GERMAN PRESS VIEWS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume L, Issue 175, 26 October 1917, Page 7

GERMAN PRESS VIEWS

BELITTLING AMEBIC A. HOLLAND'S NEUTRALITY. All German newspapers are exceedingly angry at the intervention: of the United States. 'Most of them are frantically endeavouring to convince tho German people that America's effort will be too late to affect tho course of the war, but there is not complete agreement upon this point. The jierDii Vossische Zeitung i s bold enough- to assert that if America can raise the men sh e cannot train them, and cannot send them to Europe because of the submarines, and even if a few men escaped they could not be fed. According to this paper the war is to be won hy° the submarines before America can ■become a factor of consequence. "Don't let us be bluffed," it says. "Time and. again throughout the war our enemies have attempted, through bluff of some kind or other, to depress' The spirits of our people here. Th e very) Jatest bluff is British and '"French mews about the impending appearance of American troops. After having through the press of Scandinavia, Switzerland, and 'Holland, this 'news' has even been smuggled into German newspapers. Tales about huge American' armies on the western front are invented only to

frighten you ! The American nurses and doctors who have come to France will not bring about an allied victory. Pershing's men will not be put into the fighting line, and battle-worthy American troops will certainly not take the field under the Stars and Stripes in 1917. If they do it will only be to serve the purpose of cannon fodder in' the ranks of our other enemies. We do not need to concern ourselves today with what may 'be sent over later. We can, however, hope that the American Army, which can undoubtedly by the spring" of. 1918—but under no circumstances sooner —intervene in the great struggle of the European nations, will do so when it is too late." The Berliner Tageblatt is more serious on the subject. "-'lt'.says:—"When we hear of the flowers with which <Pershine and his; men were pelted in the ■boulevards, we., may say-, ,if we like, that their reception savours of comic opera. But let us remember this—that it is an operatic interval which impels thp French to hold out in their terrible tragedv.'' The'Kolm'sche Zeitung is angry with America for daring to "meddle in Europe," and it demands a "Monroe Doctrine • for Europe," protesting against the American "upstart" interfering with and deciding the history of Europe according to her viewpoint.

BRITAIN AND HOLLAND. Another subject to which German newspapers devote much attention is th e position of Holland. There is a great profession of the belief that Britain will sooner or later violate the neutrality, of Holland in an effort to turn the' flank of the German army on the western front. The ontv reasonable explanation of this 'is that the Germans are casting about for an excuse to over-run Holland and thus gain the mouths of the '-I'-:->« r"d also the entrance to the "c'htldt. 'i!us freeing Antwerp, which, vs a porn, has so far (been of little use »,o Germany. as entrance to it lies Lhrou.sn Dutch waters. v

The .Berlin Vossische Zeitung says: "When in midsummer the enemy sees it is impossible to get a favourable decision on the western front the scruple;esg English will show themselves on the most vulnerable part of our right, and Flanders and Holland are threatened points. Holland's attitude of benevolent neutrality will yet have to faco its most serious test in 1917." Lord Derby, the British Minister Cc" War, has tnven the Dutch people complete assurances that Britain will continue to respect Holland's neutrality, but this does'not cool the enthusiasm of the German military) writers, who return periodically to the subject.

• LANDING BEHIND.'THE ALINES FEARED. ' The Berliner Tageblatt says the British will attempt to turn the' German flank by a landing, behind the lines in Belgium. "/This," the 'paper .' proceeds}, "would involve" tile 'possibility of 'threatening', the; flank of "the German ff roht—an advantage which -the English and French in all .the battles, for three vears past have' in vain striven to oibtain. Open to the English fleet is the. coast -of Fkndersand Holland—but Ho) land only if the Dutch people and army were to grant the , English the way through their country, which is- -hardJjp to be expected. "So there would remain only the coast'of : Flanders,Hvhieh.is 'very strongly fbrtified bv the Germans and proyid■ed' with, artillery. The existence of the intention to land' is made probable by the xecent- naval pushes against Zeebrugge and Ostend. They cannot be regarded merely as attemtps to stroy, our submarine' bases." ' But an English landing, even if it were possible to succeed in rapidly" silencing the German- coast-batteries, would meet the, greatest difficulties. : A; landing' at the east of. 'Holland—;ior instance, at the mouth 'of "'tho"'' Ein*i—could not ■be attempted ov the English without the heaviest sacrifices, because of the large minefields which have been laid by England as well as Germany "before, the East Frisian- Islands. They would also find that the German North Sea coasts are as prickly as l a hedgehog."