The Press. Tuesday, June 19, 1917. The Germans and Humanity.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15931, 19 June 1917, Page 6

The Press. Tuesday, June 19, 1917. The Germans and Humanity.

Throughout the war it lias been oT>servod £hat whenever the Germans make a lying allegation of inhumanity or illegality against Britain or any other of tho Entente Powers they have done so with tho .objoct either of providing an excuso for some new devilry of their own, or of hurrying forward: with some justification for some German ill deed shortly to bo exposed. But as the Germans have exhausted all the resources of barbarism, it is not very ciear what they hopo to gain by their allegation that in tho destroyer engagement' of June sth the British forces left a number of sailors to drown when' they could have been easily rescued. Tho facts are, of course, as unlike tho Gorman story as possible. As on every other occasion of the kind, our gallant sailors, faithful to the traditions of British seamanship, did their best to. rescue the Germans in the water, and this despite the fact' that in their rescue work they woro attacked by the enemy. "When the Germans first began to make charges of inhumanity against Great Britain, British people were moro disposed to amusement than to anger. It was so obviously absurd that a Powoj- with Ger- . many's hideous record should venture to make Any protest at . all, even if there were any moasuro of truth in tho Germ tin story. Then it was so obvious that deliberate inhumanity was entirely foreign to tho eharactor of Britain at irar. But Germany was wiser than wo >vcrc in sorao respects. Tho Germans' reputation amongst neutrals had been carefully presented, by tho agents of tlio German propaganda, in very agreeable colours, and tho circulation of false talcs about tho British forces was likely to make most of the imperfectlyinstructed neutrals tbink that in the mattor of humanity there was little difference between Germany and England. Further, there was tho effect to bo produced on German opinion. The other day a cable message told us of some German prisonors, captured in the present offensive on the West, who came into our hands quite pleased with themselves, ignorant of ( any rumour of German atrocities, and expectant of praise for having fought so well. This little incident throws some light upon tho extent to which the German pooplo have been deceived. It is very' possible that great masses, probably a majority, of the German population, bc.lieve that Belgium invaded Germany, that the Lusitania was a munitions

ship. that tho Essex villages bombed by tho air-raiders were arsenals and fortresses, and that the hospital ships • sunk wore cruisers in dissruise. Tho

German exploits whose atrocity cannot- be hidden by any grotesquo explanation have probably never had any circulation in Germany at all. Such a public would naturally be thrown into a fury of wrath by the false stories of English inhumanity invented by tho Gorman Government. But it is probable that, even if tho facts of the war were fully and exactlv known to the German people, the Germans would still go crazy with rage over any report of British neglect to save German sailors in a naval engagement. They do not regard the people of Britain, or the British sailors and soldiers, as human boings at all. Men.in the front rank of intellectual Germany have declared, with every intonation of solemnity and sincerity, that tho killing of a single German soldier in action is a crime which could not be atoned for by the putting of the whole English people to tho sword. The sentimental Germans weep over tho courage displayed and perils endured by tho heroic airmon who throw bombs into English schools —the poor little English children they regard as vermin and they have as little compunction over slaughtering them as over the slaughtering of mice. To most people it wjll seem horrible that the Germans should complain—even if it wero a truthful complaint—of the neglect of tho English destroyers to pick up tho drowning Germans, when the memory is still fresb of the occasion when tho Germans shelled the men on tho ruined and helpless submarine that had gono on the rocks in the Baltic. The German frame of mind hero revealed cannot possibly be tho product alone of tho German propaganda since the war began. It existed before tho war. This is tho people who must be made fit for membership of the community of nations — tho people whoso arrogance and in 5 humanity amount to something like insanity, whoso disregard of the right of non-Gormang to liberty or oven to existcnco is the basis of their philosophy. And the only possible cure is defeat. "When they find that their horrible philosophy of life is false, and that their savage gods have availed them nothing, they will begin in a humbler and more spirit to get a new philosophy.