THE GERMAN BELIEF.

Otago Witness, Issue 3196, 16 June 1915, Page 66

THE GERMAN BELIEF.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,— ln the Sydney Mail of 31st March an article appeared describing a conversation “before the war” between Earl Grey and a German who was a fair representative of the masses of the German people. The Gorman said: —“As you asked r.e to tell you the truth, and you "will not take offence, lot me toll you that in the opinion of the German people you are occupying a position to which you are not entitled. Wo believe that you English have been corrupted by the softening influence of too much prosperity; that you are rotten through; that you are sunk in sordid sensuality and sloth, and that your only idea of liberty is the liberty not to serve tho State. We Germans, on the contrary, have been taught to bo loyal to and to make sacrifices for our country,” and then, thumping his breast, he added with great emphasis: “We mean to take from you tho empire which is curs by right.” From knowledge of events since the beginning of the war, we know that this man was _ sincere, and was only voicing the opinions expressed by the great majority of the masses in Germany. The future historian will decide if we are as rotten as the Gorman people honestly believe us to be. A clipping from an article in the Daily Times, June 4, on munitions, says: —“The masters and the men in the majority of oases have done all that could be done. Much of the" fault lies with War Office officials and men on the civil side, who, in ,the attempt to glorify their office, display their incompetence to grasp essentials and to get to grips with them. If this is true, what can be said of a Government that could allow such a state of affairs to exist for so long a time, and then try to put tho blame on drink and the worker.” How long, oh, Lord, is the nation to be held in darkness? One might be tempted to pray for the visit of a fleet of Zeppelins to drop bombs all over England to awaken our unhappy brethren to a sense of the dangers that surround them. We have blamed tho Kaiser and his officers for this war. Now we know that they had the German nation behind them to the last man, while their methods of warfare have outlawed them from the respect or consideration of civilised nations: therefore it seems rather strange to hear from tho lips of sane and respectable Britons the phrase “British f ’iv play” when applierl to Gcrman_ Dcrvishs, or “ scraps of paper ” when applied to naturalised Germans. I think that we have enough to put up with without these gentlemen flaunting their madness in our very faces. If wo lose our tempera sometimes and twist the nose of a German Dervish, who has a smile that ?s childlike and bland, he mar thank his stars that he is living under the British flag.—l am. etc., Harold Conxollt. Hawca Flat, June 6.