THE SHADOW ON THE GERMAN HOME.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15465, 18 December 1915, Page 15

THE SHADOW ON THE GERMAN HOME.

THE DOMESTIC TRAGEDIES OX GERMAN SOIL. ALTHOCGg IT IS FREE OF "THE ENEMY. - ' According to a famous saying of the Duke of Wellington, the best lighting general is "the man who can divine what is happening on the other .side of the- hill." Htere we give (says 'Public Opinion") som 0 very striking facts, which show tho heavy shadow which now rests upon the German home— the domestic and commercial tragedies on German soil —although as yec it muv be frco of "the enemy." They show, too —war being war—that our Xavy is making itself felt, right into the very heart of Germany. RISE IX PRICES. "The price of the necessities of life has risen from "o to 100 ner cent. "' says the 'Nation.'' "Tho women simply cannot live and rear children on tho wages or government allowances provided for soldiers' families. Potato bread is still available, but thcro has been a substantial rise in the price of potatoes, and the poor ar 0 crying to the Government for help. anc j butter show an actual scarcity of supply, combined with prohibitive selling price. Meat is practically out of reach of the poor. All the fat substances show also conspicuous scarcitv and a bewildered Government is callins on tho German scientists to produco fat irom sewage, dead horses, and other by-products of tho war. THE FIGHT FOR FOOD. "Berlin and the great cities look cbc<?rlul on tho surface to the wandering 'neutral.' Below, in the poor quarters, women are standing en queue often all night for the right to purchase fragments of meat, bacon, or in*" 11 tnc morning, and there are scuffles and struggles', during which, in something like a riot, the weakest go to the, wall. The 'Vorwarts' of October 15th last describes the scenes at the sales in tho municipal shons of meat, and lard. The sales began at seven in the morning and lasted tifT ten. At 10.30 in one shop there were, still 100 neople when it was c losed. and some IpOO had to go away emptvhanded.j Women complained that they had spent three ov four nights near tho shop dij»or. and yet had not arrived early enough to be served with meat. The ris* in the price of foodstuffs drives to the 1 arrack door many who in other times would never havo dreamt of begging fo • a soldier's dinner. THE AUTHORITIES CONDEMNED. "Meanwhile the Central Authorities can do nothing but issue pathetic requests lor the rich and middle classes to curtail their supply of butter in order that the poor may live. "Amid tho general condemnation of the country by the cities, the agrarians, not without force, hit back. Tho rise of prices, they complain, is not their fault. It is entirely due to the deprivation of foreign "supplies, combined

with the immense rise in the cost of the raw material of their industry. ''From the cities tlio cry continually comes'for fixing maximum prices; together with n general condemnation of that German internal 'organisation,' which was supposed to he tho wonder of the world. THIS NOTE OF MISERY. "So whenever wo plunge beneath the flag-waving, music, and band-celebrat-ing triumphs of arms, this noto of misery is appparent— 7 the misery of war. 4 " 'The shadows at home,' Paul Harms calls it in the 'Berliner Tageblatt.' contrasted with, and, to some extent, clouding the great military achievements of Germany abroad. He bitterly attacks the Government for fumbling nnd inefficiently dealing with tho problem, and complains that an Empire waging war against three World-Powers is seemingly unablo to deal with the feednig of its own people, and that the sole result of this incapacity will be an 'immense revival of Socialism after tho war. 'The pity of it.' ho asserts, 'is thatoo r brave men and our mighty Empire always seeni in the field to be condemned to begin all over again.' '•How vital the*.o inatters ate. how great tho misery:- is revealed in 'Vorrtvarts' in a Cologne incident. A bed and wardrobe were offered as a gift in a local paper. The applications were overwhelming, and sample incidents are quoted. 'As I am a x>oor soldier's wife, with three small children and only one bed and no wardrobes, I beg to reply to your advertisement.' 'All theso letters,' says the 'Vorwarts,' in n courageous comment, 'show that the life of the soldiers' families is, after all. something different from the. idea<s entertained by many simple persons, who see only the isurface, and, having deceived themselves, wish to deceive others.' THE RUIN TO COME. " ''The short, successful war, the spoils of victory, the wealth of Belgium, huge indemnities, annexation of colonies, trade which would make everyone prosperous and contented and bring back the armies iii triumph and splendour— that was tho reward promised and the dream dreamed. "To-day the reality iV growing daily farther from that intoxicating vision; in the sight of enormous and increasing losses in the field, starring women at homo fighting fo r food for their children, the miseries of another winter in sight, with increasing privation, and no alternative but ruin, whether victorious or defeated, at the end. " 'It will be a long time before Germany comes to her last gas;*,' writer a neutral who has just returned from Germany, 'but no one can describe the ruin into which she will be plunged when the day of the victory of the Entente arrives/ THE EXPORTERS' CONFESSIONS. Some severely commercial facts given by the "Observer" prove conclusively that Germany is feeling the pinch. Sec what her own exporters confess. "It is possible to select from dossiers numbered not in tct.s. but in hundreds, evidence as to the suite 0 | mind of those who two years aso gave Germany its strength,'' says the ' Observer." " As far as the commercial war i.« concerned,' writes a German merchant to his branch abroad, 'England has at the present time far and away the upper hand, for the export and import of overseas goods via neutral lands is to-dav practically out of the question.' That was in April of this year. "Two months later another firm posted two letters, the one to a commercial house in the. United States, the other to a foreign branch. " 'I» consequence of the existing prohibition of exports,' runs the for'as well as of the impossibility of shipping tho good.- at present, the delivery of any order must be held hack until" the coriditiors may make a shipment possible. The note of the serond is more definite' The new English measures are so vigorous that we inticinate very great difficulties with regard to our import consignments, sven if the goods conie from ports belonging to the Allied Powers (Austria ind Turkey).' SAD POSITION. " 'l"'rom your letter . . . say, a bird di stinguished German firm. *uv >ro sorry to s<v? that you have, not ho slightest idea of the sad position

ot Oorman transmarine buiinoss at the | prosont time. ; '.Meanwhile I have to reckon with' the impossibility of set.d"Jg you consignment? through neutral '•ountries." 4 \Y O reckon tho value oi' the buMiies-es which have been destroyed through. England's commercial war. on a moderate estimation, oi the capital value of the average profits of the last ten vears.' .I'R ACT. CALL Y PENNILESS. "I/Pt us add but one other to these soren quotations in our catalogue of concerns that once- were great and now nave no exusten<:e. 'For fu'tv vears,' *ny s the last Germaii merchant u'c shall quote, "for fifty years my father ami J'have budt our business iip. Today we are practically penniless. Onr export trade is absolutely .stooped, and I see.no prospect whatever that, in niv lifetime at least, tvc shall ever ho able to recover it.' "'