FACTS ABOUT THE WAR.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 144525, 9 November 1914, Page 7

FACTS ABOUT THE WAR.

MADE IN GERMANY FOR AMERICAN CONSUMPTION.

(By Sir Edward Cook.), "Truth About Germany, Facts about the "War.” This is the title of a pamphlet, nicely printed, and written in very passable English, which has been made in Germany for tho American market. It is bound in white—symbolical, no doubt, of "tho white purity of the German conscience’' which it proclaims. It is issued by an "Honorary . Committee,” headed by Herr Baffin and Prince von Billow, and a "Board of Editors” is mentioned, The- pamphlet is given, I behove, to every -American on leaving Germany, and probably Count BernstorlT took a consignment with him to America. A copy has come into my hands, and your renders may like to know the kind of thing which the most, eminent Germans consider suitable for American eon : sumption. The purpose of "sueking-np” (as tho schoolboys say) to the Americans is very transparent, but perhaps the object is more transparent than the method is tactful. There arc complimentary allusions to George Washington (who. by the way, never told a lie), to Mr. Roosevelt. and to the American nary. It is suggested that the United States,is a country very like Germany. The. Americans are patted on the hark for "fully appreciating Goethe and Kant, as corner stones of elevated culture.” And that being so, it is confide.nlly asserted with regard to Belgium that "In our place the Government of the United States- would not have acted differently.” "THE GOSPEL OF HUMANITY.” This also is doubtless Intended as a compliment. It is asserted of the destroyers of Louvain that “the German troops, o-it-h their iron discipline, will respect, the personal liberty and property of the individual in Belgium.” It is explained of the perpetrators of deeds about which President M ikon will hear from the Belgian deputation, that Germany has "preached tho gospel of humanity with impassioned zgal.” The pamphleteers are inexpressibly shocked at combatants who di-guise themselves in the enemy’s uniform,, and the doings of spies outrage tho German sense of honour. "In the conduct of war itself there exists tho basic principle acknowledged throughout the civilised world that no methods may tie employed which could not be employed hv men of honour even when (hey are opponents.” The American lovers or Kant are presumed, it is clear, to spell it with a "cl” ' , What strikes me again and again in reading tho pamphlet is the almost ineredihl'v low opinion which the compilers obviously'entertain of the intelligence, the means of information, and the logical family of the American people. They are supposed to know nothing of American history, and never to have heard of Schleswig-Holstein, for they aro told that "Germany has always been a good and just neighbour to Denmark. They are presumed to know nothing of international law, and to attach no meaning to tlies word "neutrality for it is explained to them that Belgium was very wrong in not "acquiescing in a friendly neutrality which would permit the ’unobstructed passage of Gorman troops through small portions of her territory.” It is assumed that tho American people have no means of acre's to.tho official documents printed in our White Paper, A MASS OF CONTRADICTIONS. Evervoqe who has read those documents knows at least two things: first, that the British'Government strove oven, to tho last moment of the eleventh'hour to secure peace, and that the Gorman Government would not say any word in time to avert war: secondly, that tho British Government, called upon both France and Germany to respect the neutrality of Belgium and upon Belgium herself to maintain it; (hat Franco and Belgium at once pledget! themselves to do so. hut that Germany refused. The versions given in "Truth About Germany” arc as follow: Germany throughout 1914 "endeavoured with perseverance and with all our might to win over Great Britain to the policy of preserving pence,” but in the end was treacherously attacked. And, secondly, “Great Britain asked that Germany should allow the French and Belgian troops to’form on Belgian territory for a march upon our frontier. This wo eniild not allow.” Such are "Farts” as made, in-Germany for American consumption. The contempt for tho logical faculty of the American reader, manifested by the compilers of this pamphlet, is no less marked than their presumption of his ignorance. The pamphlet rambles, .returning to the same subject on different pages; and with undisguised-con-tempt for tho render’s acumen gives contradictory reasons for tho same things. On one page it is argued that the violation of Belp.iau neutrality was a painful necessity imposed by tho wicked intention of France, Belgium and England to violate it themselves.

AMERICAN INTEL!,IG ENCE UNDERRATED.

On another, the pretence is thrown aside, and it is bluntly stated that “the German General .Staff was obliged to force this passage in order to avoid the necessity of meeting the enemy on the most unfavourable ground.■” Wo arc told 'successively that “not ono human being” in Germany even “dreamt of war," and that every preparation for it had been carefully made, oven to beautifully new uniforms. It is explained that the action of Austria against. Servia was aimed at Russian aggression, and also that it was an exclusively Austro-Servian . affair. “Tho Vienna Government addressed to tho Servian Government a. number of demands which aitped at nothing hut the suppression of tho anti-Austrian propaganda.” The pamphlet goes on to assert that Russia prevented Servia from “accepting the demand,” and that thus the war arose. Here, again, is it presumed that benighted Americana will have no knowledge of those tell-talo passages in tho. official documents wherein the German Foreign Secretary himself “admitted that the Servian Government could not swallow certain of the Austro-Hungarian demands.” tho Russian Government advised Servia to accept-such of the do-

mantis as were not unreasonable, and Germany admitted ‘‘she k:iew t vcry well what she was about, in barking up Aus-tria-Hungary in this matter.” ' lint no amount of suppression of the true and suggestion of the false is thought by the German pamphleteers to bo excessive for American consumption. He who is ready to accept such statements as 1 have already culled from ‘‘Truth About Germany’.' will no doubt accept anything. He will not boggle even at the general thesis'of'the pamphlet, which is this: That German militarism is a myth and German aggression a fiction; that Germany is an injured innocent; that while ‘‘concentrating all her energies on peaceful inabsoxhe4- itt ; ..,<ioothc^

Kant and elevated culture she was suddenly and treacherously attacked by a combination of designing foes. But even in this major thesis we are given some contradistorie-s. England js the villain of the ponce, but the design of her villiany is variously interpreted as a perccrtod desire to see "Muscovite barabarism rule Europe,” amt as "aiming at being mistress of the Old World” herself in order to "menace the New.” Any absurdity, we repeat, is thought good enough to catch tho ear of America. Decidedly the German compliments to America are not very tactful.