THROUGH GERMAN SPECTACLES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XL, Issue 12430, 22 January 1915, Page 8

THROUGH GERMAN SPECTACLES.

THE BRITISH CENSORSHIP INDICTED. . INDIANS WHO FIGHT ON IU'.M AND WHISKY. Truth seems to lie so elusive a quality so far as the German newspapers are concerned that it is always difficult to estimate from their utterances the exact effect of any particular series of events. Were it not . for this source of perplexity it might lie taksn as a fact that nothing, so far. in the history of the war has so angered and humiliated'-Ger-many as the complete failure of the pro_ German campaign in America. During the pa.st few weeks —since the arrival in Berlin, it may be assumed, of the last mail from the United States, the German press has been manifesting this anger in furiher outbursts against Britain, on whom is once more laid the "responsibility of alienating, by various underhand and impossible means, the sympathies of America. COOKING THE CABLE. - A characteristic reference to the subject appears in the Berliner Tageblatr.:—

"Tlie British arc dissaving a truly j remarkable melius, at which we have j much occasion for rejoicing, in turning . the .sympathies which' their defti.v-en- i gineered propaganda had secured them among their Anglo-Saxon cousins acresj the .seas, into sheer disgust. Their arbitrary procedure against neutral shipping, by which very severe injury was inflicted: 011. American trade, had already, ;n many parts of the United States, created .such serious annoyance that the -Government was moved to protestations and to claims which had to_b.e met somehow. \ <, To-day the' British are on the right road towards forfeiting the' goodwill; of-' the American Press by the manner in which they not alone are muzzling., the papei-s, but by their nervous and clumsy attempts, thrqugh faking ami; falsification, to misguide th£ leadership of public opinion ill. the Union. In' its dread- lest the unpleasant truths' concern ing the war should. l become known to the Americans, the British censorship does not content itself with erasures in and arbitrary additions to telegrams; it even goes 10 the length of 'cooking" the messages. This is certainly an entirely new procedure in warfare/to which the world will not readily accustom itself. For our own part, we have every reason torejoice at the singular maladroitness of the Brit'sh authorities. Their loss is our gain. The eyes of Americans, who a,re 110 fools, are at last being opened to the British Press and official campaign of falsehood, and a way has now been prepared by burenemies for the entry into the United States of that (lernian version to encompass the exclusion of which they have hitherto exerted ail their energies. THE DIKE PERIL OF GERMANY. There will be no Iron Cross, it is to,be feared, i'or tile editor of the Deutsche Tageszeitung." - In, an unguarded moment he has allowed himself to refer to "Germany's absolutely desperate position," and to the fact that she is facing a military and political situation of "d'ire peril." Neutral States, such as "the Netherlands and Sweden, whose export trade, especially in wood and timber, is suffering great injury through the stoppage of these exports by Germany, must not forget that our action in this respect was forced' on us by grim necessity, as, above all, we.must prevent the supply of. trench-building material to Britain. Friendly neutrals should in common justice'take into consideration th-e unenviable position of the German Empire. Germany's unfortunate geographical situation, enabling, as it does, Great Britain, in conjunction with her widely extended fleet, to deprive us of all supplies, renders it impossible for the German Empire to wage an effective war against the British import trade, aware though we are that Great Britain would suffer more keenly from an interruption in this traffic than any other eountj-y. To-day the -Swedish Press complains that Germany is treating nearly all descriptions of-wood as contraband. We quite understand- that Sweden is - incurring very heavy losses through thi.-s step, but at the same time we imagine that in Sweden Germany's absolutely desperate position will duly be recognised. • Britain needs wood principally for field- defence works. Oil our p-art it, is a most Urgent necessity that we should, so far as our powers allow, paralyse the British trench-constructing activity. Therefore it is impossible for us to ■ allow these wood cargoes to pass throufhi to England. ■The neutral States of Europe have seen that it was -only after nearly four months' fighting, and with the greatest 'regret, that the German Emoire decided on these measures. "it was Britain's scornful arbitrary and piratical action interpreting as she alone chose, I the_ Treaty of London, that createdi against Germany a military, and political situation of such dire peruand necessity that she was forced to take a step before which, alas! all other considerations had ruthlessly to be set aside.

This is how we stand now, How the entire civilised world stands —\>'ith cap in hand, the. obedient vassal of Great Britain, the cold-blooded destroyer of international rights.. INDIAN NIGHTMARE. -lo most of the German newspapers the fact that our Indian troons are fighting so splendidly in the cause of the Allies is a sort of perpetual nightmare. It is the one subject that they can never let aloiie and the one-around which they weave their most fantastic fictions. Here, for instance, is the latest outburst or the Frankfurter Zeitung on the subject:— . ~

"T] le old. German .kindness, of heart h manifesting itself "conspicuously in the treatment of our Indian prisoners.' We are glad of this because, after all, thepoor devils are not to blame for liavin«- . been^ pitted against us. ' " f! . have it from a native: Indian officer that tlie British are driving the -Indian troops to the> front with machine guns, the men being' further animated by plentiful doses of rum and whisky. ,

"As soon as the Indian" has been taken prisoner he becomes as mefek aiid sweet-tempered as a. child. The devil only knows what means the British must have employed to render him so terrific in a fight. "Another significant circumstance is that nearly all the Indians are more or less ill; most of them suffer from frightful cough. They are half-dead from the cold and wet weather, and in -their whole attitude and demeanor they plainly show the evidences of the i*' noble servitude to which they have been suoiected liv the. British. - ~ "T'l.ei'; gratitude manifests itself in the kissing of hands, and, it is indeed droll to note the expression/on the faces of our., men. when tli&y find their hands unwashed in many, cases for a. fortnio-Ht' covered with kisses. ■ ~ . ' '. " s '

'■The brown-faced warriors' fight in.r powers are, liowvei', not to be despised" IJiey are like wild mountain, cats for •fierceness in attack 1 . i "We shall ,see before the .-war/is at an end bow the British themselves will race them in India when that shameruJly oppressed ps-ople turn against tJieni in their own strongholds, an eventuality which is drawing near as the result _r>f the holy war declared bv our ally, the Sultan of Turkov."