GERMANY WITHIN

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 48, 24 February 1917, Page 12

GERMANY WITHIN

PEOPLE WITHOUT STOMACHS

"THE RACE BEGINS TOCREAK"

BLOCKADE REAL AND. TERRIBLE THING.

The recent letters of Madeline Doty to the New York Tribune and the Chicago Tribune, telling how the war is affecting the great civil population, aJtitract more than usual interest. This woman lawyer aid writer has come into direct contact with the people. Just how they are stinited vn. matters of food is revealed in her contributions £o the American press in a completeness which makes the British blockade a, real ant* terrible thing.

. Miss Doty reports that the girth of the average German is passing -from, rotundity to the severest leanness, and that the great mass of Hie people are Dein^-. driven gradually to desperation by the increasing ravages of hunger. She writes:—

"As I start ito leave itJie hotel I pause in tho entrance to gaze up and down the famous street Untor den Linden. Thin streams of people are passing and repaesing. It is Monday, but the atmosphere is thai, of Sunday. German week-days now are ail like Sunday. It is uncanny to see tragic eyes gazing into pastry shops and fruit stores. Meat is not displayed. I wondered why the butter and cheese stores were ignored. I tried gazing in one. They put up such a good' appearance with their shining tin-foil packages. Then I discovered the 'reason. The packages are fake. Each holds a block of wood"

The German spy system is universal, and it is efficient. Few succeed in outwitting it. In fact, Miss Doty makes the special point that the only detail in which the system seems, to be below par is that of dressing the spies. There is practically a uniform for them. They all wear grey clothes, grey hats, carry canes, and are pale-faced and smoothshaven, with, however, a slight moustache in some instances. But they are as unmistakable as Sherlock Holmes. In recounting experiences with spies,, she says:—

'" But before I leave Germany the spies get on my nerves. What was at first amusing becomes a nuisance; I feel exactly as though lam in prison. I acquire' the habit of looking out of the comer of my eyes and over my shoulder. These spies are as. annoying to their countryman as to me. The people detest them. They grow restless under such suppression.-- Free conversation is impossible, except, behind closed doors.

" As for the people, there is a sombre greyness about them. They are thin. I didrr't see a big girth anywhere. Germany is stomachless. It isn't that people have nothing to eat, but all except the very rich have'too little. The food they have isn't the right kind. During the summer there seemed to be plenty of vegetables, fruit, and a fair supply of •black bread, but' this without grease, sugar, or meal does not satisfy digestion. It's like trying to run a wagon without oil. It begins to creak.

"The. German race begins to creak. As a. whole, it is pale, thin, and sunkeneyed. Sooner or later a, crisis is inevitable. Whether when.it comes the desperate people will join the ' Yon Tirpitz group and it will be one of ugly retaliation, or an internal awakening and evolution, depends on the attitude of the neutrals and the Allies. The soldiers as well as the civil population suffer. The front line tronches may be wall fed, but the men home on leave or in barracks are noticeably thin. They are pale, weary, and without life. They also have no stomachs. Soldiers are everywhere in Berlin. They are always coming and going. The cripples are not allowed upon* the streets, but nervous wrecks are plentiful." '

However, in spite of all the precautions taken to conceal the wounded, the public . manages to gather a faint idea of its ' losses. We are told, of a trip to the railway station to see a big detachment leave. It was a band of veterans, who had served in previous battles. They sat ' about in listless groups,. talking very little, perhaps not ■at all. All the vaunted German esprit de corps was fled.. The scenes .of farewells were harrowing.

" As the train moves out of the station •there are no shouts, no cheers, no words of encouragement. Instead, there is a deadly silence*- The men lean out of windows stretching despairing hands towards loved ones. As the train pulls away the little groups break into straggling sobs. They ■ are shaken as by a mighty tempest, paroxysms of grief rend and tear them.- They know the end has coma. A man may go oiice into battle and return, but not twice and 'thrice. Life holds no hope. The Socialists estimate that two and a-half to three million men in Prussia alone have been killed, wounded, or are nrissing. No wonder the soldiers are desperate." " Midnight, my friend tells me, is the favourite hour for seizing fresh food for cannon. There is something sinister in choosing dark hours, when the city sleeps, for this deed."

" The tragedy in Germany is not quick starvation, it is the underfeeding of a whole race.

" One Sunday I go to the Zoological Gardens, the popular resort of the masses. A band or two still play, but. the. grounds are not half filled. Everywhere are vacant tables, when formerly it was a, privilege to secure one. Little family groups in j black sit silently before a lonely glass of beer.. Sandwiches are a rarity. The | ices seemed to be made of coloured-frozen perfumes, and were distressing internally. "In the iron cages there are still a few animals. Whether' they have decreased in number I cannot tell. But they, like the people, suffer from a scant diet. The monkeys have grown contentious. Their tempers suger. They raise a most terrific racket, and - continually bite, and . claw, and fight each other.' Ironic laughter seized me. They-are .so human. I fall to wondering whether mankind is copying thera or they mankind.

"It-ishard to be.discontented and progressive when the : stomach is full and the land flows with milk and honey. But suffering has come and a' new race is emerging—a lean race, with active minds that J)eg_in to question German autocracy and militarism.

"To an observant person, three things are everywhere in evidence, telling an unmistakable story: The flat stomachs, tlio endless signs, "To Rent," and the empty chocolate- slots. The j> German race is surely slipping into a decline.' What shall the world do? Shall it stand idly by, or shall it stretch out a hand of sympathy and understanding to these troubled people, and help them, free .themselves from the domination of a military group they begin to despise? The people do not wish to be ugly. They do not believe in a yon Tirpitz submarine policy, but if England insists on smashing and crushing the German nation, where is their hope? What is left but ugly retaliation? Wo are not yet angels!"