TEACHING WAR

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVIII, Issue XLVIII, 2 November 1914, Page 4

TEACHING WAR

HOW IT IS PREACHY© TO GERMAN -BOYS. " i Germany's method of instilling the spirit and* race hatred in, the young arf described by the writer of the following attido, who, from September, 1913,_ till •ttiiir la*t was an assistant teacher in-a ■higher technical school in the Rhine province. He was appointed to the post by the Ministry of Education on the advice of the English Board of Education: — It is now common knowledge tttat Germany has for vcars been preparing for war. We ha'vo been preaching peace while our German kinsmen liave been increasing their armaments, laying their diplomatic traps, instilling the lust of wat into the national mind, the better that Germany's--, millions might become the instrument -to dominate the world.--Is an En&iish teacher at a Prussian Obeweaisehule 1 ("J.T.," i« the "Daily •Mail") daily beheld the havoc wrought upon bovs by misguided teaching. \Vhen T read.of the- ficndisli deed* committed bv the Gvemans in Belgium 1 sec m my m'ind's eve a class of innocent lads, and seem to' hear the master haranguing them. There he stands, with face flushed, with eyes astare, teaching his pupils t')e doctrine of rampant Kaiserdom. a devil's gospel that sears the heart- At the outset let me say how much 1 liked the headmaster and staff of the school to which I had been appoint-' eel In private dealings they were kindness itself, but the Chauvinists among them, when once aroused, became, as it were,' drunk with insolence. I "WHEN IT COMES OFF.'' t well recall going for a walk with one of the staff, a handsome Dusseldorfer, en ordinary occasions an excellent fellow. The conversation somehow turned upon France and the French, and. forthwith he burst into insults, threatening France with a day of awful reckoning, the »>Trcat day to which the Germans refer in the phrase "When It comes off' ("Wemi's losgeht.") This man's views on En "land were those of many other Germans. England was to him merely negligible among the nations. Witli no conscript army to meet the German millions, with a navy soon to be outclassed and" nutnumbercd by a rival at Kiel, England was presently to sec the wisdom of bowing to the Kaiser, thanking him that the Prussian hordes were not overrunning her. Our school was richly, bedecked witft pictures of Bismarck and of scenes from the Franco-German war. On the top floor, along the corridor, were frescoes illustrative of certain lines in the poet Korncr's "Aufruf." The lines "They shall drive the steel into the foemen s heart," were illustrated by a, bloody picture of French soldiers being skewered, on Prussian swords. JINGOISM IN SCHOOL.-;

An elder boy had written a playlet in which one of the characters was a French officer. The action dealt with how this maiv was, discovered- in tch act of treachery and how lie wis slain an a duel with a German student. Whenever the boy dressed up as the Frenchman appeared on the stage he was hissed and booed at by his schoolfellows. On the commemoration day of Diippel •one master delivered:a speech describing the folly of the' Danes in not yielding without a murmur to the God-granted Government of Prussia." On the Kaisers birthdav another master read an exciting chapter out of a cheap book, dealing with a future war, presumably with My own lessons were a pure pleasure to me, as I found the boys with whom I had to work so bright and so eager. As soon as ever my pupils could: manage to sav it. they loved:td ask me -about the strength of the British Army and Navy. They tried, by the way, to tease me about the exchange of Heligoland, Jingoism made its wahr into the other- departments of the" school's activity besides mcro lessons. German boys love to <*o a-wandering,' often for days together, and accordingly a batch of elder pupils. went on a walking tour .through Luxemburg and- along the Vosges. The master in "charge of them told ir.e; how the lads amused themselves on the frontier by .standing in.Germany, and.seeing how. far, thev could'spit into France.. ■■ -During mv stay the school issued its first magazine, on English lines. ~_T hG first two numbers were free from Chauvinism,- but to the third an article was contributed in which the following passage occurs: "We wand ered through Heidelberg, the fine, town, rich m overawed and shuddering we went through the castle, and thus we, to whom'' so Sioii.lv before' the towers, of StrasbirVg: Minster had!' bidden good-bye, thought again on the holy war of scarcely, ihalf a century ago, when -vengeance was taken for the Roi Soleil's deeds of rolfbery and murder."

FLEET AN INSURANCE POLICY. My acquaintance with German, school books has been a source of great, profit to me. However, the -.-following- exi tracts give an idea of what is. one of their few. defects. I mean the fault oi being Chauvinistic. Those who. have, railed against the building of Dreadnoughts may have read a translationfrom an article entitled "To what end. Ava wo need a war-fleet?" : by P. Koch, in the German reader for Untersekunda —i e. Form IV—issued by Evcrs and Walz,' of the Bamicn Gymnasium. Historv further teaches us that never have armaments become too burdensomo for a nation, .i nay, Ira do and. cbmmerco have bloomed, and. the. national welfare has increased with, ability and readiness for war. . . Ihus a fleet works in, the manner 01. an. insurance policy, and tho sacrifices that a nation makesj* lor. its navy bring it high interest. .•...- In Hanr.s's "Earth-loro of-the Fatherland" ("Vatcrlaiidisehe Erdkundo' ), one of the best German text-books of school o-eography, the following is to be read in on Heligoland : There is a biting charm, about it to think-that England should havo-thrust ner own weapon into hcv rival, s Mnds. There -was enough laughing; when 3u 1890 Kaiser William exchanged Zanzibar and Witu for Heligoland. Ino English newspapers swam in glue. Lut then came another tunc. As-might "bo expected, there are examples of Jingoism to be found in French text-books used in Germany. For instance, Dubislav and Boek'» 'French : exercises ("Franzosisches Übungsbuch ) contain the following sentences to be translated from French into German — viz. : "To-day the French know they arc weaker than' we. They are not likely to attack us without having a powerful all v. lam not ignorant of the fact that France is still richer than Germany, but in wealth wo arc quickly approaching our neighbours." Naturally 1 found Chauvinistic poems in the anthology used at the school where T was. This was the popular collection, "Von alien Zweigcn" ("From all Boughs"), and afforded me a goodly harvest of this kind of verse. 1 remember the delight, with which a class of boya read (the following passage in Ernst Moritz Arndt.'s "Des Doutschen Vaterland." Thus might I translate three striking lines:- — ■ . That is the' German's Fatherland ; Where every French is a foe And 'every 'German is a friend.

The last poem of: the x collection is a ' 'Kaiser-song- in 1 praiso 'of William 11., by Felix Dahn (1834-1912).• From this,l, will translate as follows':' — .:•.., , : Thou yearnest not for battle-glory, But rather for tho Palm of Peace ; 'Tis Peace thino aim and thy. rewardBut rights aiid honour, of ±h» dand Thou guardest with .thy weapou d arm, '.-' » Thou liurlest lightning from thine-cycjj \And woo betide o'erweenhig ones, / Should they thy fiery eagle -tear.