REVOLUTION "ROT" ABOUT GERMANY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 143, 16 June 1917, Page 13

REVOLUTION "ROT" ABOUT GERMANY.

A FEW FACERS.

Under the above headings Mr. D. T?u>mas Curtin, in an article in the "Daily MaiV dispels the idea that there is any likelihood of the Russian revolution being repeated in Germany. Jfr. Cwtin knoics the Germans and Germany well, and, in fact, spent the first year of the wpr icithin the German frontiers. You have 'seen pictures of Belgian deportees bending beneath the German laslu If you have a mental picture of the masses of Germany in a somewhat similar relative position to their authorities, get rid of it. It is not a real picture, it is only a mirage. The idea that the German people are a downtrodden mass forced against their Irishes to take up arms and continuing to use those arms simply because a few men, known as the Government, will that they ehall do so, is in direct contradiction to the facts of the case. I grant that the Germans are distressingly sick of the war. As a swift and happy means of building up a Teutonic world-empire it has not come up to expectations. The majority of Germans, however, are not dissatisfied with their Government because of this. "But what of those violent speeches in the lleichstag?" you may ask. "Don't they show a dangerous discontent, and prove that the German people are against their form of Government?" There are 397 deputies in the Reichstag. Of these only 18 (less than 5 per cent) are openly arrayed against the wa r policy. They Constitute the Social Democratic Minority; it is their speeches, together with an occasional one from the Social Democratic Majority, which make such pleasant reading in certain sections of the Allied Press. More people read these speeches in England than in Germany, where for the most part they are made to empty benches, printed only in the Social Democratic Press, and even there in unobtrusive parliamentary type without "feature" headings, since those must be reserved, as in all other papers, for German victories. Furthermore, they are seldom read by soldiers, as the military scissors are extremely sharp in deleting anything that may prove injurious to the helmeted mind.

The Social Democratic Majority, although keeping an eye on electoral reform, are solidly behind the war machine. In fact, were I not aware or their party affiliations I should 'have mistaken some of them with whom I talked for dyed-in-the-wool Conservatives. Most of them display the customary German weakness of prostrating themselves at the feet of the men higher up if they show them a little personal consideration. Xot a few of Them have been as wildly enthusiastic over a conquering Fatherland as the most sabre-rattling Junker. One of them, who in peace days told mc that he would oppose the war party as long as he lived, confessed to mc after three months of war that he and his kind were wrong in criticising the military form of government. "Look at France," he eaid. ''France is a Republic, and see how we are beating her." THBEE CLASSES OF GERMANS. From the revolutionary point of view i the Germans might be divided into three classes. To class I. belong the learfers, the semi-deified army officer and professor, and the great men of business. Class IT. contains the bulk of the people. Class 111. contains the 18 revolutionary extremists in the Reichstag and a small minority of the population, certainly not more than 20 per cent. This class has already tried to revolt, but a police system of revolver, sword and machine gun, espionage and preventive arrest, has rendered all attempts futile. It is obvious that there can be no hrfpp of a revolution until Class ITT. wins the support of Class 11. But the latter despises the former and seeks to curry favour with Class L.from which it also derives its ready-mado ideas. When English-speaking people express a belief that Germans will follow the Russians and overturn their autocracy, they are simply declaring -what they, in their advanced political enlightenment, would do if they were in the position of the Germans. In Germany not more than 20 per cent, of the people arc thus enlightened, and it ie important to note that they are the least influential members of society. When you hear that the Germane are about to throw aside their objectionable institutions, remember that for three generations a belief in those institutions has been bred in their very marrow. The German is grafted to the tree of State at the age of four, and rarely does he fail to grow more firmly into the fibre of the -wood with each succeeding year.

Because you would, not care to live under the Kaiser, it does not follow that the Germans are beginning to feel the same way. The Germane love their country, and they are ardent students of ite history as revealed to them by their professors —men who alwaye write with the hope of official approval. That is why their glorious history, as they cci it, is the history of the house of Hohenzollern —the axis of the German world, the only world worth while. I believe that the German people will sooner cr later get constitutional freedom, thanke to Allied gune, but I can conceive nothing more eacrilegions to the average German mind than the merest i suggestion that they should depose the Kaiser. HOME-MADE IDEAS. There can be no hope of genuine reform in Germany until an overwhelming majority realise and admit the absurdity of their present belief that their country after exhausting every possible meane of keeping the peace, was forced to defend herself against a ring of jealous enemies. That delusion is a foundation-stone upon which the Government have reared their whole gigantic structure of falsehood. People will fight equally hard for their beliefs, whether thoee beliefs be right or wrong, and until this founda-tion-stone is torn away, the combination of mollions of blindly obedient industrial human ants, putting all their faith in a set of unscrupulously ambitious leaders, will continue to be a firebrand in the society of nations. This stone is so firmly set that it cannot be moved until Germany is forced to admit that she is defeated. The entrance of the United States will have no immediate effect of depression upon the German people. Since the first winter of the war, they have been educated to the belief that America has been doing practically all she could against them. During the Sussex crisis of a year ago the people were unanimous for unlimited submarining whether America came in or not- f The frightfulnese war is the peoples war in Germany. "Hold out, and the submarine will bring England down," is

their motto. While they believe this — and they will believe it for a long time yet—they will not rise in revolt. A little innocuous legislation may be passed in their favour as a sop to their sacrifices, but the Hohenzollems will not go the way of the Romanoffs for trie present.