HAMBURG AFTER WAR.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 11760, 21 February 1919, Page 7

HAMBURG AFTER WAR.

RESIDENTS VERY NERVOUS. THE SOLDIERS’ COUNCILS. STEADILY GROWING UNPOPULAR. A description of the conditions in Hamburg last December is given by a correspondent who arrived at The Hague after making fruitless effoits to get through to East Prussia. “1 arrived in Hamburg with a pass of the Soldiers’ Council in the midst of a row between the various marine authorities,” he says, ‘At the Rathaus everybody’s nerves seemed on edge; even the typist sat with revolvers, while the corridors were guarded hy soldiers with fixed bayonets. I discoverved after a while that the captains, or navigators, of minesweepers had struck work because they were to be paid only £25 monthly, like ordinary members of the crew, and they announced that in any case they would sail only as members of the crew, and would decline responsibility. One Bromenjnavigator told me afterwards that from Cuxhaven alone 30,000 mines monthly had been sent out; and it would take 12 months to clear up. He added, while they destroyed both their own and the British mines, they moat dreaded the Russian, which were far the moat effective, but also the least dependable. After 14 days’ bitter argument and threats on both sides, the navigating officers had finally won their case, and would get extra ray‘‘The nervousness of the council Is accountea for by the fact that the Soldiers’ Councils are everywhere growing increasingly unpopular. Every third parson I met seemed to be complaining that the councils were as bad as the old regime, and especially that they are preventing the Entente from making peace or sending food. Hamburg itself is a dismal sight, with its practically silent harbour, half-deserted streets, and rain-sodden banting. Food conditions are undoubtedly bad, especially for the middle class; one so-called dinner, which I ate, con- . sisted of a small portion of horse sausage and potatoes, and cost six shillings; another dinnar of imitation bouillon, two sardines, and tiny fragments or meat cost nine shillings, but I obtained some bread in retnra for a small piece of chocolate which I had brought with me. By way of contrast, I may mention that I got the best meal I had yet ate in Germany, ont in the country some miles from Oldenburg.

‘‘The danger of Bolshevism, both in Bremen and Hamburg is, I think exaggerated, the nervousness of the Soldiers' Council being mainly due to their growing unpopularity and the increasing influence of the front-line troops, who will probably ultimately insist on a sort of dictatorsbp, unless the Constituent Assembly can be to establish a Government capable of governing. It is curious to notice how Germans of all classes still cling to catchwords. Just as Hindenbnrg, Calais, Paris, and Amiens were formely regarded as coming cures for all ills, so now the Constituent Assembly fondly expected to save the situation. Even well-educated and intelligent Hamburg business men seemed unable to grasp the fact that large sections of the armed population may decline to recognise a Government erected by the Assembly, and that their opposition require to be suppressed by force.

”1 tried to obtain an interview with Heise, who is still nominally dictator, and was to have been President of the Rebuplic, but he is.harder to see than any Minister, and I only caught sight of him as he left the building. He is a man of apparently about 35, with a small mous aihe and olYionEly suffering from nervous overstrain. Hamburg and Bremen are considerably more anti-Englisn than Berlin; seafolk and merchants feel intensely the loss of the fleer, and the sailors themselves talk about it all day and every day. I donbt if the by-ways in Hamburg will be healthy for lone Eglishmeu for some time.”