PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3040, 19 June 1912, Page 80

PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

A CHAT OX GERMANY

Have any of you read Life for June? Probably most of you have not, and assuming that you haven't, I am taking as my text "A Glimpse of Modern Germanv," an article in it written by Carlyle'Smythe, 8.A., who, I think, spent some time in Germany and made himself familiar with its people and history. First' let me say there is no Germany as we usually understand the word. We might just as well call the British Empire England as "the German Empire Germany. After telling us that the German Empire divide among themselves about 30 tongues, he says. "**°The first reflection that an observant foreigner makes in travelling through modern Germany is that, just as there %is ' no sich person' a-s the Emperor of Germany, so there is no such a place, strictly speaking, as Germany to cover one nation, as does, for instance, England, France, or Italy. It is a disregard of these two facts that makes fully 50 per cent, of what one hears and reads about ' Germany' sheer nonsense. About 4 per cent, of the balance, for the same reason, stands in material need of qualification; wjjile the remainder may be accepted as ti-ue with a certain reserve. Nearly every student knows that the exact'title of William' II is ' Deutsche* Kaiser' —that is, German Emperor. He is little more than the executive chairman—first among equals—of the ruling kings, princes, and presidents, for the Empire includes three republics of- more or less United Germany. When the Kaiser faiJs, as he occasionally does, to observe the distinction himself, his imperial colleagues promptly jog his memory and assert their rank, rights, and privileges. There is' another point of confusion in the Kaiser's case : besides being German Emperor, he is King of Prussia. In the "latter office he holds a Divine retainer. He admits it himself. In the former's office, he has a human mandate. As King of Prussia he may say and do things which aa Kaiser it would be his duty to resist tooth and nail." The German Empire came into existence in 1871, while the federated armies were besieging Paris. "It was formed" —I am quoting from the Encyclopaedia Britannica just now—" in 1871 by virtue of treaties between the North German Confederation and the Southern German States, and by the acquisition, in the Peace of Frankfurt (May 10, 1871), of Alsace-Lorraine, and embraces all the countries of the former German Federation with the exception of Austria, Luxemburg, Limburg, and Liechtenstein" —I advise you to look up these names.. The Kaiser is little more than an executive chairman, says My Smythe. The following extract from the Encyclopaedia will show this to be so: "The Empire is composed of the following 26 States and divisions:—The kingdoms of Prussia, Bavaria. Saxony„ and Wurtemberg ; the grand-duchies of Baden, Hesse, Mechlen-burg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg, Sterlitz, Oldenbergj and Saxe-Weimar; the duchies of Anhalt, Brunswick, Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and Saxe-Meiningen ; the principalities of Lippe-Detmold, Eeuss-Greiz, Reuss-Schleiz, SchaumburgLippe v Sehwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Schwarz-burg-Sondershausen, and Waldeck-Pym-mont; the free towns of Bremen, Hamburg, and Lubeck, and the imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine." Many of these* names are meaningless to you, no doubt, but the enumerating of them shows the conglomerate the Empire is built of. Mr Smythe in his article shows how dissimilar and independent many of these parts are: "There is probably no union of peoples where there is a greater tension of conflicting forces than in modern Germany. . . . They have their own

