HINDENBURG DICTATOR

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 71, 23 March 1918, Page 13

HINDENBURG DICTATOR

FACING THE FACTS ABOUT GERMAN?. OUR SANGER IN 1918. We still shrink from facing the facts about Germany. We prefer comforting theories to disagreeable actualities. That mat/ be convenient, but it is not war. remarks "Mr. F. W. Wile,- late Berlin correspondent of the Daily Mail, in ■ recent article. Through" the Dutch,. Swiss, and Scandinavian channels which serve as filter* for "news" which Germany would lik» the world to believe, we hear the familiar rumbles of "crisis." It was the world's reluctance to comprehend the Germans and ; their motives before the war that made us. so unready for Germany's tigerspring, iii 1914. In my judgment there is an acute danger of our succumbing in the same fatal blunder. I am therefore going to try to present in tabloid form the elements of "crisiaf in Germany, personal and otherwise :— . Hi-Jdexbubg.—Supreme Dictator ol the Empire, Ltjdendobff. —Actual German Generalissimo, under cover. of "Our HindenI burg's" popularity, now so great that practically anything can be accomplished by invoking it. The Kaiser.; —Never. so much in the hands of the military despots as he is to-day. ' Emperor no longer by Divine Right, but by Grace of the Great God Hindenburg. The Ckowx Pbixce.—in army commander with no more real authority than the rawest subaltern. Thick-and-thin eupporter of Hindenburgism. Coins - r H_»T_.iNG.- ; -Hindenburg's political managing director with the title of Imperial Chancellor. Assumed office after farce-comedy negotiations with the Reichstag, which "approved" a Prime Minister selected by the Militarists because of his expert knowledge of Government methods in •managing Reichstags. "The' Old Fox" ..cause of his skill in that art. • Kum_.A_r_r.—Foreign Secretary, holding office, like • all German Ministers," exclusively by-grace of the Kaiser, responsible to .no one else, and at liberty to do only what he is ordered to do. As the Kaiser now takes his orders from Hindenburg, Kuhlmanh's "authority?' ia derived from the same quarter. Kuhlmann will "go" or stay at Hindenburg'B pleasure. • ?' The ' Reichstag.—To-day precisely what it was when founded by Bismarck 47 years ago —an Imperial debating society or legislative Hyde Park, where the peoples' representatives can blow of_ steam, call the Government names, and otherwise disport themselves without police interference. Its only vestige of power is the voting of funds, a function it performs dutifully during the 1 war. Only the S untamed " Independent Socialists" (22 in a House of 397) ever oppose War Credits.- ■*

The Government' of the day haggles with Reichstag party leaders merely to save itself trouble. If there is a hostile Reichstag majority the Kaiser, under the Constitution, can send Parliament home and order the election of a new one. ;L~. ; ■'. -F9oD.—Situation probably never, so bad, but not yet critical to the breaking point... Annually during the war we hear the mid-winter "starvation" story from Germany. The country is again in the throes of its worst % yearly period-— the long" interval between • harvests. Aggravated by a serious coal shortage, the people's plight this winter was unprecedentedly severe, but the way in which the Germans have "stuck if thus far compels one to believe that they will survive this winter." of discontent as they survived the others. Peace and ANN__.ATioKS.T-<_«-n_ury will make peace when she "has to, and annex whiat • she can, according to whether she .wins or loses the war. Political Situation.—(There are onlj two "parties" in Germany:— ( No.. I.—The Military Oligarchy, eon* sisting of the generals, the admirals, tht professors, the Junkers (Prus-iaj. landed aristocrats), and the munition-mongers (the manufacturing classes which _n wallowing in "war prosperity'?). They are, always were, and always'»ill be, the ruling party.* Thtey comprise"?the Annexationists, and care nothing for the wishes.or woes of the rest of the country, which constitutes party."

No. 2.—The business classes whichi have got nothing but impoverishment out of the war. (witness .the great shipping lines), ihe ordinary middle class, and the working classes, which must put up with perpetual under-no.urishment and ir_- ! creasing hardships of all- kinds.

Party No. 2, which sees no benefits, present .or prospective, in the "victorious military. map". of , Hindenburg, might , ,make' peace on the terms proposed. by Mr. Lloyd President Wilson if it had'any voice in thq matter. It has only one desire—to resume '''business as usual," by virtue of .which Germany in 1914 was on. • the topmost wave of national prosperity and domestic happiness. .

Moral. —The German army is unquestionably war-tired. What army is not? But latest indications 'from the

Western front all agree that German

troops are fighting with - ■ the same doggedness as ever. The German nation is undeniably war-weary too. What nation is not—except the" United Statest But the Germans subscribe to war loans

as patriotically as ever, and are probably, doing no more "grousing," man for man, than keen ears can detect in these very

islands. MuNitiO-rs.—A "distinguished Dutch*; man," newly arrived in Switzerland from

\ Germany, was quoted as saying that ! "trains laden with munitions still roll westward." The great bell of Cologne Cathedral is being melted down for copper, but that only means that Germany is now- calling up her immense reserves of metals. Under cover of her various ' "crises,". real or fictitious, Germany is making aeroplanes, submarines, and shells at a rate doubtless unequalled hitherto. Her 2,000,000 or 3,000,000 prisoners of war are all on munition work of one sort or another.

Revolution.—Heine, keenest student of Prussian psychology, remarked that revolutions were impossible,, because! they were verboten (forbidden). Cynically said, but literally true. For every German with revolution in his heart a machine-gun is waiting. Liebknecht was the only Prussian who would ever, have led a revolution. He is now doing penal servitude.

When tiik Germans . Will Stop Fighting.—Not until we make, them sea that militarism and war do not pay—-, that is to say, when we are able trf impose peace upon a defeated Germaa army and navy. — ■-__^—--'-'. .-