PRIVATION IN GERMANY

Otago Witness, Issue 3327, 19 December 1917, Page 68

PRIVATION IN GERMANY

SEVERE IN LARGE TOWNS. The fact that he was living for many months in a Dutch town near the German frontier, and had opportunities for conversing with persons who visited Germany, enabled Flight-Lieutenant D. E. Harkness, R.N., to obtain' reliable information regarding the conditions in Germany. Flight-Lieu-tenant Harkness- was interned in Holland and for several months was working in an honorary capacity in the drawing office of a Dutch firm of electrical engineers. He was granted leave of absence, and on his way to New Zealand, ho stayed for a while in England. When in Auckland he stated that English people had, in comparison with those in Germany, not yet learned the meaning of hardship as a result of the war. The reports he had heard from Dutch merchants who visited Germany, and those statements made by Germans arriving in Holland, led him to the belief that the majority of the people in the large towns in Germany are suffering great privations. The impression of the German people was that the conditions in Germany were far better than those in England. They arc told by the German authorities that privations are a necessity of warfare, and at present they were in that state of mind that they considered that nothing would be gained by revolting. The German people believed that England would be reduced to starvation by the effect of the submarine blockade. They were told that there were no bread carta in England, because there wai no bread The German people knew little of. the Belgian atrocities. German newspapers were forbidden to publish inaps of the war zones and whenever English troops made an attack, and did not ouite reach their objective, the Gorman newspapers alluded to the affair as a defeat of the British troops. The German people still considered that their navy had the mastery of the North Sea. They believed that the British fleet • was entirely occupied with dealing with the submarines. A great many people In Germany admitted that Britain would never be overwhelmed, but they also snid that Britain would never succeed in crushing Germany. The general

opinion was that the war would end in a " stalemate." Flight-Lieutenant Harkness said he had heard frqm the Dutch stories of the exorbitant prices of rations and clothing in Germany. A person could not get a newsuit unless he gave an old one in part paymont. .Substitutes had been found for tea, coffee, and cocoa, and the war bread was almost unfit to cat. Children were suffering untold privations, and wore dying- in hundreds. It was pitiful to hear the stories about the sufferings of Gorman children. Surprise was always expressed in Holland at the fact that the German people had submitted so well to all the hardships. Tho Dutch remarked that when a German was asked how long the war would last the reply was two morkhs, the English said two years, and tho two statements were regarded as a reflex of the internal economic? conditions of the two countries. A great many people were wearing sandals and clogs,as leather footwear could not be obtained.