GLOOM IN GERMANY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16097, 10 December 1915, Page 8

GLOOM IN GERMANY.

■ ■♦. . LETTERS OF SOLDIERS. Writing of the captures of men and material made by the allies a s a result of their recent advance in the west, Mr. Philip Gibbs says: "The best of all booty, perhaps, apart from the guns, is the enormous mass of documents taken in Loos and the trenches. They reveal the mentality of the German army, and are very curious and instructive. In spite of comments which show that the German soldiers were much elated by the German successes in Russia, they complain that the war on the western front is unendurable! Even the comforts of certain dugouts lit with electricity and elaborately decoratea and furnished with armchairs, does not soothe the souls of these men, who have heard the number of our gun. grow stronger and who cannot face the steel of our Bayonet*. One fact is significant ih«sre are a great number of sublieutenants commanding companies, and most of them have joined since the war. This reveals a dearth of more experienced officers The men that they never see the* high officers in the trenches The colonels and commandants and general remain well in the rear generals n /\? eV * rth ! leßS ' in *it» of the suffering at the front, many of the men comffi ; of the desperately hard time they had in &! - de P° t ß *t home, wfth bully" mg from morning to night, so that they prefer to go to the front,' whatever the risks of death. They deplore the heavy losses m Russia, and one man says.-lS nice it would be if we could make a sepa rate peace with Russia. p "A German girl, writing to her sweetheart, complains that all & e voung nSL hood of the country is gone, and the pleasures of youth are passing a Z,7' history The 19*6 class of reShS ken called to the colours, and the 1917 «fS 1918 classes have been registered! " that every boy in the Fatherland is on the rot calL A sense of depression reaching to depths of sadness fills most of thetXu ments. and shows that the heart \t*£ army is filled .with foreboding *X of recent victories. ue