GERMANY HAS FORGOTTEN THE WAR

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6813, 17 January 1929, Page 10

GERMANY HAS FORGOTTEN THE WAR

COUNTRY TODAY VIES WITH AMERICA IN ENTHUSIASM EOR SPORT.

Come to Germany and try to talk to any German about another war, or the need of another war, and see how far you get. They have just one answer: "Der Krieg ist aus!" (says a Berlin correspondent of the Daily Express). That does not so much mean that the war is over as that the war is out. The war is an old and forgotten memory, the war is something you read about in books as you read about the Thirty Years War or some other war equally archaic. The war is passed. Of course, there is the problem of the Rhine Valley, but that, too, is a present problem, to be settled on its own merits and the terms of the treaty. It has nothing to do with planned revenge in the future.

Even the colonies lost in the war seem no occasion for bitterness, for tho», Germans plan to ask for no restitution of districts lost in the political divisions following the treaty, and what the Germans plan for the futuro must be borne in the future. So far as one Can learn, they plan nothing except new commerce and new finance and new uses of machinery, and all modern Ways for making their land healthy and wealthy and wise. Passion for Sport,

They would rather have come in second in the Olympic Games than be first in another armament race . They will get all wrought up about beating the Australians in tennis (as they did), but try to get them thrilled about a new gigantic army and they Will givo you one disgusted look and go on singing, "Trink, trink, Buder-k-in, trink, so ist das Lebcn ein Scherd." ("Drink good beer, little brother, and find life’s a jest; a healthy, happy jest). They do not drink and sing to for get their sorrow. They do not treat you with the most charming hospitality to send you home with false stories about their bencficient intentions while in secret they build armies and machinery of war. These things they do from sheer love of life and relaxation from hard toil, and chiefly from their great love of music. When the band plays "Deutschland, Deutschland über Alles," they do not Tisc and. yell and get red in the face, with tho hope of a new world conquest. But let the band play a Strauss waltz and they go round in circles in their chairs. Let the band play a song of tho Rhine Wines and tho Rhine maidens, and they roar with approbation. Steel your heart against their infectious gaiety and distrust their every word, and you come to the same conclusion; the war is out, down and out. People do not Want War. Ah, you may exclaim, all this doesn’t prove a thing. These are the people, and exeept in moments of national excitement, the burghers have never wanted war. Tho people may not want wiar, but over and over in history the people have been nurtured for war by an insidious propaganda. The people do not want war, but the people have no real voice in the secret government, and no power in shaping national politics.

To that argument there are two certain answers; iu Germany now tha people have political power, and in the early years of this century the people did give every impression of desiring a war. Look at the last elections and tho triumph of tho Social Democrats. Look at the conduct of von Hin'dcnburg, the leader of tho war, and now the most ardent advocate of the Republic and the most ardent advocate of peace.

Look at tho trouble von Huenefeld got- himself into by paying a visit to the Kaiser. He had to make open reparation to the working men and the Social Democrats. Read even the most violent newspapers. They do want what they call political justice on the Rhine, but you cannot And anything about a new war.

Even in their private' unpublished talk you will find nothing doing. With e\ery appearance of sincerity they tell \ou over and over again. "By winning the war you broke up the Prussian monarchy, destroyed the soldier education of the men we had to spend all our time saluting, gave us a chance to discover the rottenness of military glory, gave us freedom to do what at heart we always wanted to do—listen to good music, work very hard, play in the evening, and be ourselves.

"At one time wo were dazzled with a glitter of bayonets that took light, from the imperial sun. We never saw the blood -on the bayonets, or knew that the bayonets pierced our own hearts as much as they pierced the hearts of the enemy. We were beaten and humiliated and so came into knowledge of our souls. Only tho conquered ten learn from a war. We have learned; and at this distance of time w r o know just how much we have learned." "I Hate all That." Of course * you make the obvious answer. Men fresh from the horror of modern warfare never want another war. But the younger generation? They are too young oven to remember the years of their starvation. They never saw the trenches. When the time comes they will believe the old catchwords, - the old lies and deceptions, all the chimeras of military glory. Talk to the younger generations in Germany. Talk to them of military splendour aud legitimate or illegitimate revenge on the enemy. They have one answer: "T hate all that!" * They are not dreaming secret dreams of glory. : They arc doing just one thing: they are playing games. Even in America you will find no such enthusiasm. for games. Tho young Germans -arc simply mad with the desire for sporvv