PRIME AND IMMORALITY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 61, 11 March 1916, Page 19

PRIME AND IMMORALITY.

' BAttPANT IN GERMANY. gome tune ago attention was drawn to the number of items of criminal news jppearing In the German Press. The increase In crime and immorality has been to marked since then that now even the German Journalists have given up the farce of trying to hide the truth In this respect. There is no paper that does not ' join n ,o ™ or ,es9 in tne B enera l chorus of protest against existing conditions. Tie Berlin "Krenzzeltung" says:—"The people are living a life of snch repulsive Immorality and indecency, so shameless lij its open ostentation and depravity, that soldiers returning home turn their heads away In horror and ask themselves why they should sacrifice their lives for such a people. Did these heroes know more ol the secret of what is really going on, they tooM see that, dark as the picture is on tie surface, it is far blacker underneath." Even the "Berliner Tageblatt," which lias striven so long to uphold the Impression of the moral regeneration of the people by the war, now frankly confesses that it is appalled at the state of affairs. •'News of murders of the most revolting description," it says, "reach us from all parts of the empire. Convictions of all tieds of 'swindling operations occur daily." THEATRES BLAMED. The "Deutsche Tageszeittujg" deplores the "abandoned immorality" of the general public. "The divorce courts are busy, and nearly all the cases Involve wives of Boldlera. It is of quite common occurrence for a young soldier to return from the battle line to find his wife carrying on a liaison with another man." The theatres are to blame, says the paper. "Plays are produced so nauseating in their depravity and lasclvioueness that they may weß fill our soldiers, purified in the fire of war, irith disgnst at this decay of the national morals- The German people must not tolerate such degeneration. . . they must eradicate these plague spots that disfigure the radiant features of Germania." HABDEN'S REVELATIONS. It may be remembered that just before Jlie suppression of his journal, "Die Zokunft," Maximilian Harden was becoming daily more vehement in his denunciation of the general Immorality in Germany. It was he who revealed the fact that since the war 30,000 girl-wives had been divorced in Berlin alone. Harden also detoted his attention to the profltmongers, and it was, perhaps, his overiialonsness in demonstrating the evil wrought by them that led"him to betray ■to toe people the actual ruin that faces the conntry. On the outbreak of war Harden created surprise by his display of ardent patriotism. 'He was a Jingo among jingoes. But latterly It was evident that he was not blind to the truth of the economic situation. Many home industries in Germany ere absolutely at a standstill, and Harden has more than once cited this fsct to support his arguments. The Government Is, of course, most anxious that these truths should not out, and Hjirden's love of that bugbear of the German authorities hae now led to the suppression of his journal for the duration of the war —the most drastic punishment yet meted out to any German paper of standing. HORRIFIED CLERGY. The German clergy also seem to consider it their doty to call attention to the Immoral tendency prevalent in the empire. At the recent meeting of the General .Synod of Berlin the Rev. Dr. Weber, of Bonn, declared that conditions in the Rhine province were unspeakable, that the criminal and immoral contamination of the youth of both sexes was appalling. Other clergymen told similar tales of their own districts, and it wae generally decided that the state of affairs was so bad that it was a case for special legislation. The great war, said one pastor, which, It wae expected, would raise the moral tone of the nation, had, to the horror of all true Germans, the exactly opposite effect.