A HUNGARIAN ON THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 12, 9 October 1917, Page 7

A HUNGARIAN ON THE WAR

HOW THE ENEMY'S PEOPLE ARE DECEIVED AMAZING STATEMENT (Circulated by the Royal Colonial Institute by authority o't the AVar Office.) If we may judge, from the war literature produced by our enemies I'or their own consumption, the inhabitants of Germany and Austria-Hungary are capable of believing two entirely contradictory theories at' tho same timo. Their masters oh tho one hand inform them, iu an unending series of speeches, books, and pamphlets, that tho'Central Powers are defending their existo:K6 against a ring of the most terrible military and naval might that the world has ever seen, huge .Russia, hungry to devour the Western world, France bj history and inclination tuned only to war, and England a pirate armed to the teeth. On the other hand,' in an equally unlimited set of spoken and written exhortations, they are informed that Russia is not a Power at all, but mere raw material awaiting the organising' genius of Germany and Austria-Hungxry, that France is a poor rabble of bourgeoisie and anarchists, and that the British Empire requires only a puff from the German bellows to'blow it into pieces. . A. recent example of the effort to spread the latter theory occurs in a book written by one "Pluto," a travelled Hungarian. The bulk of the book does not concern us here; it is an account 01 a visit paid' by the author to the Turks, tllese recently-discovered, long-lost brothers of the Hungarians, and of their delight'in being civilised by the Germans, a process that this Hungarian appears to think better for Turks than his kinsmen think of it in Hungary. But incidentally, and irreleveutly, except to show his knowledge of the world, he throws off the following sentences in his opening pages:— "Canada is bound to England only by the slightest of threads, but, none the less, England treats her as a possession, and a■' concienceless party Government sends troops to the aid of England; these, however, are not wortiv much, and the best of them have no dearer wish than to throw off the yoke of England." So much for Canada; Australia is. dealt with even more briefly and foolishly. "Australia j» in many ways merely a lookeron *f tho world war, but even there the settlers struggle against the overwhelming tendency of the English t;> carry out their lust for world conquest."' The Canadians "not much good ; the Australians "merely lookers-on"; Canada and Australia anxious to cut adrift from the British Empire! There have been wars in which the belligerents without detriment to their lffll to virtory, still ■coveted each other's good oj.inion. In such a war we can imagine Canada and Australia taking some means of reminding the enemy that tho need of England has bound England and her overseas 1 Dominions in still clearer and more' intimate union, and of recalling certain military events in which tho Canadians were worth a. very great deal and (he Australians very far from.'being merely lookerson.' One would have thought that the imperishable glory won at Ypres and Vimy, at Anzac and the Somme, had made a more lasting impression upon the foe. We have learned, however, to bo entirely indifferent to what the German Germans or tho Austrian Germans or the Hungarians say about us, and to be. content with ; a little curiosity as to why they say it.In the days of payments by results, a wily schoolmaster used'to. make one-half of his class learn tho geography of tho Old World, the other half the geography of the New World, so that whatsoever the questions might be, one half could answer correctly, scouring the fifty per cent, result 011 which the full grant was paid. Oh similar lines, no doubt, the leaders of the Central Powers procure or permit the issue- of contradictory views. To those, including the bettor part of the Socialist Party, who wore brave and patriotic, and who did not covet their, neighbours' possessions, it was useful to proclaim the strength, long preparation and wicked intentions- of the enemy so that they might bo ready to endure all things, even the violation of their principles, for the defence of the Fatherland. But this would not do for everyone. It you wish to hire a thief or to 'persuade a hitherto honest man to break into a house, you do well lo tell him that tho watchdog is old and leothless, the servants corrupt, and tho windowbolts eaten through with rust; in fact, that the nefarious enterprise will be a very simple job. And so those who coveted tho rich cornlands of' Eussia, the hegemony of the Near East, the colonies of England, France, and Belgium and universal world power thought it useful to say that Russia was rotten, France degenerate, Belgium a threat to peaceful Gel-many, the British Empire in disruption; in short, that the war would be a mere pageant for the victorious armies of the Central Powers, diversified by amusing opportunities for devilry. Much fighting, in which Canada and Australia havo been not inconspicuous, have made it rather difficult for the Germans'to go on saying that they aro out on a picnic, but these events appear to have escaped the attention of our friend from Hungary, who no doubt was preoccupied by making the acquaintance of his bloodbrothers in Turkey.