GERMANY'S PLIGHT.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17633, 9 December 1922, Page 17

GERMANY'S PLIGHT.

EXTRACTS FROM PRIVATE LETTERS.

[The writer is a woman doctor practising at Jena. She lived in Australia for three years, teaching. After a short period of study in Edinburgh and London ehe went to the University of Zurich in Switzerland for a year, then returned to Germany, where she read for her medical degree at the Universities of Tubingen, Jena, and Berlin, doing good work at the Virchojv Institute of Anatomy. She had been getting hospital experience in various places when war broke out. She then returned in Berlin, where she waa resident at the largest women's hospital of the capital at Charlottenburg, throughout the war. Having Feen a lover and admirer of the British and their institutions, as well as a patriot, and being a woman of wide culture, she should bo able to give a more intelligent and unbiased account of German conditions than most of her.fellow countrymen.— Editor "Sydney Morning Herald."] . August 12th.—From a little mountain place in the very south of Germany, half an hour from the Tyrolese frontier: "I have had a very Busy and strenuous time these lasi montW Hie practice took all my time and thoughts, and I was very much in need of a hoh- I day. . . . There are scarcely any culti- | vated women among my patients, they are mcatiy the wives of workmen and factory girls! The insurance pays for them. Our middle class don't call the doctor. They are in no insurance, and can't afford "it. They starve and go in rags, and neglect then health dreadfully. I feel guilty sitting here and j being able to have this rest and to get away from tiring things, while there are feucii multitude drudging on under their burdens. But wo Hermans carry our burden witli us wherever we go. j We only need to open a. newspaper to ! make us sac The tea which you sent j me is quito beautiful. 1 drink it only j now and then when I am quite tired at j night. 1 am very grateful for it. "We can buy tea here. It cost 3 300 marks a pound and is horrid. ... It is so very_ good to get away from the things or everyday life: 'and by soul smoother itself out'—that is what I think in looking out intc this, mountain peace and beauty. You know, 1 am living still in town in furnished rooms, crammed in and not able to arrange things round me as I like. There is no prospect of a flat of one's own. It is such a misery about dwellings. I think it is wor*> than th* other things—the scanty food and coal and clothes—because it influences the conrfort of your real life much mort>. It i 3 quite impossible for anyone to build even the smallest and simplest house. Only the State and communities build, and that with great sacrifices. Don't believe it when your papers tell you that we live* in comfort and luxury. Of course there is more luxury in Berlin and the big towns than ever, but you hear scarcely a German word spoken at these places — Swedish, Dutch, American people, and the officers of those hundred Entente commissions go to those hotels, restaurants, and shops. Thanks to our miserable valuta (exchange) they can afford everything and buy our food and clothes. In Fluesburg, where mother's relations live, the Danes make life enormously expensive for the inhabitants. The Danish frontier runs five

miles behind the last houses in Fleusberg. 1 myself earn a lot of money, and cannot afford to eat meat more than once- in a fortnight, and to eat an egg every day. Butter costs 150 marks a lb, a pair of shoos 1500 marks. When 1 go buck to town butter will be costing 200 marks. September 14th.—We are having a nasty, rainy and drea:>- autumn, quite suited to our stale of mind. You ask about the late Kaiser and Krounrinz. Wo know little about them; nobody takes much interest in them. They are almost forgotten in tho greater i part of the country. Only a few sentimental people, who know nothing of the realities of things, wish them back', i and think that they are wronged. Not [ that tho sensible part of the nation ! thinks that they made the war; but wc | think people set as Kings over a coun- \ try ought to bo wise and conscientious ! enough to avoid such a catastrophe and all playing with lire.. The Kaiser is I a man who certainly is getting what he deserves, although he certainly wished the best for his country. "Either ho was too stupid or too vain—some peoplu say even insane—to do good work. I think we need a little distance from the events of these last years to be quite just. Anyhow, we are glad for the most part to be rid of : these Hohenzoilerus. " All our little kings arid dukes and priuces fell like ripe fruit when the revolution began. They really waited to go. They are all right .in their nice, comfortable country seats, and have a pretty good time. They are mostly wealthy, and know no want like the greater part of their former subjects. It is a strange time for us. Borne years ago the Kaiser—and here the Grand Duke —stood first on all grand occasions, and now nobody thinks of them. Tho Kaiser ia to bo married again—he may be-very lonely. You must not forget that wo have so much to worry about that we can't care about those lato princes. It is a dreadful time; day by day, everything gets more expensive, and tho outlook sadder and drearier. Our way of living and dressing gets simpler and poorer from week to week. The time is especially hard for the Hausfrauen of the middle-class, who have to drudge from morning till night. We are almost as badly off as poor Austria. One earns a lot of money and spends a lot more. It is never sufficient anywhere. The worst of it is, that everybody speaks and thinks of nothing but money affairs, of bread and butter (of course nobody of our class eats butter, now 400-500 marks a lb), of shoe-soles (1000 marks a pair), and now as winter of coal and wood. It is a horror. Nobody has money for books and pictures, or things of culture; one wonts from morning to ni«lit to earn one's daily meals. People look sorrowful and miserable. We are dreading political troubles, caused by the Communists and Bolsheviks, when things get worse, as they certainly are getting. We had a miserable summer, and are having a worse autumn. It is necessary to heat the stove already now, about three weeks earlier than in other yeare. That is' a great additional expense. ,Most people, of course, don't heat, and go to bed early to save light. But I must have one warm room for the patients to undress. i have go about a good deal in the mornings and at night, and have to do it all on foot. Our tram has stopped, the upkeep being; too costly. I have no bicycle, and can't pay the fantastic prices now. It wears you out, as there are 6teep streets and many hills round the town. But I am eo glad and thankful to earn enough, to keep mother and myself. Ot course, there is no idea of saving any money; one must not tnink of later; only of tho day. Frau is almost blind, and starves and has not coal. Mother doeß knitting (crocheting?) or table covers for Sweden and Norway, and gets pretty well paid for them. Do you think there would be a chance of selling them.in Sydney? It is very pretty work, the .kind of covers that our grandmothers knitted. You can't imagine how grateful and happy I am that I have seen' so much of the world, and that I know other countries and people. There would be no possibility now of going anywhere, considering the valuta (exchange). After November travelling will be almost impossible ,in Germany, a-s the fares are being put up tremendously. . . Old Tante Helene lives by selling piece by piece her nice old furniture, pictures, and china. Tante Anny is also doing needlework and knitting for Sweden. The wife of a friend of mine, a surgeon with whom I work a good deal, has learned boot-soling, and 13 soJing all the shoes in the family. ... - Outside is a dreary, rainy day. Think of your fine September weather.. _ 1 take your tea when I am very tired and on Sundays, and made two cloths for cleaning my instruments from the linen parcel cover. .Everything comes in useful.