IN THE NAZI NAVY
The armaments race in Europe has reached a > point at which the German Navy seems to be cracking under the strain. Things have come to such a pass that the Minister for War, General yon Blomberg, has issued a decree, authoriisng. naval, ratings to cease addressing ■ their officers in the third person and to use the pronoun "you" instead. The practice of this decadence is illustrated by the official "Gazette for Naval Ordinances." .For example, under the old usage a German sailor who wanted to summon his captain to the telephone, would have jumped to attention, saluted smartly, and spoken thus: "The Herr Captain will be pleased to come to the telephone. Under the new.decree he goes through the motions as before but, according to the "Gazette," the correct words now are: "Herr Captain, will you please come to the telephone?" In the old Imperial Navy somebody would have got a court-martial for such insubordinate behaviour.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19370306.2.97
Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 55, 6 March 1937, Page 10
Word Count
160IN THE NAZI NAVY Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 55, 6 March 1937, Page 10
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Evening Post. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.