JUNKER-MAD BAVARIA.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3139, 16 October 1922, Page 8

JUNKER-MAD BAVARIA.

(By Bosita Forbes.) Can limelight change the texture of men's minds, or is l habit the one immutable thing in a world where boundariesl are as intangible as value, as elastic, as 1 price? Bavaria seems to have absorbed all the red blood corpuscles of old Germany, Conscious that the fearful eyes of France, the longing eyes of Oathtolio Austria are fixed dreams in terms whose magnitude i* worthy of Potsdam.

Here is the aggressiveness of tile prewar .junker which, shoulders unconsidered feminity off the path. Hero the ■intolerance of foreigners which would rather miss a bargain than abate n whit of its exorbitant demands. Here is the blatant patriotism which parodies its enemies and extols- its Fatherland. Breathless in the cafes sit the working classes, and listen to the masterpieces of Heine mixed up with extravagances concerning the Deutsche* Reich. From shop windows smile or from the photograph* of Prince Rupprecht ("Our king. God be thanked!" as the shopman will tell the inquiring tourist). Ludendorfr' lives at Munich. Hindcnhurg is about to visit him. Roth know that the day has not yet oomo when the reactionary party may insist on a king, but it is only :i question of time. Let the Merlin Socialists be blamed for all the sufferings of to-day. The Monarchists know well that they have nothing better to offer for the moment. So. though the Crown Prince is generally talked of as the power behind the Government, he will not consent, to assume the direct responsibility which goes with the crown. It is curious the contrast which Southern Bavaria presents to the rest of Germany. The people were always of a cheerful and lively disposition, but nowadays they alone, seem to be unaffected by the cloud which hangs over Central Europe. There is life, and movement in the streets, brawling and argument. From the hush and depression of Berlin one comes to Munich agog with inttirest, ajstir with plans. The spirit of the war in its most brutal conception seems to have taken possession of men's minds. The phlegmatic German reads of horror, writes of it, listens to it until one wonders whether it is possible to be drunk with sensationalism. The cinema posters in the streets, tlm cheap novels, the music-hall stage all foster this excessive realism. Men are bored for the moment with love and snort and music, but horror is an emotion of which one can never have euotiL'h. The contrast is the more curious when you drive through ideal stretches of pasture and forest, with

red-roofed churches and ' gilded wayside shrines reminiscent of the fairy tales of one's childhood. Here is old Bavaria intent on harvest as a business and wood-carving as a relaxation. North of the Danube is industry and the smoke of factories, but south is an agricultural country which is selfsufficient and desires to be self-sup-porting. Tt has no coal, so it is spending millions on its electric power, and in meadow and glade you see rising colossal iron standards. Bavaria has not quite lost its habit of thrift, for it looks forward to the future. The crowds in Munich are loss wolldrossed than in Berlin, You see traces of poverty in bursting shoes and mended coats, but in overy country village there are small hoards of foreign money. It is the only thing about the foreigner which Bavaria does not despise. , . The bitterness in. some places is intense, and no single one of the Allies is picked out for separate praise or blame. The streets are thronged with tourists on their way to the Passion Play in Ober-Ammergau, and their presence seems to stimulate the sullen hostility of the townsfolk. Such is the focussing point of the combination which is foreshadowed by Austria s dcbilitv. The Catholic Tyrol, including Salzburg, holds out tentative hands to its co-religionists in Bavaria. Should the Socialists north prove obdurate, it is possible that the. Danube may form the boundary of a minor kingdom which will contain all the elements of old Germany and prove that habit is stronger than a peace treaty.