Evening Post. TUESDAY, APRIL ,17, 1917. THROUGH GERMAN SPECTACLES

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 91, 17 April 1917, Page 6

Evening Post. TUESDAY, APRIL ,17, 1917. THROUGH GERMAN SPECTACLES

German official statements concerning the war continue to be models of their kind. While the German armies in France are being subjected to-a terrific hammering, and even with sixty divisions are quite unable to stem the British ad- I vance, the German people are apparently | allowed to know nothing except that j some fierce bnt spasmodic skirmishing is in progress, in which the Britishalways get the worst of it. "Thener was a pause in the fighting yesterday north-eastward of Arras and the Scarpe," said a German official report which reached London on Saturday. "Furthersouthward, at Croisilles and Bullecourt, after a violent artillery fire, the British vainly attacked several times. Our after-thrust inflicted considerable losses. Strong enemy attacks failed against our St. Quentin positions." The monotonous story of British reverses was continued in the German official report which was issued later in the same day: " Repeated strong British attacks between- the Scarpo and Bullecourt failed, j with- heavy losses." On the following j day the.official bulletin was to much the same effect: "In consequence of the removal of our line northward of the Scarpe there have been only minor engagements, in which the enemy suffered heavily. From the Scarpe lowland to the .Arras-Cambrai railway there wasj violent fighting yesterday. British massed divisions attacked several times, but'were sanguinarily repulsed." Though the general tenor of this message is the same as that of its predecessors, it is of higher artistic merit, since it has to deal with a German retreat, and manages to do so in a way that redounds to the credit of the German arms. The fact o£ the retirement from the Scarpe is deli-' cately and incidentally conveyed in a narrative which is mainly concerned with the defeats aaid losses of the enemy. From none of these aimpla chronicle*,of J4crmaaj?fetpsy can we slew* ft Wftfc »j .

the fact that the masterly retreat which has been executed " according to a prearranged plan " has cost Germany 13,000 men and 166 guns in four days.

But tho display of German valour is not confined to these veracious narratives of tho progress that the German armies are making towards tho Rhine. Civil affairs provide an opportunity of which tho authorities aro equally pleased to avail themselves. It is, of course, mainly to tha non-combatant population that even the military bulletins aro addressed. The German Government has never overlooked tho fact that the struggle is as much economic as military, and that the spirit of the non-combatant is just as essential to victory as that of the soldier. If the people confess themselves beaten, and allow tho Government to become bankrupt, the valour of their soldiers cannot save tho position. The systematic doctoring of the war news for popular consumption, and the immense, pains taken by the German Government to husband the economic resources of the country, are both due to the recognition of this truth. The urgent need of money to carry on tho war is probably the-rea-son why the bad news from .the Western front has been disguised with unusual thoroughness during the last-two or-three weeks. On previous occasions victories have been exaggerated and defeats concealed in order that the floating of a, war loan might not be jeopardised. Thesame tactics are being pursued now with a .special care worthy of the gravest emergency that has yet arisen.

In addition to the Allies' 1 offensive in». France, there is the intervention of the United States to disturb the equilibrium of tho German Government. 'If it was impossible to conceal such a fact from the people, its character could at least be so represented as to;form the basis of another appeal to the patriotism of the. people. The addition of the United States to the number of Germany's enemies is notf due to > her insolent declaration of warfare against the merchant shipping of the world, but to the malignity of President Wilson, who was seeking a pretext for attack. The proper answer to the outrage is to subscribe liberally to the German Government's new war loan! The President is accused of " endeavouring to create opposition among tho German people and to the Imperial Government." There is a mysteriousness about this allusion which should heighten ita effect upon the susceptible hearts and pockets of the Fatherland. Has the wicked President Wilson been maintaining a hyphenated American-German press in Berlin? or subsidising the Left, Wing of the Social Democratic Party? or through his diplomatic agents organising on German soil conspiracies against the German Government, or dynamite plots against life and property? The faithful readers of the appeal issued by the German Ministry of Finance are apparently expected to read something of this kind into the cryptic language of its charge against the American President and to seek vengeance in a rush for war bonds.

" President Wilson little knows ths Germans," says the Ministry of Finance. Perhaps so, but he certainly knows a little more of them than he did three or four months ago, and, like the rest of the civilised world, the more he knowsof them the less he likes them. " Never in the Empire's history," the appeal proceeds, " has a decision been so eagerly awaited and so enthusiastically greeted as the freeing of the submarines from all limitations against England, who was the damnable cause of and was criminally prolonging the war." " When in doubt play trumps" is a maxim familiar to the whist player. ■'■' When in doubt bless the submarines and damn England " appears to be a familiar maxim of the desperate gamblers who are stalling all the fortunes of Germany on this last mad throw. An interesting commentary on these frenzied appeals to the spirit of murder | and hatred in the German people is provided by the news of^the growing intensity of their struggle in the grip of the blockade, by the food riots which indicate their weakened morale^ and by the audacious declaration of the. Vorwaorts- that itj is time for the Government to tell the troth. The truthseems to be gradually leaking out in spite of the Government. Immense as is the power which the German Government can exercise through ite-censorsfaip,. its press, and its police, it will hardly be-equal to the task df permanently persuading a. people-short of food that H. is not hungry.