A GERMAN NEWSPAPER

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 23, 26 January 1918, Page 9

A GERMAN NEWSPAPER

INTERESTING EXTRACTS

Some time ago Rifleman Morell Macdonald obtained in the field a copy of a small German newspaper ■which he sent out to hie father, Mr. H. A. Macdonald, of Invercargill. Mr. Macdonald sent it along to the Southland Timee office, and at the request of the editor, Dr. D. E. Hansen, of the Technical College, has been good enough to translate some of the more interesting articles and paragraphs, which are appended. The paper is the Ludingahausen Zeitung, of 28th September, 1917. It is the official paper published in the Email town of Ludingehausen, in Westphalia. It is published daily, including Sunday, with the exception of the day following Sunday and public holidays. Price, delivered in LudingEhausen, B^d a month. The first extract deals with the German war loan, and reads as follows: — THE WAR LOAN. ' AND FIELD-MARSHAL YON HINDENBURG. General Field-marshal yon Hindenburg, the Genera) Commander-in-Chief and the national hero of Germany, will complete on the 2nd of October his eeventieth year. On that day, therefore, do all of us, great and small, young and old, desire to remember him, and to lay at our. hero's feet tho greatest material token of our love, gratitude, and respect.. . How we I can best do this may be told in the admirable words of bchool Inspector Herold, of this district:— "Who subscribes to the war loan gives me the finest birthday gift," calls our Hindenburg in cottage and castle, and let us all—merchants and peasant*, labourers and mechanics, Civil servants and financiers, shopkeepers and manufacturersstretch out our hands to our champion.. Only not empty hands, but holding ten, hundred, and thousand -mark notes as birthday presents. And the children must not be lacking in their good wishes on this occasion. Remember this when your little ones, for -whose future millions are now fighting and shedding their blood, ask for a birthday present to give him. For in this matter giving will cost you nothing, and, in addition to bringing happiness, victory, and contentment to the Fatherland, it will return you interest at 5 per cent. The next extract gives us an inkling of the methods by which the hopes of the Germans are kept up. It reads as follows :— ENGLAND FACES FAMINE IN 1918. A WET SUMMER AND A BAD HARVEST. The coming dearth of food throughout the world in 1918 is dreaded by the united Powers. The citizens in the poorest classss of the large English towns have been opposed to carrying on agricultural labour, and have treated the idea with the utmost contempt. The London press, so harmful to the country's welfare, ha 6 through its advertising columns systematically given encouragement in the matter of migration from the land and permitted it to assume formidable dimensions. Extensive cultivation of the soil, though favoured by the climatic conditions, nas of necessity given place universally to the raising of stock. The cultivation of cereals has fallen to a minimum, and 80 per cent, of , the requirements in the matter of grain must be satisfied by importation from abroad. America, the great wheatgrowing land, was the source from which came England's supplies. The impeding of the transport of grain by i the submarines has now called for a i mighty effort in England in the province of agriculture. A general enthusiasm has suddenly arisen for agriculture, and people who previously, and ; I with proletarian dignity as citizens of the large towns, and who formerly de-. spised it and regarded the agricultural worker as only half-man, have in the past summer in their quest for breadstuffs cultivated . even the poorest ground by the sweat of their brow. The towns have put their parks I and playing areas under . cultiI vation. Great stretches of pasture land j have been broken up and zealously I sown -with corn. It was hoped thus to nullify tho effects of the submarine blockade and to increase the home production of grain. However, the summer was excessively wet. This is gradually becoming fully known, and the press is issuing warnings against under-estimating the danger. To quote from the newspaper The World :—"Now already should our country realise that we are faced by the prospect of a poor harvest, and we should form some idea as to what that means. According to the weather reports we have not had for 23 years so wet an August as the one just past. It is doubtful whether it has been found possible to bring in the hay or corn since the beginning of the warm weather in July, a few favoured places being of course excepted." And with this are given calculations regarding the position, which appears more giooniV than we previously believed:—"ln spite" of all our efforts it is improbable that we will produce this year more than three million quarters of wheat for human consumption, and that is exactly one-tenth of the quantity that wo require. The production of oats and barley has suffered equally with that of wheat on account of the bad harvest in North America. The hope of foreign grain rests with the Argentine. This great wheat-producing country lies in the southern hemisphere.' It has its harvest shortly after the New Year, which 'is just eaily enough to save England and her innocent victims, (her Allies) from starvation .in early summer of . 1918. This account© for the pressure exacted by means of the stolen Luxburg telegrams by which "disclosures" it was hoped to force the Argentine into the war. Whatever may be the outcome of this, it will avail the English but little. The World, which has already been quoted, correctly and soberly* states : "That the distresses of a poor harvest can be made good according to the news that Germany intends to give free passage to Argentine ships sailing undsr their own flag and carrying foodstuffs will be disputed by many. T.n any case too much importance must not be attributed to this possible, source of supply. This brings us, therefore, so the point that we could almost wish to have another foo ranged against us. For the free passage of food ships from the Argentine could not but strengthen our enemies seriously. However, if Argentine comes "nto the conflict then this matter can cease' to be considered, and our U-boats will encounter the wheat ships from the South American State with particular satisfaction even if their cargoes, according to the World, would suffice only in a slight degree to satisfy the'serious wants of England. So it is clear that serious days are j ahead for England, whether the war comes to an end on that account or not. The country that set- out to starve us, and was the first to introduce this most treacherous method of warfare, has brought into its own land the direst distress.