SENSE OF VICTORY GONE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 113, 12 May 1917, Page 11

SENSE OF VICTORY GONE.

ENGLISHMAN'S FICTTTRE OF • GERMANY. TEE TWO BLOCKADES. jie "Times" Paris correspondent •writes: —"I have had an extremely interesting conversation ■with one of the very few British subjects who have Deen living in Germany in complete freedom . 6 ince the beginning of the war. He hae • bott been allowed to leave, and is proceeding on parole to the United States. He Wt Berlin last Saturday in the midst of a spell ot * ne coldest -weather Bernu has experienced for 88 years. Germany is going through a transport crisis esactlv°sianlar o that of Great Britain and France, and with similar results as regards coal supply- Coal costs about 50/ per ton. but owing to the cold weather, and also to transport difficulties, ' small quantities only are available in the . capital, where coal lines are a regular ' feature of the streets. '•31 v informant confirms all the accounts given by neutrals of the situa- • tion in Berlin. He does not pretend for ' & moment that the German people are by , any means starving, or that they have I reached any point of acute depression.! .Having been able, as have but few of the neutral observers who have written upon German conditions, to watch the enemy since the very beginning of the war, his impressions are perhaps not as ' clear-cut as those of an occasional visi- r tor, but they are nevertheless more valuable. THE FIGHT FOR EXISTENCE. "All the old certainty of victory has • gone. The splendid feeling that triumphant Germany was facing a world in ; arms has given way to the tremendous anxiety of the fight for existence. The submarine super-frightfulness has created : two definite schools of opinion among the general mass of the people. Both are | agreed that the war may be over in May or June, but one school etill thinks it ■vrill end in the starvation of England by the submarine Wockade, -while the other is gloomily certain that it will end in the British Fleet's successful blockade of Germany. "The German capital is struggling ■with exactly the same problems which 'confront the Paris authorities. Here the dust bins lie about the streets until 4 or 5 o'clock in the afternoon; in Berlin so scarce is labour and transport that the courtyard of every block of buildings has become a big refuse heap. Here the French are endeavouring to increase their sanitary staff by recruiting North African labour. In Berlin the work of the dustmen is very largely in the hands of French and Russian prisoners of war, who move about the capital -without any escort. "All the old brilliance which aroused the enthusiasm of American correspondents in Berlin in the early days of the war has disappeared. The theatres are half empty and unheated, the audience sitting in its overcoats and pelisses. Drastic lighting regulations have also been introduced. The German -woman all her time, to judge from conversations in trains and tramcars, complaining of -the food, regulations and speculating upon what she will be able to get in return for her food cards. STBATTS OF BERLIN POPULACE. "The civil-mobilisation has, on the whole, bepn successful, but there is a noticeable lack of enthusiasm among the women for war work. In Berlin factories, at. any rate, there is no attempt to brighten the life of the munition worker which at all corresponds with the work of the British Munitions Welfare Department. . . ■ i-: • ■' "Raw materials have teen lacking in more than one munition factory in Berlin for the last few weeks, and the real straits in which the population is being placed in some cases is shown by the fact that, owing to the requisition of all rubber, people are running their bicycles on tyres made of rope or even of wood. An enterprising dishonest firm has made quite a lot of money by advertising and selling "Continental tyree" of wood. People bought them, Relieving them to be the real article, only to find that they were absolutely useless and warped at the first touch of damp. "The Emperor is but rarely seen in the capital, and would seem rather to have been forced by the immensity of the struggle into the background. On the day of one of Germany's "victories" this British observer counted from his bedroom window no fewer than 37 flags fcoieted in honour of the event. Every one who knows Germany also knows how thorough have been the celebrations of the Emperor's birthday. Yet on the last Imperial birthday this Englishman was able to count only 8 flags, where three months before he had counted 37. Throughout the city, although there Was a big ceremony at the Dom, it was only the official 'buildings Which had hoisted flag 3, and the display Of private bunting usually to be seen on this occasions was noticeably absent. "In Germany people are convinced that their sufferings are no greater than those of the French. The enormous difference between them is perhaps best ehown when I say that the thing which most impressed this Englishman on arriving in France after three years in Germany was the magnificence of the French horses. Anyone, he declared, who tried to drive a Berlin horse in the streets of Paris would be summoned for cruelty to animals. Those who know the ordinary condition of the Paris fiacre horses will best appreciate what "Us means, and how significant it is of conditions in Germany."