A GERMAN IDEALIST.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 149, 24 June 1918, Page 4

A GERMAN IDEALIST.

Professor Nicholay, who has just escaped from Germany by aeroplane, is, like the rebellions Dr. Mult-lon of Krupp's. a Gorman whose record is well -worthy of study. Our cable message refers to him as the author of a book called "Psychology of the War," which wed

"strong pacifist tendencies." It is not dear whether this is a new book, or the one by him that appeared last year, dn which he indicted war as an archaic institution, and German ideals and methods. This book was regarded by critics ns one of the most remarkable produced by the war. Mrs. Julian Grande, to whom we are indebted for information about Dr. Nicholay and his work, compares it to Block's famous book, "Modern Weapons and Modern War." Dr. Nicholay .before the war was Professor of Physiology in Berlin University, ranked as one of the lea/ling heart specialists in Germany, and had beca consulted by the Empress, lie had always boon on opponent of German militarism, and refused to accept the popular doctrine of "anight is right" and "necessity knows no law." When the declaration of the 03 German intellectuals on the side of Gorman poiiey was issued in October, 1914, Dr. Nicholay and two other professors drafted a counter-statement, but could not get support far it. The authorities imprisoned Dr. Nicholay, and afterwards, great physician though he was, sent him to the front ns a stretcher-bearer. While in prison he -wrote the book on war aud German idesiils to which we have referred, and the manuscript of it was smuggled out of the country to a Swiss publisher. Dr. Xieholay combats the theory that war is biologically desirable, and* maintains that the love instinct is more powerful than the war instinct. In dealing with the stock arguments in favour of war. says Mrs Grande in her review of the book, "he primarily means aggressive warfare, for he never hints that the Entente peoples ought not to have risen as they did in 1014 and defended themselves against their aggressors." He proposes to supplant war by an internationalism in which nations will develop the best that is in them and work together as members of one great family. The num.™ race is to live "most worthily and most morally." and Mrs Grande adds caustically, "most morally at a time when the question ot introducing polygamy is being seriously discussed in both Germany and Austria." Dr. Nicholay tries to instil a little sense into the minds of his countrymen on the subject of German, British and French methods of government. He instances with wonder and admiration the loyalty of the Boers in this war, and regards the United States as a British possession because the Anglo-Saxon idea lives there. National ideas and habits, he says. "take roost vigorous root where, as far as possible, nothing is done to implant them by force, and where ■ they are merely a particular form of civilisation; that is,j where the weapons used arc those ot life and not of death." On such manifestations of the modern German spirit as Lissauer's "Hymn of Hate" he is most severe. As a proof of German mental depravity lie cites the newspaper comment after a naval action in which the British rescued German sailors, that it was really too much to be rescued by "this English rabble." Hut there is a much more terrible indictment in the following passage: "I was asked recently by one of our ablest military men (who, owing to his high standing, shall be nameless, especially as when -peace is restored he will assuredly regret his question), whether it were not possible to drop bombs containing cholera germs or plague bacilli behind the enemy's front. When I told him that I did not think there would be much object in so d-tjing, and that it was likewise scarcely humane, he replied, with a contemptuous gesture, "What havo we to do with humanity in this war? Germany is justified in doing anything.' And, unhappily, millions think as did this individual, a man in himself of superior character. And most think far worse things. For instance, a General Staff doctor said to mc at Grandenz that he had often wondered whether we could not somehow contmve to slip into Russia in order to inoculate Russians there with living bacteria, 'for against such a herd everything is legitimate.'" After this, does anybody still require proof that the Germans have a morality of their own? Dr. Nicholay will be an interesting addition to the little band of German intellectuals in exile who have left their country because they cannot tolerate its policy and methods, and are devoting themselves to its regeneration.