PRO-GERMAN SVEN HEDIN.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 150, 26 June 1915, Page 16

PRO-GERMAN SVEN HEDIN.

In a preface to the English edition of his pro-German book, "With the German Armies in the West," Dr. Sven Hedin, the much-travelled Swede, says his faith in Germany's victory is more unshakable than ever. Here is an extract from the book : — " Here at Headquarters everyone speaks with the greatest respect of the Frenchmen as opponents, and no one denies the bravery of the British soldiers. ' They go straight into perdition without flinching and fall, but do not yield before the fire of machine guns.' Of the prisoners it was said that there was a great ! difference between the British and the French. The former would stand with their hands in their pockets and a pipe in their mouth when spoken to by an officer, and a salute was only elicited by a reprimand. The Frenchmen, on the other hand, always salute the German officers without being told, and this is probably due to their inherited military spirit and to the trait of inborn courtesy which pervades the whole nation." In another place Dr. Sven Hedin states that while th© Russians need only 4 per cent, of guards, tho British require 10 per cent. : " The reason may possibly be found in the inborn servility "traceable to generations of serfdom, but the principal reason of the' difficulty in handling the English prisoners is probably that they have no national service and have not accustomed themselves to discipline. The cases of insubordination in the prisoners' camps are almost entirely confined to tho British prisoners. The punishment for the first offence, consisting in letting the culprit stand a couple of hours to guard tho guns on a little flat eminence near tho camp, whore the wind usually blew cold and strong. After a graver offence the delinquent was usually tied to a tree for an hour or two, but this latter punishment has only been resorted to in isolated cases."