SIDELIGHTS FROM GERMANY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 157, 3 July 1916, Page 8

SIDELIGHTS FROM GERMANY.

HAMBURG IW TRAINING FOR EASTERN TRADE. FOUR WAR STORIES BY BREMEN" SCHOOLBOYS. The Hamburg Colonial Institute is a large establishment, with much of the character of a university, in which various branches arc taught to young men desirous of engaging either in Government service abroad or in some branch of trade in the colonies. There are chairs for languages, tropical hygiene, tropical diseases, ethnology, etc. The war having resulted in a number of changes as regards German colonies, the Institute has turned its serious attention to the Orient, a-nd now announces the curriculum* for the coming term. The directors of the Institute warn the public that it is a mistake to throw oneself into the study of Oriental langnages, as so many are doing, without at the same time engaging in the study of a number of other subjects which are equally necessary for a successful career in the East. The following courses of lectures will be delivered during the spring and summer. Prof. Tschudi will lecture on the "History of Islamic Empires," seeking to -make Islam intellfgible to the German mmd. The "Hamburger Fremdenblatt," from which we glean these particulars, says it is the Professor's merit that he will unite the Science of Islam with due attention to material things. AMBITIOUS PROGRAMMES. There will fee a course of lectures on 'Turkish Grammar lor Beginners," on "The Explanation of jiasy Popular TuTkish Proverbs," '"Modern Arabic," "Egyptian Dialects." "Modern Greek, Bulgarian, Croatian and .Serbian.'' Profesbor Jaeger will discourse on the "Economic Situation in Persia."' .also on the geography of the land, its climate, soil, ■plants and fauna. Particular attention will be given by Professor Jaeger to the growing "interference" of England and Russia, and the "disastrous effects" of this interference on the material progress of Persia. Asia Minor is the subject which Professor Ziebarth will handle, and Dr. Rauchhaupt will expound the "Principles of Modern Turkish Constitutional Law." Dr. Krauss will lectuTe on"Turkish National Economy," with special reference to the commercial relations past, present, and future between Turkey and Germany, and Dr. Passarge, the well-known geographer, will speak on Turkish and Arabian trade routes, harbours, and railways, and on the best way of developing these in the interests both of Germany and Turkey. HOW PAPER HAY BE SAVED. In the Hamburg "Fremdenblatt" -we read the following suggestion for saving paper:—Let the hausfrau save her paper bags: collect them Tather than throw them away. Every time she goes shopping let her take some of these paper bags with her for use a second time. If the hundred thousand shopping women of Hamburg did this daily, what a difference it would make! It would become a habit. Tradesmen ■would welcome it, as their paper bags are a very heavy item in their expenses, especially when food can only be bought in half-pounds. Host of the paper of which these bags are made is manufactured from straw, and at this time of Eevere stress and scarcity there are other and better uses for" straw. ORIENTAL FATA MORGANA. Turkey, we are told, wtf.l never be able to take the place of tropical colonies, either belonging to Germany or to another country. Many years must pass before Germany will be able to draw adequate supplies of anything from Turkey. The cultivation of cotton has a splendid future in Turkey, but decades must pass before the necessary irrigation works have been completed, and Germany imported in 1013 raw cotton to the value of £30,000.000. If Germany is to liberate herself from the Anglo-Saxon cotton monopoly, it can only be done by increasing the output of her own African colonies. With regard to grain from Turkey, the idea is absurd. Turkey has not enough for herself—certainly no superfluity. There may be some malting barley obtainable, but no wheat and no rye. Big j items like wool, copper, tobacco, oil, coffee, cocoa, manganese, leather, which are spoken of as exsting in Turkey in large* quantities, are more or less chimerical, and importers are told that they must not rely on them for a moment. With much want of feeling the Munich journal tells German exporters and importers that instead of dreamins these dreams of impossible things they had much better settle down to the ordinary prose of commerce, and work up their connection with foreign countries which are in a position to sell to them and buy from them, and which can pay for goods purchased. They are implored not to allow themselves to be dazzled by an Oriental Fata Morgana, and to remember above all things that the Imperial Chancellor recently declared that German victories on the European continent would assure them the complete possession of all their colonies, and would open up new and fruitful fields for their enterprise. SWORD AND FREEDOM. The Munich "Neueste Nachrichten" explains that whatever the cares and sorrows of the present may be—and they weigh -with crushing power on the people —the German nation can always be proud of its deeds and of the sentiment of patriotism animating all classes of the population. But that is no reason why GennaiM should consider themselves Irish above the rest of the world. Legitimate pride, certainly, but no boasting. And then the South German journal proceeds to boast and brag in the fashion ■with which we have been so long familiar. We hear of the •magnificent maturity of the nation, how nobly it has done its duty, how it has "willingly borne the heaviest sacrifices, how individuals have only thought of the general good, and, above all, how the present has been sacrificed lor the future. This, says the Munich newspaper, is the very highest which a nation can ask from itself. "Should Germans emerge from this war and its storms more serious.stronger, prouder, it will not necessarily follow that we shall regard the foreign spirit with contempt or shut our frontiers against it. That would not be in consonance with the German nature. The countrymen of Kant and Goethe wiil assert their place in the world because they no longer suffer from the defenceless dismemberment of the time of Kant and Goethe, because they are now the countrymen of Bismarck and Hindenburg. Sword and Freedom—may that be German's future!"