CORRESPONDENCE

Taranaki Daily News, 14 June 1929, Page 15

CORRESPONDENCE

VISIT OF EMDEN. (To the Editor). Sir,—l find myself in a very considerable measure of .agreement with the letter from Mr. John Cross which appeared in Monday’s issue of your paper. If should bo impossible for thinking people to disguise from themselves any longer the facts that there was a British “poison gas factory” as deadly as any employed by the Germans. I allude to the organised campaign to vilify and distort all that the Germans said or did during the war. This campaign may have served a useful purpose at the time by inflaming the. spirit of the troops against the enemy—though even this is questionable —but unfortunately its aftermath is still with us in the public’s inability to realise that wartime propaganda was not meant for peacetime consumption. The legend that Germany was solely .responsible for the war is also being undermined by the destructive criticism of the historians, for whom facts are of more importance than popular fancy or propaganda. And now a warship belonging to our late enemy is about to pay a visit to this country, and one of the. reasons given for not welcoming the visit is that the boat in question bears the name of the most famous of the German cruisers. To a sportsman no better choice could have been made, for the versatile commander and crew of the Emden set a standard of chivalry and daring in their exploits and displayed a spirit of hardihood in defeat which- could well be used as an example for the youth of New Zealand. Surely it should now be possible to affirm with certainty that Germans are on the average no better and no worse than other races. The doctrine that they should be regarded as pariahs is due to the miasma of the political poison gas of the war which still clings to the land. Indeed the staunchness of the German in defeat, his industry in rebuilding his shattered world, and his efforts to again play a prominent part on the world's stage should form legitimate claims to our admiration. In view of the circumstances surroundino’ the visit of the Emden I have felt impelled to send this letter to you for publication. At the same time I desire to offer my services, so far as they may be of use, to any committee which may be formed for the entertainment of the officers or men of the warship who wish to visit Taranaki. To disabuse any idea of want of first hand knowledge on my part I may say that I was one of the fortunate survivors of the torpedoing of the Lusitania, and that I served for three and a-half years in the R.A.M.C. —I am, etc., R. J. MECREDY. New Plymouth, June 13.