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Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16493, 22 July 1919, Page 2

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HUN (PAPER AND A.I.F,

WRITTEN APOLOGY . V One of the many blunders commit, ted by Germany was to underrate the ■ military service that Great _ Britain would receive from her Dominions. The Hun official mind was satisfied South Africa would revolt immediately Germany, declared war, that Canada would link up with the United States, and that Australia and New Zealand would establish separate republics. The pigeonholes in Germany’s Foreign Oflice were filled with dockets giving ‘‘inside information” concerning these expected happenings, and nothing could’ have, been more mortifying to the Germans (says the Adelaide Mail) than to have to inform their people of the truth. Finding themselves committed to lies,. the enemy officials cheered up Fritz with the observation that the Australians and Canadians couldn’t fight anyhow. Their coming was somewhat eagerly awaited in the German trenches, and it will be. recalled that the first Australian company to take up a position in France was greeted with the placard, “Welcome, sons of convicts.” Thisi was soon after the Jutland battle, when the Huns, drunk with their imagined naval victory, were breathing special vengeance on all Colonial troops for daring to como > overseas to “bolster up the Allies* lost cause.” Then the Anzacs gave Fritz a taste of their fighting qualities, and the sympathetic German newspaper references to “untrained colonial cannon food” gave way to unrivalled calumny and vituperation. “RIFF-RAFF OF HUMANITY.” Here is a "characteristic sample of the stuff that found its way into the German press: The indescribable joy with which the fall of the fortress of Erzerum was welcomed in the English presslias no doubt evaporated sufficiently for the British to see clearly that their cause in the Near East is in a very shaky condition. Because of what elements do the forces they have available in Mesopotamia and in the adjacent regions consist? Of Australians and Canadians mainly, the very riff-raff of humanity, descendants of murderers and thieves, drunken hordes, who despise the very thought of discipline and decency. This applies particularly to the Australians, the worthy posterity of men who for their crimes were once deported from their own country to found a colony at the extreme ends of the earth. These are the white allies of the black culture bearers who have set notoriously civilised England against ns, these constitute the unspeakable human refuse against whom our heroic sons and brothers are doomed to light. And yet there are sentimentalists who would urge us to be dainty in our choice of our weapons when facing such bestial creatures as these. “EAT IT!” The chief offender was the Koelnische Zeitung (the Cologne Gazette) and how it was made to cat its words was told to the,Mail man by Captain E. F. Pflaum, a son of Mr. F. Pflaum. of Birdnood. Captain Pflaum was a member of the Australian Flying Corps and was among those who wont to Cologne to take over the surrendered German aeroplanes. He returned to Adelaide a few days ago. “All the Australians,” lie said, “resented the libels upon them printed in the Gazette, and you may be suae wo had not been long in the town .before we made it onr business to seek out that editor. The Gazette office is a fine building, and the paper was publishing every day as usual, but without any reference to the ‘descendants of murderers and thieves’ and. the ■drunken hordes’ who were supposed to comprise fiiie Australians. “With Lieutenant Lamplough, of Victoria, I went to the office at about

6 o'clock one evening, and securing a foothold in the literary department. \vc asked to see the editor. I don’t’ know whether they thought we had come- to take over tho business, but employees wore scarce at the time, and tlie editor particularly so when we explained we wanted to have a word with him. "We were told he had gone out to tea. OBSEQUIOUS SUB-EDITOR. ‘‘‘ln his- absence there was nothing else to do but get hold of some other official, and we decided to interview the sub-editor. We entered his den, locked the. door, and got to business. “‘Vot can 1 do for you?’ he asked in broken English. “We have come to secure an apology from you for your paper’s libel on the Australians,” ivc replied. “He was anxious enough to accommodate us, but didn't know how to begin. ‘lt’s all right,’ wo said; ‘the apol- , ogy must be a written one.’

“Tho sub-editor did not know how to write English, so wc drew up the apology for him as follows:

We hereby apologise for insinuations wc have cast against the Australian troops through our paper, the Koolniseho Zeitung.

Jos. Vibz. (fore Editor Koeluischo Zeitung.)

•■‘Tliis VTbz person then signed the document, and proceeded to put it away.”

“ ‘Hold on,’ we said, ‘what are you going to do with that?’ ' ” ‘Vy, lock it up for safe keeping, of course,' lie replied.

“ ‘No good.’ we replied. ‘That paper is for the Australians. You can taka a ropv of it for yourself, if yon Hire.’ ‘‘Vibz agreed to he satisfied with, a duplicate, and armed with the original apology wc returned to headquarters, having a consciousness of work woh done/ 1