe following wish—those people who s( often make fun of the English Tiirelings •Hjjllt to have been at our s&d*mtt- &w 2.

lours during trie last fourteen days; Ij -ruly believe they would 'have gained lUite a. different conception of those ieardlese figures with the Hong legs (which, according to the people I hays eferred to, are oulv used for running iway). We'have also learned to recognise , the English as troops who are at least equal to ourselves. Their movements in battle frequently astonish us. Their methods of lighting remind me—now that I have time to think it over—of the peaceful games we play at home on our sport grounds. 1 must say it once more—the English are no inferior opponents. For fourteen days we had to battle with these people for every foot of ground. Scarcely na4 we driven them from one position than they had established themselves firmly in another, and at once began a counterattack. We then had to call for the assistance of our artillerymen, and not until they had prepared the way could we go on with our task. Had not our artillery been superior to the enemy's Wf should have had much heavier losses. But with its assistance we have been able to storm position after position, and to repel all counter-attacks. "I won't talg about my personal experiences and deeds. Be satisfied when ' I say that everyone here does his duty, j Nor will I describe the awful appearance j of the battlefield. But one little episode i I must tell you. During one attack we j succeeded in cap-turing a considerable number of the English in a trench. Owing to the superior numbers of the enemy we could not advance further, and before we could withdraw with our prisoners a terrific artillery duel had begun. We were bombarded by the : enemy, and also by our own artillery. Before us. behind us. to the right, to , the left, and between us shells were! exploding, whilst overhead the shrapnel burst. So we had to sit for eight hours, friend and foe together, under this fire. No one ever expected to come out of this awful inferno unscathed. Still, we came off rather well. Six shells which I made direct hits did not explode, but we had twenty-seven wounded and four killed. For more than twenty-four hours before this happened we had had nothing to eat, and we now began to consume our very meagre rations. When j our prisoners noticed this they, too. I seemed to find their appetites. They i were not satisfied with our food, however, but to everybody's surprise, produced a spirit lamp and methylated spirits. They also had a supply of water, and in a few minutes they had made from some tablets which they carried a most appetising soup. Thei? then invited us by signs to share it with them, and thus, thanks to the splendid equipment of our enemies, all of us, friend and foe alike, made an excellent mesal under a violent cannonade."