GERMANY AS SHE IS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LII, Issue 115, 20 May 1918, Page 7

GERMANY AS SHE IS.

AND GERMANY AS SHE IS THOUGHT TO BE.

BERNE, March 1

The impressions derived from hearing an impartial neutral just returned from. Germany describe that country as she is, and those gained from reading about Germany in the n©wspapere, are extraordinary divergent (writes Mrs Julian Grande to the Christciiurch press). Let me at once say that as a rule I do not pay much attention tn the saying 01 '"a neutral jiist arrived from Germany," for I know for certain that such a person is frequently nothing more nor less than a German auent. instructed to give certain information to newspaper men for purposes of Germany's own. But the neutral of whose impressions I wish to give a resume here is a genuine commercial traveller, representing a well-established firm with one branch in Switzerland and another in Germany. Although this Swiss at first had difficulty in travelling about Germany freeiy> owing to the authorities not being sufficiently sure of. him. yet after a few weeks he appears to have satisfied them that he was a bona fide commercial traveller, and he was then able to move about freely. His business, it is true, took him to Berlin and to such large cities as Hamburg and Frankfurt-on-the-Main, blithe spent most of his time in the smaller towns, where neither the Berliner Tsgeblatt nor the Frankfurter Zeitung nor the Deutsche Tazeszeiiung is read by the people, but only the local papers. Of one thing this commercial traveller assures me, and that is that, although the Berlin, papers may be telling the outside world what the German wants it to think, yet they certainly do not represent the feelings and opinions of the German people, either those at the front or those behind it The mass of the German people know that these papers are specially pared for "foreign consumption,'* therefore they read chiefly the thou? ands of -small papers published a!' about the country towns. It is a great mistake to say- that papers from neu tral countries or from England. FrancP and Italy are being -sold in Germany In a few cafes in large towns, and ii> the editorial offices of the leadim* npwspapers, a certain number of en* my and neutral papers are read; but in tho country itself no one ever sees such papers, scarcely knows even theu names.

These country papers which, a.-? I say, most of the German people read, contain a well-put-to.gether leading a>tide, summarising all the events of the day which can possibly be in any wayinterpreted favourably to Germany, ending with statistics showing how many enemy 'boats have been sunk and of what tonnage, and finally concluding with a homily about "our Hindenbure" or "the good God," who in Germany now seem to be much upon' a. though Hindenburg- generally taket precedence.

"If you read these papers for some M'me." says this neutral commercial traveller, "you begin to believe them yourself."

My informant was in Germany during the so-called "riots" in Berlin, and the strikes elsewhere; and he assures me that nothing gave the German authorities greater delight than the sensational headlines which appeared m certain English papers about these occurrences. "" Some of these demonstrations in Berlin he is certain were encouraged 'by the authorities, as part of German propaganda in enemy countries. The German working-man no more dares really to strike than the soldier at the front. Whatever may happen in Germany after the war, there is not the slightest chance of any rising while the war lasts, and, for that matter, judging from ivh*: tny informant says, very little chance when it is over. The German peop.c are much too thoroughly well drilled and disciplined. Speaking about the food questiot., he said that in the large towns tho poor people, do suffer from insufficient nourishment, "but the n they suffered thus even in peace time. People, who can spend money can get whatever they want; and the country people have as -much as they need- In fact, the farmers have never coined money as in this war.

Referring, again, to the newspapers, my informant says that there they are now publishing weTl-written articles snowing how much food Germany can Droduoo independently of what she expected to get from Russia, thus preparing peoTile for another year's war. As for the United States, the people are told by the papers which they realJy do read that America is simply bluffing, and that if she does send troops, then Germany has plenty of reserves with which to deal with them.

"We shall finish with the French and the English," they are told, "by this next May Or June, and then they will be glad to accept our terms. We shar take from Russia, whatever suits ou>' purposes. We cio not need to anno* Courland. Finland, and Lithuania. The people of the Baltic provinces are our own people. They have been suffering under the yoke of Czardom for so manyyears that they will be glad now to be under our protection." The German people openly say that they will arrange the frontier, beginning with the Government of Vitebsk, and ending with the Port of Riga, and taking- in all the provinces along the river Dwina. Then they will take under their protection the Governments of Minsk, Grodno, Vilna, and Kovno. "We will," they say, "make the Niemen navigable, so as to connect it with Konigsberg. It will not then matter whether w e get our colonies 'back or not. The people who inhabit the Governments of Courland, Lithuania, and Finland are." they say, "the best traders in Russia, and as in blood and religion they are more inclined to be German than Russian, they would be of more tise to us than tropical negroes. "As for Poland proper," they say, "that is, the Governments of Warsaw, Souvalki, etc., Austria can have them. We do not want them, for the population consists of greasy Jews and drunken Poles, but it is important thaiAustria should have Russian Poland, so that our frontier in the east will bt> safe once and for all." I have given a summary of the im-

pressions gathered 'by this intelligent, business man, who has. just spent se i eral months in Germany, and talked oc very different classes of people. Gf course he told me much else which, fo* various Teasons, I do not record here To try and enlighten the German peo pie at present is wholly impossible. Th«? censorship is much too strict, and the;. are far too thoroughly well satisfied that they know everything already. Tho only thing which would in any way change their opinions is a Ge* man military defeat, which: hitherto they are convinced Germany has never had. On the contrary, they firmly believe that as yet she has had nothing but victories.