EUROPE AT WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 62, 13 March 1915, Page 13

EUROPE AT WAR.

IMPRESSIONS OP AW AMERICAN ■'bliss Augusta* Foute, a San, Francisco girl, has made a tour of Europe since the* outbreak of war, and has contributed to the "Bulletin" a series of articles giving her impressions. The people of Berlin, she states, were kept in a etate of elation by reports-of successive victories. They were confident of success, and spoke of the drastic conditions which would be imposed upon the defeated allies. - While allowing many fine qualities to" Germans," the writer declares that their national vanity and contempt for everything not German are perfectly astounding and ridiculous. The masses of the people are in complete ignorance of the real position of affaire in connection * with the war, and she believes that there will be trouble when they become acquainted with the truth. Miss Foute visited Sweden. She found public opinion there generally favourable to Germany, chiefly in consequence of ancient feuds and a national apprehension of Russian aggression. In Switzerland opinion was very much divided, but the people were resolved to preserve strict neutrality, and had mobilised an army of 400,000 troops with the object of resisting any invasion of Swiss territory. The great tourist hotels were closed, and owing to the drafting of men to the front most of the work was being done by women. Of her entry by rail into Paris she writes:—"ln my innocence I was eagerly looking for the lights of Paris. I had heard often of its brilliant illumination, j and was sure it must be visible far away. Suddenly large opaque masses Seemed to spring out of the surrounding | darkness. It looked something like the Colorado Canyon at night. It was Paris, silent, sombre, inky, almost sinister. \V.e alighted at a railroad station, dimly lighted for the moment, and passed through darkened streets to a dark hotel. Such is the fear that Zeppelin* inspire." RELIGIOUS PHASES OF THE WAR. On this subject Miss Foute makes some interesting observations. 'The religious phases of the war have been quite overlooked, and I venture to make here a digression from my story that seems extremely pertinent. "In both England and Germany the Deity is overworked. You hear, too, much about 'God fighting on our eide, , I 'God granting us glorious victories, , and 'God blessing our cause.' I am a parson's daughter, and reasonably devout, but I must confess that the constant reiteration of this stuff gave mc a severe sense of nausea. It was some relief to find nothing of the sort in France. They have taken up war in apurely practical way. They expect to win through their own and their allies' resources —nothing else. Those failing, they are prepared to suffer annihilation rather than conquest. They reject entirely the idea of Divine interference. They do not hold Him chargeable with the slaughter of his creatures. '■'So moredo ■I. Paris accepts the situation with • quiet dignity, without concealment of its griefs, with a complete frankness that I like much better than the studied indifference of London or the still 'more st'ucied gaiety of Berlin. "That is not saying that the French are meeting stern facts ill a spirit of j irreligion. Quite the contrary. Not only that, but wherever I travelled in Europe—in England, Germany, France, Switzerland, and Holland—l could see the clear evidence of a vast religious movement —a turning to the thoughts from which the unfortunate have ever found consolation and which the fortunate seldom bother with at all. Overflow congregations fill the churches. These represent not the ruling class, but the great masses of the people, who approach the Master, not with arrogant prayers for victory, but with humble petitions, that He save them from impending calamitv —that he spare them from their sins." THE FEELING IN FRANCE. "This is most apparent in France, and for a reason. When war was declared twelve thousand priests exchanged the cassock for the uniform and are now fighting for their country in the trenches in Flanders and France. All say that they make ideal soldiers, calm, resourceful and intrepid. They have cheered the living, given aid to the wounded, comforted and shrived the parting sou]. And the convents have contributed their thousands of nuns, who are on the firing line, sharing every hardship, indifferent to danger—the most devoted-and efficient nurses in giving first aid to the awful toll of the battlefields. Every wounded soldier brought to Paris has something to tell of their beneficent service. All France is ringing with their praise. And when the French people compare this devotion with the rotten treatment the eclesiastics have received from the government in recent years, it has brought about a profound jevolution of feeling towards the faith of their ancestors which, unless I am greatly mistaken, will not terminate with the war. ' •'The French' Government issues no list of casualties. Only when some; person of importance falls is there pub-j lie mention. An official list is kept; open only for those seeking legitimate information. But the bereaved are advised promptly of their sorrow. A printed postal card i s used tor this purpose. It reads about as follows: 'This will convey the sad intelligence that died fighting gloriously for/his country. Details will follow later.' " "Only an address and a. name! No date, no signature, no battlefield! Bow pitifully incomplete to a heart that perhaps is breaking! But the stern exigencies of war seem to demand that no information be given that might disclose the movements or position of commands. "For this reason no special services are held, but almost every day a solemn requiem mass for the dead. There is no music, no toll of bells. You see only a 1 great church filled with blackdressed, kneeling figures, hear only the solemn intonation of the priest, broken ' here and there by the sob of a sorrowing mother, wife, or sister. No human being, however hardened, could viewthc. impressive spectacle unmoved.

"And I think it givce a truer 'impression of what ytax really is and means than can be gathered fronr the letters of a thousand correspondents in the field or from the reports of all the 'generals who ever lived." .