ENEMY AT HOME

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 143, 17 June 1916, Page 14

ENEMY AT HOME

PROHIBITIVE PRICE OF PORK.

SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY

YEARNING FOR PEACE.

Not very much information, of the daily life of the people of both- Germany and Austria is allowed to find its way into the press of either country, so vigilant are the censors, so complete their editorial supervision. Moreover, what they may permit to go through (even if they do not actually concoct it) of bitter hardships being endured by the people cannot always be received without suspicion. Nevertheless, reading between the lines it is quite clear that the poor and the middle classes' in both Germany and Austria are suffering privations, and incidentally yearning for peace. So far as that goes, the people of the Allied countries are desirous of peace also, and as quickly as possible, but there is at the same time a determination to fight on to the very end if that be the only way by which peace can be secured.

The selection of extracts made from German and Austrian papers and other sources which follow have been selected as merely sidelights on life in Germany and Austria to-day. A Russian journalist who successful]}' managed to elude the elaborate precautions of the Berlin police to detect spies has written a series of enlightening articles on tho daily life of the Prussian capital. He describes how " from time to time numerous crowds of the emaciated German poorer c'asses, consisting mainly of women, literally exhausted through underfeeding, and having lost all faith1 ;i\ the highsounding assurances ot ' fina,! victory and the destruction of. the enemies' armies,' of the promise of peace after the taking of one or other of the enemy tnwps and fortresses (for instance, peace, vas promised after the taking of Warsaw), have organised, one after the other, demonstrations, carrying banners vrith the inscription, 'Bread and Peace,' and also demanding the'return oi thftiv husbands, sons, and brothers, i

A MILDER. POLICY.

"Not wishing to irritate still further and provoke excesses on the part of the protesting elements, the German authorities are dealing comparatively mildly with the demonstrators. One must therefore treat with caution the exaggerated reports'bf shooting of demonstrators and of hundreds of killed and wounded which appear in our press and in that of our Allies. Tho attempts, however, of the German'press to prove that there are no anti-military demonstrations in Germany and no hunger riots are in vain. . Everybody in Germany, and Austria, whom 1 asked about it confirms that such disturbances and riots did take place, only in a few cases some people, obviously prompted by tho warning on the hoardings not to give information to foreigners about events which may be of use to the enemy, tried to.'convince me that all these protests were insignificant and that altogether such protests were only few in number."

A NEW WORD—'

•"PEACE.

One cannot remain long in Berlin or any other German city without realising that the former confidence, the unshakable belief in the victorious end of the war for Germany, has vanished. It still lingers, perhaps, with the " beer " putriots, but otherwise there is a genera.l sense of fear for the future, no confidence in the present, and mistrust of the official assurances and promises, the Russian remarked. " Krieg " (war) and " Sieg " (victory) were the only two popular words at the outbreak of the war and long after. "A new word .'Friede' (peace) has caught my eye, and was on the lips of all classes of people with whom I discussed current events. One had only to walk a few steps along Friedrichstrasse and stop at the first stationer's shop to come across this popular word. In Berlin and Dresden there was not a birthday-card which did not have the wish for a speedy peace coupled with the customary greetings. A whole series of new pamphlets, books, and special numbers of various journals are devoted to the subject of peace, and on the stage and in various cabarets and variety theatres it becomes more and more the theme of the songs. These, of course, are more or less ' censored,' 'permitted by Government,' and express in the abstract the desire for peace.

" I had, however, the occasion to hear the wish for the speedy termination of the war expressed more directly in casual conversation with representatives of various classes of people ; and the. lower the rank of the people to whom I spoke the more pronounced was the longing for peace."

Recent reports from Germany show that the enemy is very anxious about his pigs. The pig plays a very important part in the food supply in Germany. Before the war large quantities of pork were imported from America ; now Germany has to subsist on its own pigs; but a crisis has.arisen, as there is not enough food to. fatten the pigs. A recent report in the Cologne People's Gazette states that the farmers in the neighbourhood arc unable, to fatten the pigs, .owing to laok of fodder, and the pigs have to be killed to provide food for the labourers. Heather is beingused, ground into a meal, for pigs. Pigs arc also being fed on fern roots. The •Prussian Government is also helping to secure fodder for the pigs. Similar conditions exist in Austria and Hungary, where pork is in large demand as an article of food. Prices are becoming prohibitive. The average price for pork in Budapest is 2s 8d per lbjin Vicuna, the wholesale price of pork varies, from 3s to 3s 3d per Ib.

BOOM IX DIVORCE.

The Vossische Zeitung is the authority for the statement . that applications to the Berlin Courts for permission to begin divorce proceeding's have greatly increased. We are told that 'the number of divorces in Berlin this year is ten times the ■number in normal years, and that this extraordinary state of affairs is not confined to the ca-pi-tal, but is noticeable in almost all the large cities. After Greater Berlin come in the order of their matrimonial trouble* : Hanover, Wiesbaden, Cologne, Dusseldorf, and Frankfort.

The prevalence of divorce in Germany is borne out by, official statistics quoted by Mr. George L. Fox, Principal of the University School of New. Haven, Conn. According to the official tables 20,340 divorce petitions were filed in Germany, against 963 in Great Britain.

A VEILED SOCIALIST THREAT

The sympathies of Vorwaerts are cleariy with the mutinous minority of the Socialist Reichstag deputies. Speaking of the attempt by Dr. Liebknecht to obtain a hearing on the Navy Estimates, the leading Socialist organ says:— "Liebknecht conducted a continued battle for the freedom, of speech with the National Liberal Vice-President Paasclie. and finally the majority of the House decided to deprive him of his right to speak. Unfortunately some adherents of the old Social Democratic fraction voted with the majority, but for our comrades in the country this day willhave the effect of more thoroughly clearing the atmosphere. The spirits are dividing; let each of us take note in time where he stands."

GEIUUN COLONISING SCHEME. Bavon Engeliiavdt lias worked out a

grandiose colonising of the B&Ric provinces with Germans. "We badly require lands for colonising purposes," he. contends "It means daily bread for us. It means also that we will be iible to retain millions of Germans who are otherwise in danger of breaking off from us. Look at the Germans in America and other lands. Why have they left the. Fatherland ? Because in Germany they could get no land to till. Germany is "too small for the German nation. Hitherto they have emigrated to America, where they become Yankees; to Australia, where they become Australians ; to Russia,, where they become Russians ; or they perish in fever-stricken tropical lands. They/have become Kul-itur-manurers. This is the British notion of tho true destiny of the German race. .And if realised it would mean the loss of millions of Germans to the German national stock." The Baron proposed to transplant all the Germans settled in various parts of Russia to the occupied Baltic piovinces of the T«ar, there to form a great barrier against the Muscovite. "May God and Hindenburg see to it," he concludes his appeal.