SECOND EDITION. GERMANY DAY BY DAY.

Mataura Ensign, 11 December 1917, Page 5

SECOND EDITION. GERMANY DAY BY DAY.

WAR MISERY SUICIDES. ! TYPICAL DOMESTIC TRAGEDY. ! One of the typical domestic tragedies which throw a light on war-time conditions is again the talk of Berlin —the suicide of an actor named Schultze, of the Thalia Theatre, with his wife and three children (writes Frederic William Wile, late Berlin correspondent of 'The Daily Mail'). Letters left behind confess that the family poisoned themselves for fear of starving to death. To the surviving child, a 13-year-old girl, who was away from home, a letter had been written urging her also to take poison, a dose of which awaited her on the bare kitchen table.

COAL MANNERS. . Hitherto the Prussian War Usury Office (which prosecutes profiteers) has suppressed only butchers, grocers, bakers, and other purveyors of commodities proved guilty of systematic robbery. It has ordered a Berlin coal merchant named Loebell to retire from the trade for the duration of the war on account of incivility to customers. Loebell scorned to pay any attention to customers who begged for the right to purchase an occasional sack of coal, lie would sometimes condescend to supply them, but only after long delays and much personal abuse. The Usury Office said that such practices must •ease "in the present hour." OUR AIR. FORCES. A 'Frankfort Gazette' correspondent mentions the overwhelming force in 'which British aircraft is now encountered in battle. He states that on the ;-hief fighting days "English machines swarmed so thickly over our lines that at first we could hardly face such superiority. Reinforcements quickly called up soon," he adds, "altered the situation." HUNS AND SOUTH AMERICA. German commercial interests are notoriously sorely grieved over the constant lv growing wave of anti-German-ism throughout South America. They had earmarked the Latin • Republics and China as the markets where, after the war, Hun trade would make up for .i*s forfeited position in European countries. Herr von Sanden, late German Minister to Bolivia, is trying to cheer up Hamburg. At- a meeting of the local Chamber of Commerce he asked the Hanseatic shippers and exporters to be of good heart. "Deutschtum" (Germanism) would triumph in the loifig run owing to its inherent "strength. Everything justified the certain expectation that after "victorious ending ,of the struggle" everything would be done ro restore German trade in foreign territory, especially South America, soon again to former eminence. Herr von Sanden is certainly a king of optimists. HORSE-STEALING EPIDEMIC. The newspapers report an epidemic of horse-stealing in Berlin. The animals either find their way to the slaughterhouse or to the country, where the thieves obtain high prices for them.

GERMAN GUODS FOR U.S. Prominence is given to an announcement that a very large quantity of German and Austrian goods purchased during 1915 and 1916 by American importers —mainly textiles and chemicals —which have been lying in warehouses •n Rotterdam have been released and will shortly he shipped to the United ■States. Shipment hitherto, it is explained, was prevented owing to the opposition of the British Government. Goods purchased alter the severance of .iiplomatic relations between Germany and the United States will not be forwarded. COGNAC AND WATER. , In Berlin a publican and two women accomplices were sentenced to three months' imprisonment and fined £2OO tor selling "cognac" which consisted ot 73 per cent, water. A J AI'AN ESE ROMANCE. "Voss' Gazette,' which throughout ..he war has specialised in "exclusive news" from England, comes to the aid of Kuhlmann with information from iiondon that "grave negotiations are taking place in America between representatives of England, the XJhu)ed states, and Japan" regarding Japanese participation in the European campaign. "Well-informed diplomats," according to Aunt Voss' veracious and .ill-knowing Amsterdam correspondent, declare that the Americans threaten to reduce the size of their proposed -expeditionary Force ''unless Japan takes ,i larger part in the war than hitherto." It is with grotesque statements, of which the above is a sample, that the Germans are being buoyed up to believe that their cause is prosperous and their triumph certain.

RETURN OF FAT CHILDHEN. Trains arriving from many directions, some from districts as remote as Hungary and Rumania, are now bringing hack to Berlin hundreds of children sent away at the beginning of the summer lor better nourishment. The papers say that the experiment has been a great success, and that the children are in good condition for the "lean" winter at home. HOTEL HOT-WATER RATIONS. Hot-water rations for hotels have now been lixed in Germany. Hot water may be used daily only for kitchen, laundry, and house-cleaning purposes. Baths are obtainable only on Tuesdays and Saturdays until midday. On every lioor there may be but one or two hotwater taps, from which only the hotel staff may take water until 2 p.m. Hot-water taps in guests' rooms will be shut off. Still further to reduce coal consumption, no public rooms in hotels are henceforth to be heated. To save kitchen fuel, guests must eat breakfast, luncheons and dinners' at specified times, outside of which only cold victuals may be served.