The Daily News. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4. OUR GERMAN RELATIVES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 176, 4 November 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4. OUR GERMAN RELATIVES.

The only view the colonial is permitted of his relative the German in the cable columns of the press is that lie is a builder of Dreadnoughts or a soldier who had added yet another scientific nail to the coffin of British supremacy. Probably the common German view of the ordinary Englishman is as biassed as the British view of the German. The warlike tone of most public utterances in regard to the relations of both countries have been helpful in calling the attention of students to the real German in his own home. People who overlook the only commonly accepted fact that Germany is an armed camp which is increasing its effectiveness for the destruction of our Empire have already grasped the truth that she is Britain's best customer. A study of most of the current literature on the German at home leads one to the conclusion that before the Teuton is turned into a military monster hungry to devour us he is a peculiarly-lovable person. The German who is a stranger to you will become your acquaintance at once if you are not too English to permit it. He* likes crowds and people, he is not frightened to laugh in public, he does not care to g«t out of sight, and he abhors the privacy so indispensible to the Briton. An English author who has written an appreciation of the German says that everywhere in Kaiserland he found an air of kindly and hospitable simplicity with culture and charm. The Germans lead the simple life because they are simple and not because they care to affect it. In A. R. Wyllie's "German Year," the author mentions that he who can afford to "jeer at the dowdy clothes, and the beer and the sausage, has my sincere sympathy." This fine passage lets a little light in on the real character of the people:—

It is no wonder that Christmas is celebrated in the Fatherland as perhaps in no other country in the world. Tfie German understands the Christmas spirit as nobodj- else can hope to understand it. For, whatever his faults may be, he "has at all times the courage to be himself, and has no fear of "letting himself go," as we say in England. And it is that childish, open-hearted simplicity which, so it seems to me, makes Christmas essentially German, or, at any rate, explains why it is that nowhere else in the world does it find so pure an expression. The German is himself simple, warm-hearted, unpretentious, with something at the bottom of him which is childlike in the best sense. He is the last Naturmensch in civilisation, and the Naturmensch is always naive, always single-minded, whether for good or evil. There are fewer problems in his character, fewer dark mysterious places, fewer Machiavellian twists and turnings; his heart is easily stirred, easily moved to respond to the touch of all that is sincerely, truly human. The German atheist, the author maintains, is more capable of understanding the spirit of Christmas than hnndreds of Christians in other countries.

The intense and quite general love of the Fatherland, if not of all its institutions, is perhaps the reason why the German is a poor coloniser, but a splendid colonist if he can be induced to leave Germany to enter British countries. He carries his institutions with him abroad, and the gregarious spirit is manifested in those British countries whither he has gone. In the book quoted it is shown that the sociability alluded to finds expression in the famous student corps, but all these brothers of the sword are subject to the most severe discipline. Nominally free, the student is really controlled by his seniors in almost every detail of daily life. To belong to a good corps, an allowance of from £250 to £3OO is necessary. This is by no means a negligible item for the German parent, who, however, recognises the inestimable cachet which it gives to his son. The ribbon of the corps student stamps him as a gentleman, for whom the corps itself is answerable. To be deprived of this ribbon is the most terrible punishment:— "A single act of dishonor (lying or cheating), bad debts, or a sign of cowardice, and a student is at once deprived of his corps ribbon, and cast out into everfasting disgrace. It is a hard punishment To fight unfairly, or to shrink back a step from an opponent's sword, is an offence past pardon, and accordingly the sinner is branded for life. Every corps in Germany is given notice of his disgrace, and his own circle treats him as

an outcast. An ausgestossener corpsstudent is in the same position as an officer who has been dismissed from the Army with 'schlichtem Abschied.' and he can either disappear into the depths, go to America, or put a bullet through his brains—in his own circle he has made himself 'impossible.'" Whether drinking or fighting, the German student, who loves both about equally, must preserve always the most rigid self-oontrol. To obtain the three-colored ribbon of the Bursche he must fight successfully three times at least. This does not mean that he must distinguish himself by brilliant swordsmanship; it means that he must take his punishment without moving an eyelash:

"There is no delicate French fencing. The 'Schlager' (straight sword without point) is wielded above the head with an energy and rapidity which is bewildering, and neither of the opponents map flinch or jerk his head, or move back from his position. The two seconds on either side, armed with sabres, watch, eagle-eyed, for the slightest infringement of the law, and woe to him who involuntarily shifts his position! If he is a young Fuchs he may be let off with a few weeks' Verbannung'; but if the practice continues, he has proved himself unworthy of the corps, and must go."

This Verbannung is the hardest punishment short of actual expulsion, and consists of a kind of "Coventry," into which the disgraced student must retire for a period varying from a few days to a few week. At all the student festivals patriotism is the real key-note, and "the Landesvater," the singing of which always concludes the official part of the evening, is a rallying cry for "Emperor, Fatherland, and Honor!" Young countries

must learn from old ones that the qualities necessary for the making of great nations are self-sacrifice, discipline, consideration for others, a real belief in one's .country, personal honor, and duty to State and fellow-citizen. If in the various estimates of the German character which are being industriously transferred to paper at the present time some mutual understanding between two great races Irnay be effected the germ of the discussion may be thanked. And the germ certainly is the building of Dreadnoughts.