THE GOSPEL OF HATE

Southland Times, Issue 17476, 3 April 1915, Page 2

THE GOSPEL OF HATE

The following remarkable letter was recently received by an English professional man from a German who Is now in Hamburg, but who for some years lived in England, and while there was on terms of close Intimacy with the person to whom the letter was addressed. The precious communication reached him via Italy : Dear Mr .—lt lias come to my knowledge that you have been making inquiries in various quarters concerning me and my welfare, and I have to tell you that, despite our old friendship, there can never be any sort of communication between us, either now or when the war is over. I do not deny that during my stay in your country I received much kindness at your hands. But you. as a British citizen, must bear your share of the responsibility for your country’s infamous attempt to shatter and destroy the greatness of Germany; and therefore I, as a true German, must forget all personal benefits and must regard you, just because you are an Englishman, with an all-conquering hatred.

THE ONLY HOPE.”

The history of the last century absolutely proves that all hope for the future of Europe lies in the hands of my country. Russia is Asiatic and barbarous: France and the other Latin countries arc decadent: England is mean-souled and trivial. Only Germany realises the possibilities of tomorrow. and only Germany is capable of protecting civilisation from the future inevitable onslaughts from the East. Germany’s amazing progress has awakened the enmity of her neighbours, and it was that enmity and envy that made tliis war inevitable. There was no reason for Great Britain’s interference. Your statesmen professed lip-friendship to us. Up to tlie last moment Sir Edward Grey led us to believe that Great Britain would remain neutral. Then, when we were embroiled with both Russia and France, you sided with our enemies. Never in the history of the world has a nation made war for* a meaner cause, and the hatred that we have for Great Britain is the hatred that a nation of idealists naturally feels for the unscrupulous. pettifogging hucksters. The crime deserves an adequate punishment. Germany is fighting for her life, and it is idle to suppose that she will fight in kid gloves. She is more than justified in using all the means devised by the ingenuity of her sons to compass the ruin of her foes. Your denunciation of our ‘•barbarities” leaves us entirely unaffected. We rejoice at the killing of every single Englishman and at the loss of every British ship. We remain cold if a few women and children arc killed by our air attacks on your cities. This is a war to the knife, nation against nation, and it can only end in the destruction of the race that has for centuries been the pirate of the world.

EVEN TO THE DEATH.

If you and I were to meet, friends as we were once, I would not raise my little finger to save your life—and indeed I would do my utmost to cause you to lose it—because, as I have said, you are an Englishman. To your gracious wife and children, who had no part in making this war, I send my respects. They are not responsible, though they may suffer. But so, too, do we suffer. If you could see what your war on our innocents lias done, how our poor are being slowly starved to death by your food war, your heart would harden. So then, too, if your wife and children suffer. do not turn to us for sympathy. Vou are responsible. Ton are a man who could have lifted up his voice to protest. You did not. Therefore all the pent-up hatred which we have for your bastard country is also for you. May you all perish in misery.