AN ENGLISHWOMAN IN HAMBURG

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3185, 8 September 1917, Page 9

AN ENGLISHWOMAN IN HAMBURG

DESOLATE CITY "GIVE US FOOD AND WE'LL HANG OUr FLAGS" (By "An Englishwoman" in the "Daily Mail-.") rJo place in Germany lias been liil so hard by tlio war as Hamburg. No community sighs so anxiously for peace. There Is 110 more talk • of "victory." "Givn us food, and then we'll hang out tlio Hags," is whnt thoy ure saying today. Somo now excuso will have to he invented before many weeks are past to explain to tho German people how it is that U-boats bav not accomplished England's overthrow. Of course, many Germans have known from the start that it was impossible. For several weeks before my doparturo German naval officers of my own acquaintance shook their heads, and said: "Wo cannot beat England with submarines. Wo must find some other way." Tho pooplo as a whole do not realise the hopelessness of their U-boat campaip, but I do not seo how it cun be kopt from them indeiinitelj. Harbour Dead. To the thousands of English ptople who knew Hamburg in its gay, prosperous, well-fed days tho Alster city would present a sad and sorry sight to-day. There is no sign whatever of its former prosperity. Tho harbour is dead. The vast business of export and shipping on. which thousands of Hamburg iamilies depended is at a standstill. They have had to make heavy drafts on eavinge and invested capital. Tho two great hotels, once tho city's pride, the Esplanade, and the Atlantio, iire practically shut and bankrupt; they depended on the patronage of wealthy visitors, especially Americans and English. Cafe life ceased many months ago. You can get no coffe that is drinkable—tho so-called "substitutes" arc- vile, and there has been no lea for a long time. Tho Hamburg gooso was a once-famed national dish. A goose, when it can be had, now costs £5 or .£G; in the old days a fiuo one- cost 12s. to ISs. Thero is no lack of money; but money ia worthless, because only in laxo instances can one buy anything with it. There wero never so few fat men and women in Gemimy. "Pot-bellies" have disappeared. Everybody in. Hamburg is and looks underfed.

Hamburg depended to an enormous extent on English trado and goodwill for its prosperity; and though tho Hamburgws at first prayed that Go1;t would strafe England, ihc.v nro beginning now to think of tho future. They hope England will forgivo and forgot, and help tho port to regain eomo of its greatness. You will hear a good many Hamburgers say they know now that it was not England who ; jnadt. tho war. The. are beginning to blame "Berlin." Tho Kaiser is not nearly 6o ptfpnlaron. tho Elbe as ho once was. Ido not think there would bo much cheering for him to-day if he rode round tho Alster with his friend, .Herr Ballin. Hamburg soldiers are very bitter when they come home. You hear a good deal of talk, attributed to them, about "freeing" Hamburg from the rest of Germany when the war is over. They ■want to bo "liko England."

Waiting for a Boot Permit. Shoes and soap uro some of tho things that are now terribly scarce in Hamburg. I stood four hours waiting for permit for a pair of boots, and eventually' qaino to England without them, after having had tho permit i'or five mouths, as there were no boots to bo had. The heels of boots aro bow repaired with leather from old ones, and this costs 2s. Most of tho children aro wearing boots with canvas uppers and wooden soles. Wo were allowed a small piece of war soap" once a- month, which weighed about lib. This gavo no lather, and was very gritty. For cleanliness' sake I had to buy a.piece of 1 tho ordinary soap •which cost mo ss. I should think it was •half tho size of a tablet costing. 3d. in England. Tho "Visitors' Sheet" said that a certain doctor had invented a substitute for" soft soap for washing clothes, and n few months later I bought a pound for Is M. When put in water it gavo forth such a smell that I had lo throw, it away. People naturally would not use it- it was then made in powder form, but with the samo,result. One or two shops had a little stal-ch, for winch 12s. a pound was asked. Tho heating problem was terrible last winter, and the authorities are already warning Hamburg that, it may bo worse next winter. I was eix weeks without coal, and my heels wero frozen. I obtained a ticket for coals irom fte police, but the coal merchants had hundreds of ■applications from customers and no coal. When coal could bo bought it cost .s. 7d a cwt., so I had to live in (he kitchen and keen warm from the jis cookingstove. I often stood in queues for hours to get 21b. of bones a fortnight, and when all the strength 'had been stewed out of these wo had to return them before we could get more. I Yet if Hamburg is a sample ot the rest of Germany, I do not think that even such hardships as I have described are "oinsr to make the country Rtop fighting They know filings are sows badlv, but they have not yet abandoned faith* that, somehow, or other, they will win They know that they have held on to nearly.all the territory their armies liave conquered, n'" l as "one «s the eneniv does not succeed in getting (hem out of it they will continue to think that in the long run victory must come.