native accents ; their own coinage above the shilling (mark); their own railway systems, although the gauge is standardised ; their own political regimes, scarcely two alike; their independent consuls throughout the Empire; their peculiar customs and characteristic traits. Bavaria has even a separate set of stamps, and, up to the declaration of war, an independent army. . . . Hamburg has almost a French air, while Bremen has strong English sympathies. All these distinguishing features serve to make the outlook and ideals of the various States and peoples that compose the Empire very different, and hardly reconcilable, on many questions of national, and even imperial, importance." THE GERMAN LANGUAGE. As the German Empire, contains more tongues than German, so German is spoken by millions beyond the German Empire, and the language bond may help the Empire considerably in Empire expansion in Europe. In Germany, says the Encyclopaedia Britannica, there are 3 1-3 millions who do not make use of German in everyday life, and this number does not include resident foreigners; and outside the Empire the language is spoken by 12,000,000 in Austria, 5,200,000 in the Netherlands (Dutch), 4,000,000 .in Belgium (Walloon), 200,000 in Luxemburg, 2.300,000 in Switzerland, and 500,000 in France. MILITARY TRAINING. It will surprise you, no doubt, to read that a large percentage of the men of the Empire receive no military training. This is what Mr Smythe say 6: "As a matter of truth, the Germans are nowadays less the victims of military discipline than the French, the Italians, or the Austrians. The reason Is very obvious. Over 100,000 young fellow* who have passed the standard for military service remain each year unemployed in the German army because there are no vacancies in the

cadres. Yet the physical standard has gradually been raised so- high that in Saxony 56 per cent, of the young manhood 'liable for military service fail to pass tho standard, and over 50 per cent, in Prussia. Thus the bulk of the men in modern Germany receive no taste of military training and discipline whatGERMAN SOCIAL LIFE. In the section headed "Thirty Tongues and One Sauce," Mr Smythe says that the sauce, "when* perfectly made, is a poem, a culinary sonnet," but that apart from this dish "German cooking not only does not appeal temptingly to a foreign palate, but that if one has been accustomed to a French diet it is repulsive. Even " to a citizen of Vienna, a German cousin in strict literalness, it is unattractive. When a ' Wiener' goes to Berlin, he tells his friends that he is going to try a ' Hunger Kur,' try a banting regimen." This is borne out by the experience of a friend of mine who is spending some time in Germany. How she is <roing to survive she doesn't know. Because i one, however, does not like the dietary''of another, that is not to say the dietarv is an inferior one. - WOMEN AND CHILDREN WORKERS. Everybody works except the children. " These are the parents of the future, arid, consequently, must be zealously matured until the school age is well over. Child labour such as it is tolerated in other lands is unknown within the German Empire. The shrill cry of ' Herald !' or ' Card of the Races!' is not heard in the land." In Flanders, France, and Italy—perhaps elsewhere, too—women work the plough ; but.in Germany women are used as labourers more extensively than in those countries. " Between Auspach and Rothenburg women were doing shovel and barrow-work, repairing the road ; between Charlottenburg and Berlin, women were engaged in railway construction; in Munich,. women work the tramway points and do the street cleaning. Everywhere women do the sweeping and raking in the public parks." NO PUBLIC HOLIDAYS. How would you like that? "Work is not only general, but it is continuous, for the hours are long and there are no public holidays in the German Empire. The Kaiser's birthday, a King's birthday" (there are four Kings, you will remember), "or a.Sedan Day are all observed by street decoration, but work goes on as usual." Even Sunday is not a close holiday : " There is a universal Sunday halfholiday for all shopkeepers, when the windows must be completely screened by either shutters or blinds." A KINDLY TRAIT.

I should like to refer to German politeness. Max O'Rell cynically said : "Nations are not better or worse than one another. They are merely different. There are gentlemen everywhere, even in Germany." But, then, Max O'Rell was a Frenchman, and would have no love for a nation that took a war indemnity of the two beautiful provinces of Alsace and Lorraine and over two thousand tons of gold. Mr Smythe says the Germans are conspicuous for a politeness even elaborate. But just a word about a kindly trait. Next to a desire to extract information from everybody, the traveller notices a German's love of Nature, shown particularly in solicitude for bird life. "The wild* birds of the parks and woods are cared for almost as domestic pets. In nearly every artificial pond or fountain little rafts are launched so that the birds of the air may rest on them to drink. It is doubtful if there is any private garden of any size in the Empire that does not contain one or-more nesting shelters fixed to the higher trees." Artificial facilities are given for resting, trays for crumbs given by people, and shelters are built to screen feathered refugees from wet and snow.

It* you can get Life for June, read the article, for we cannot know too much about nations we come into close contact with.