THE TOUCHINESS OF THE GERMAN.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1261, 30 April 1896, Page 12

THE TOUCHINESS OF THE GERMAN.

THE PERIL OF INSULTING THE

KAISER. Mr A. Eulmlo Evans, in an article in tho Contemporary Review for February, describes his impressions of Germany after twenty-flvo years of Imperial Government. He says : “ M'iio aspect of affairs in modern Germany is by no means exhilarating. It seems to mo that it may bo summed up in a few words : an enormous incrcaso of power and influcnco abroad, but, at home, less comfort, less liberty, less happiness.”

Mr Evans describes with many illustrations tho extraordinary sensitiveness and touchiness which tho Germans share with tho Americans. In both cases, Mr Evans suggests, the cause is the same—- " Such ebullitions of feelings are no doubt duo to the virgin sensitiveness appropriate to youth. In another twentyj live or fifty years the Gorman nation, with a deeper and more settled consciousness of her own dignity, will cease to fall, on such slight provocation, into political hysterics.” This national touchiness showed itself in its most mischievous form in the resentment that is shown whenever anything is said that appears to reflect upon tho Emperor. Mr Evans says:— “ Never perhaps was there a monarch whoso speeches more loudly challenged criticism. But they are sacred. To comment on them in words that raise even a suspicion of disappioval is sufficient to consign the writer or speaker to gaol for at least three months, more probably six, possibly twelve. Nay, astounding as it may appear, it is none the less • fuct that lesc majcsle may he committed by saying nothing! In October last the Cologne Gazelle had an accountof a man—a German who had boon in America—who was unfortunate enough to offend in this way. Ho was at a cafe with some companions, and they fell to discussing the comparative merits of the German and American constitutions. Of course the man who had been in America was in favour of tho American constitution. Ho waxed eloquent on the subject and went on to say, “ as for tlm Kaiser”—then realising the dangers that beset that \\uid, lie slopped short. But he had already said too much. Ho had been overboard by some one who denounced him to tho police. They arrested him and ho was ultimately sentenced to three months’ imprisonment. It was not asserted by the prosecution that ho had said anything against the Kaiser ; he was condemned on tho facts as I have staled them. it was assumed that, if he had finished tho sentence, it would have contained an insult to His Majesty, aud this was enough. “ A later example is, if possible, moro astounding still. An upholsterer in Danzig was asked at a restaurant to estimate the value of a plaster bust of tho Empress, and said it was worth only a shilling. For this ho was tried. At tbe trial the bust was produced, and being found to bo of a very inferior quality, the man was acquitted. But that ho could have been tried at all on such a charge G significant enough. Such cases aro ludicrous except for the victims. But occasionally the over-sensi-tive loyally of the Germans leads to results still more absurd. Thus at Bonn last summer a party of friends were chatting at a restaurant, when one of them said ‘ What a fool that Kaiser is!’ 'I he audacious words were not allowed to pass unavenged. A policeman was at once c Jlecl m by an eavesdropper and the culprit given into custody. Then it camo out that he had merely been referring to an acquaintance of the name of Kaiser (a not uncommon name in Germany). Even then he was taken to the police station, aud had some difficulty in obtaining his release.”