GERMANY AS SHE IS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16213, 16 May 1918, Page 7

GERMANY AS SHE IS.

ivn GERMANY AS SHE IS A>v thought TO BE.

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BERNE, March 1. • nreesions derived from liear-] The Partial neutral just returned 108 "toSS ** cribo that »d those gained from reading sh ® . Vrrmany in the newspapers, are divergent. Let me at € a s a rulol do not pay t. attention to the Bayings of a just arrived from Germany, r r a nUv for certain that such a pernis frequently nothing more aor f . La a German agent, instructed l£! J™ certain information to newsmen for purposes of Germany s

° tot the neutral of whose impressions traveller, representing a Established firm with one branch in f 't>rhnd and another ra Germany. ffnS this Swiss at first had diffiSin travelling about _ Germany ■ ' reely, to tho au^ onties f " 0I ' being sufficiently suro of him, yet after f f S weeks he appears to have satis?ed them that ho was a bona fide commercial traveller, and he was then ahle to move about freely. , His business, it is true, took him to Berlin and to such largo cities as Hambnre and Frankfurt-on-the-Main, but I goenfc most of his timo in tho smaller (owns, where neither the "Berliner Taeeblatt" nor tho "Frankfurter Zei- *>' nor the "Deutsche Tageszeiung" is read by the people but only the local papers. Of one thing this commercial traveller assures me, and that is that, although the Berlin papers m be telling tho outside world what the German wants it to think, yet they certainly do not represent the feelings an d opinions of the German people, either those at the front or those behind it The mass of the German neople know that these papers are Specially prepared for "foreign consumption," and therefore they read chiefly the thousands of small papers Bnblished all about the country Jib tricts and in small country towns. It j s a great mistako to say that papers fjom neutral countries or from Mglnnd France, and Italy are being sold in Germany. In a few cafes in largo towns, and in the editorial offices of the leading newspapers aeertain number of enemy and neutral papers read; but in the country itself trer sees such papers, scarcely knows even their names. , _ These country papers which, as I gay, most of the German people read, contain a well-put-together leading article, summarising all the events day which can possibly be in any way favourably to Germany • ending with Btatißtics showing hoyr many enemy boats have been sunk and of what tonnage, and finally concluding with a homily about "our Hrodenburg or "the good God," who in Germany now seem to be much upon a level, , • though Hindenburg generally takes precedence. , "If you read these papers for some time," Bays this neutral commercial travellerj "you begin to believe them y °Myinformant was in Germany during the so-called "riots" in Berlin, and the r'-.strikes elsewhere; and htf assures me that nothing gave the German authorities greater delight than the sensational headlines which appeared in certain English papers about these.occurrencea. Bom® of these demonstrations in Berlin he is certain ,wero encouraged by the authorities, as part of German propaganda in enemy countries. The German working-man no more dares really to strike than the soldier at the front. Whatever may happen in Germany - after the war, there is not the slightest .; . chance of any rising while the war v lasts, and, for that matter, judging from what my informant says, very ' little chance when it is over. The German .people are 'much too thoroughly ; well drilled and disciplined. Speaking about the food question, he "'«aid that in the large towns the poor, people do suffer from insufficient nour''"vfihment, but then they suffered thus even in peace time. People- who can rU spend money can get whatever they j'o'-wsftt j and the country people have as i'mqcli as they need. In fact, the for- ' mors have never coined money- as in *ithis war. Referring, again, to tho newspapers, 1 ipy informant says that there tney are , pay publishing well-written articles ■fr showing how much food Germany can -produce independently of what she expected to get from .Russia, thus pre- ' paring people for another year's war. 1/ 'As for the United Stntes, the people I 'axe told by the papers which thoy really do Tead that America is simply bluffing, tand that if she does send troops, then Germany has plenty of rosovves with ** Jrhich to deal with them. •f, "We shall finish with the French and 1 English," they are told, "by this fltat May or June, and then they will i glad to accept our terms. We shall ■A.*, take. from Russia whatever suits our -i;; purposes. "We do not need to annex Livland, and Lithuania. The £P?°ple of the Baltic provinces are our people. They have been suffering -V,under the yoke of Gzardom for so many r&!y««rs that they will be glad now to be * our protection." I a { The Gorman people openly say that I they will arrange the frontier, boginwith the Government of Vitebsk, "fv; ending with tho Port of Riga, and •> in all the provinces along tho , rifrer J>wina. Then they will take un- *. j"? their protection the Governments I Grodno, Vilna, apd Kovno. h'SmslWl will," they say, "make the Nie.vSiSSa oavigable, so as to connect it with jwugaberg. It will not then matter \r&~?r* er we B o t our colonies back or The people who inhabit the Gov--if »iniments of Conrland, Lithuania, and aro," they say, "the best in Russia, and as in blood and are more inclined to bo 'C t® 811 than Russian, they would bo of £l to us than tropical negroes. ?s*lj-'Ab .for Poland proper," they say, is, the Governments of "Warsaw, . etc., Austria can have thom. not _ want them, for tho popuviSvfe,yuon .consists of greasy Jews and / Poles, but it is important that should have Russian Poland, so i frontier in the east will be fi • once and for all." 4 } given a summary of the im- ' gathered by this intelligent 5s man, who has just spent sevenths in Germany, and talked to lifferent classes of people. Of he told me much else which, for 8 reasons, I do not record here. r and enligjiten tho German peopreeent is wholly impossible. The ship is much too strict, and they ir too thoroughly well satisfied they know everything already, sly thing which would m any wav jj their opinions js a German milidefeat, which hitherto they are iced Germany has never haa. On IWtrary, they firmly believe that fc she has had nothing but vie-

May 15