GERMAN KULTUR.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 60, 11 March 1915, Page 3

GERMAN KULTUR.

AN AMEBICAH AUTHOR'S .. .^EXFERnEWCES,....';/

BRUTALITIES IN MILIUM.. 7

In his latest volume, ">With . the Allies" in which he records his recent' experiences' as. a war correspondent"TMr, Richard -THarding -Davis,"" author and seasoned journalist, expresses the opinion that if President Wilson "could only have Tieen" an eyerwitness to the spread 'Germah"7"'ltultur r ' 'in' Belgium he would hover. ..have issued any - neutrality proclamation. Mr. Davis believes that under ordinary conditions it is all right, toy remain neutral,: but when a "mad dog runs amuck in a village it is the duty of' every farmer to get. his gun and destroy himself indoors".and ..toward ; the; dog77and''the men who race him preserve a neutral mind." "Germany is defying, jthe" rules,, of war andthe was.arrested, by the Germans-:on—one-"bccasiOn as a s Py ofTfiritainr -and for several:, days., ,It_ is only •he" should the exponents of'-kultur." , He had'f in his possession a 7 .letter of; .mtrbduction7ffcon Theodore Roosevelt, to 'the President 7of France. If this.: were found: he considered his.itase the Ger-mansr-.would'- surely; :think7 him : a. (spy. He managed to destroy this letter, how> tbeiaidrdf Brand LW|ntloc.fc_he .established .-.'bjgu innocence and at the same time hK»identity. ' - " : TMr. Davis is'.'-abt" 1 complimentary-; to \ the Germans only :ao far as their mili-, - .-.-■.: '7- -.'".,■;-■■ '.:777': 7 7 . ■■ 7

tsry" eflteiency-:-goes. - In--writing ofthe destruction of-Louvain Mr. .Davis

says:— - ----- --• -^---"— — "As thqse_..being,.led to_. spend ths night- -in ' the • fields-" -looked -*• across to those marked -for-death, they stew old ifriends;; raighbouis- of--long™ standing, men of" their own household. The officer bellowing at them from the cart •was- illuminated by the -headlights of aa automobile- He -looked like an actor held in a spotlight on;* darkened stage. It was all like a scene upon, the stage, unreal, inhuman. You felt it could, not be true. You felt that the curtain of fire, purring and crackling and sending , lip hot sparks to meet'-thei kind, calm 'stars, was brily a painted backdrop j; that the reports of rifles from the dark ruins '■ came from blank cartridges and that these trembling shopkeepers and peasants ringed in bayonets would not in a few minutes really die, hut that they themselves' and their houses wooH. -be restored to their wives and children. You-felt it was only-a nightmare,-cruel, and uncivilised. " And then you remember the German Emperor-has . told u» . what it is. I; It is hii Holy War."

■Mr. Davis revisited the historia cathedral of Kheuns. shattered" by Ger--1 man shells. He-was guided through the .wrecked. who told him that thousands of Americans visited the old. cathedral every year and asked him to tell, his people what he saw. TMr. Davis takes, no pleasure in tcUiftg; what he 6aw. .Indignation, fills his -SquL,. ':W e walked upon glass.more precious _than precious.. stones,?-. writes Mr. Davis. t was.beyond price.. -7N"o» one <»n-Teplaee_it._ iSeven hundred yearn ago_ the secret of the 'glass died;'"Diamonds •- can--be7 bought "anywhere,' pearls can be matchedj-but-notvtha s stained glass; of -Kheims; And -under our-feet with straw, and -caked I 'blood ifr-7!ay -crushed-into tiny-fragments. Whenvyoil held. a piece .of- it "between eye ■ and the sun it glowed with a light that never was on land or sea." / ;.. ilnrlJavis?, concluding. chapter - is- de-* voted to the "Waste of War," ia whidi' he'. : tells of; the enormous loss" sustained by the warring '-. nations,. aside "front human life^the; - of property; - -r-'-' ---; - -- .- ; -.:.—",- -, ■ **With -the Allies," "as a narrative,"if filled-with adventure and the interesting .impressions -/at* ar keen observer. ' '-' .