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Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VI, Issue 270, 31 October 1916, Page 4

A cable dated from Madrid gives ns no fresh news when it tells _us that the pro-Germans are making efforts to control the Spanish press. .4 correspondent of the London “Times,” writing from the same city about the middle of last month, drew special attention to the solicitude with which the Germans were cultivating public opinion in Spain. Although there were, of course, fairI 5 intimate commercial relations between the two countries prior to the v ar. and Germany had developed in Spain, as elsewhere, the process of “peaceful penetration” that marks her world-wide policy, still German influences in Spain have been greatly augmented since the war by the' large increase in the numbers of the Germany colony there. This correspondent says that shortly before the outbreak of war there was quite, a notable exodus of German families from France into Spain. Then, since the war broke out many travelling Germans have elected to take up* temporary residence in Spain rather than return to the restricted dietary which the British blockade has imposed on the Fatherland. When Portugal declared war there was another Teutonic emigration across the Spanish border, and from the conquered Cameroons there refuged in Spain a large number of Germans, both soldiers and civilians. Altogether, it is said, there are now in Spain some 80,000 modern Huns, and all of them are active and disciplined agents in the dissemination of pro-German sentiment. “They work by- plan and under orders, and while they* are all iu a tale to convince the- Spaniards of the wickedness and weakness—particularly the weakness—of the Allies, they adapt their arguments to local feeling with skilful flexibility. In the north they play* upon the fear and dislike of the French, and darkly hint that a victory of the Republic might mean a return to the horrors of the Napoleonic invasion; in the west they provoke fear of Portuguese annexations, and in the south they trade upon Spanish regrets for Gibraltar and upon Spanish ambitions in Morocco. As a more general argument they proclaim —as they have been proclaiming for years at the Vatican—that Germany* is the champion of the altar and the throne, and her adversaries the unholy disseminators of anarchical impiety. They have powerful supporters —the Jesuits and most of tire clergy, except the more sagacious of the bishops ; a great deal or the aristocracy ; the majorit'v of Court ofli cials;' the vounger officers; many professors, schoolmasters, and journalists, and a large section of the middle class. lhe correspondent also emphasizes the. strong grip which Germ m bi in and C erman capital have secured upon both the metropolitan and the provincial press of Spain, and also the use which was being made of Spain in order to push the German propaganda in the South American Republics. As an evidence of how far German representations had damaged the estimation in which the British had been held, commercially and financially at any* rate, prior to the war, the “Times” contributor instances the chagrin he experienced when he found that “our good British sovereign, which, we were proud to think, was the standard coin of the world, was at a quite uncomplimentary* discount _in a land where cue formerly* received a handsome bonus in exchange.” The, letter winds up with a serious warning that Britain was mistaken in not making energetic endeavours to counteract this German subsidiary ci'mpaign, which is designed as preparation lor the trade war that is to follow the cessation of military strife.

It is long since we had a day so bare of news of military interest, for neither overnight, nor up to the late hour of writing, has any message of special moment come through. Among the cables received too late for comment yesterday, however, were some which spoke hopefully of an early improvement in the situation so far as Rumania is concerned, one from Rome repeating an official Russian assurance that aid “exceeding all expectations” would be speedily forthcoming. At the same time a London cable spoke as if the complete evacuation of the' Dobrudja were m contemplation, a suggestion that is a little surprising, and which we are inclined to think will not be fulfill- 1 ed. There is also an overnight message which speaks of the enemy hav- j ing been heavily reinforced on the Hungarian frontier, where the Rumanians are said to be. offering. a stubborn resistance “with, varying fortunes” —a phrase which is not entirely reassuring and makes us anxious to see the Russian promise converted into performance. Gen

eral BrussiloS still maintains silence with regard to the progress of events in Vohlynia and Galicia, and the Franco-British front on the Somme has only some minor successes to report. While the Serbians speak in general terms of the fighting on their front being in their favour ? and of some trenches taken, there is no news of any moment from the Anglo-French section of the Salonika lines, and but little from the Austro-Italian theatres. An American message states that the United States Consul at Queenstown advises the President that a British liner, with American passengers on board has been sunk without warning by a German submarine off the south coast of Ireland, and some curiosity will be felt with regard to the line which Dr. Wilson will see fit to follow should this announcement be confirmed.