FROM WAR TO PEACE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17144, 25 April 1919, Page 7

FROM WAR TO PEACE.

RAPID CHANGE IN COLOGNE. BID FOR BRITISH TRADE BRISK SOUVENIR BUSINESS. After some weeks' absence I find a curious change in Cologne, writes Mr. Percival Phillips, wider date February 2. The air of hostility which was apparent during the first days of the British occu-' pation seems to have vanished completely, and merchant* and shopkeepers are now bent on profiting as much as possible by the presence of our troops. They could not be more eager or painsuJuug if they were angling for the tourist tradb in peace time. They have been characteristically quick to note the trend of British taste, and have tried to satisfy it. When the army entered there was a great demand for souvenirs. Helmets, officers' belts and badges and other trappings of the beaten army ware eagerly sought for, and as difficult to find. Wouldbe purchasers had to visit a dingy iit-tle music shop in an obscure street behind the Newmarket, where a password whispered' over the counter was necessary in order to inspect a stock of helmets icon' cealed under the second-hand accordions in a back room. As a special attraction , an Iron Cross or two would be produced. i As soon as the appetite for spiked helmets and Iron Crosses became known, military outfitters promptly put their | I wares on the market, and shopkeepers J 1 bought liberally for British consumption. To-day you will find windows in the High | . Street filled with the glittering headdress known as the Pickelhaube, and whole rows of new Iron dosses with black and whita ribbon attached. A Side JJtss, It' is no exaggeration to say that Iron Crosses are now being manufactured for the British Army, and they will sell readily at nine shillings each. Bookshops, cigar shops, and jewellem carry them as a side line—you can even buy them with your morning newspaper at some stands. | It is difficult to understand the men- ' tality of a shopkeeper—himself wearing ■ ' the ribbon of the Iron Cross, which he earned as a soldier fighting against the J British during the Maxell offensive— i sells the decoration over the counter with a bland smile, wraps it in brown paper, and then mentions his new stock of German shoulder knots and sashes. British trade is the thing. Window signs in English invite attention to their wares. Such articles of military equipment as can be procured are offered at astonishingly low prices. Attendants' who I six weeks ago knew no English, «nd were proud of it, now speak the hateful language quite well enough to do business, ! and they know a little more every day, for they study it at night. _ Cinemas that accepted patrons in khaki with sullen reluctance when we first came to Cologne advertise their films m English. One of the largest in the Honestrasse has a humorist as ognwnter, and his flaring placards in slang describing various attractions on the bill always attract and amuse the soldiers. Another cinema shrieks in large letters, " English pictures shown here twice a week; don't miss them." Guides to Cologne with "phrase-books for the English soldier " have been hastily compiled to meet tho universal want, and are on sale everywhere. Stranger still, the London newspapers are sold in the streets, and the girls and men who hawk them about can see a prospective purchaser two hundred yards off.

Boom In Cameras,

Shops selling cameras and photographio goods— there are many in Cologne— are unexpectedly prosperous. Many officers and men have taken up photography in their spare time, and these shops are sometimes ailed wilth soldiers waiting to hand in a set of films to bo developed and printed. English-speaking porters are now to be found at the doors of the cafes and at the box offices of theatres and cinemas to assist the British. Many of them are ex-soldiers who worked in England before the war. People have settled down to make the best of British rule, and to £0 business. They are nofc treated harshly In any way. Certain regulations have been relaxed, and they can now circulate freely in the British zone, provided they have their identity cards. The city goes to bed punctually at nine o'clock, and after that hour the streets are silent and deserted, save by an occasional British patrol. Very few military police are in evidence. The only sentries are those outside the Governor's headquarters. You can walk through the heart of the city without seeing any other sign of British rule. Soldiers mingle with the crowd and sit side by side with civilians in the cafes and places of amusement just as in French and Belgian towns. Not very long igo the mania for rooting out foreign.words from the German language was universal in Cologne, as in the rest of Germany. On the door of my hotel billet is the usual notice to guests affixed there long before the war with such words as "office," "Supper, "dinner." erased and the German equivalents inked in. To-day there is more English spoken in Cologne than ever before. English text-books have a ready sale, and teachers of English find their services in great demand. . "AH is forgiven. It's yoni business we want" J