GEEMN DISCONTENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16848, 13 May 1918, Page 6

GEEMN DISCONTENT.

EXTRAORDINARY DEPRESSION

army Leaders criticised

LONDON. April 28. Renter's correspondent at Amsterdam says that the extraordinary . nervousness and depression in Germany owing to the losses in the -western offensive are revealed remarkably frankly by an article by Captain von Salzmann in the Vossische Zeitung, in which he endeavours to restore the lost confidence tff the Germans by emI phasising the importance of the capture of ! Kemmel Hill. 1 The Kolnische Zeituiig says that General i von Wrisberg, speaking in Committee of I the Reichstag, referred to rumours that the War Ministry admitted at a Secret sitting of the Committee that the losses were J unusually high in the western offensive. Wrisberg denied that such a statement was ever made. The Socialists thereupon complained of the calling up of Socialist clerks for field service, and said that the threat to send Socialists into the trenches was now general, and the granting of furlough ! had again been made dependent upon the soldiers subscribing to the war loan. I Despite a close censorship, the report of a discussion of the Main Committee ; in the Reichstag reveals a remarkable up- | rising of feeling among the various parties,' I not only by the Socialists, against the Military Administration, which was 1 sharply criticised, including the German i brutalities in Ukraine and Belgium, and ! the arbitrary conduct of the administration I in intervening in the Finnish civil ,war in ! favour of a definite party. Replying to criticisms, Herr Graefe- en- ; deavoured to allay the discontent in re- ; gard to the confiscation of the Ukrainian i peasants' grain and the wholesale massacre of recalcitrant farmers. He said that°the action of the military had been in .the interest of German consumers. During the subsequent debate, although the particulars are not specified, the gravest charges were made in regard to German " autocratic measures ana shocking excesses" in Ukraine. The presiding deputy said that, if the statements which had been made, were true it would be necessary to ther inquiries, and he proposed. special sitting for that purpose, with the Chancellor present. . ' According to "Vorwarte, the miliary authorities have been severely criticised in regard to the policy in the east and west. Herr Ledebour asked if it was true thai great numbers of German soldiers had been drowned in Flanders. Shouts from the Right prevented the reply being Beard. Herr Scheidemann, in complaining of the severity of the censorship,.gaye as, an instance the suppression of the reports of the proceedings of the Alsace-Lorraine Landtag. Herr Muller, a Progressive, sarcastically commented on the conflicting German and British accounts of the Zeebrugge raid. Herr Gotheim, another Progressive, declared that Germany's policy in the east was a dingrace. " " « i u Hen \?' a, Socialist, affirmed that the public institutions in Ukraine -were openly insulted by the military command, who actually instructed the soldiers in regard to the abolition of democratic institutions as their main task. soldiers in some casen revolted against such demands. •, \ % ■ Herr Ledebour asked why Germany was" invading the Crimea. No reply, was' given*