A GERMAN TO GERMANS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CIII, Issue 15742, 28 August 1915, Page 3

A GERMAN TO GERMANS.

A GREAT IXDICniEXT. (By William Archer, iu the''Dail\ Xews." j "■ "J"Accuse!' '."on Deutschen" is a Ocok which wi!i certam-y take its placi.- i>t mstory. It ■■■*,.*. uoi only of aa able, but of a brave man. 'mat- such a book should ex.st in the German language is a greac reassurance for h i ivjio cl«ng »to the hope ttiat good may yet spWng from evil, and mat the war deanion may he buried once tor ail into t»e abyss by the very triumph ot his own infernal machinery. To that end it is mdispenssb.es that the German people shou.d as soon as possib'e learn the truth as to the way they have been hoodwinked into the fatal adventure; and hero is a man who not only tells them the truth with v.goiir and conviction. but {.roves his eas<> hy an extrewelv able marshalling: of evident-?. Published in Switzerland, the bock is i ! 0 doubt contraband in Gcrnia .y. and •viH t -o tinue so for many a "flay. 11111 it is the sort of contraband \vhi?h customhouses cannot keep out. As soon as •the paroxysm of the war is over Germans will insist 011 knowing what th's e'.oquent nnd courageous German fcas to say to them. When 3 went to procure the book I had ahnost- fo'Jowed the line of least resistance and bought the French translation. But I bethought me that "tp sui-h a case, where doubts as to the genuineness of the author's alleged rationality are always possible, it- is best to go to the ariginnj document. So I chose the German edition, and I did wisely. Xot only is there 110 possible doubt that the writer is a German, but h-< is, if a foreigner may judge, a master of ills native tongue. He writes <-! early. vigorously. attractively. The clearness, by itseli, might seem a suspicions circumstance: hut it is evident that the author thinks in Germar.. and thai- ii's en.tnrp is that of the .Fatherland. Therefore we may accept without, hesitation the opening words of f., s '-l*.pilorrnp " : --A German ha« written this book. Xo Frenoh-ian. no Russian no Englishman. A German who is nnbribed and unbrihnbb. not- bought anc not for saTe. A German* who loves his nnd !»s rtm<-!i as anv man' fmr jttst Iw-ans- he loves it, "he has W-T ten t'ys hr-ntr. * 7 He might hm-e ndde.l that he is nr paradoxic, -rb.-i ; S '.ir*e r happv unless hp !S in r> trnr-ir'ty or orte, " and rtr tsnatie rntrntr prine r pV is country tn the wrong!" He i< a man cf flw- wr.r'rT. - 0 f rnind 15 rohnst rather than and lie write; with a passionnt-e sincerity. "TUK- OF TRT" rT?T\rn:-' The book fa-is iii'd two main sections, headed respectively: ""The Preliminaries of the Crime" and -'The Crime.'' The propositions which the author sets forth to prove the first part are: "That this war had long been .planned and prepared by Germany and Austria, not oniy from the military, but froai the political point of view. That it had long l»een determined to represent this aggressive wai to the German peop'e as a war oi liberation, since it was known that only thus could the needful enthusiasm be

1 jAJ-u. siq-j. jo awiqo ei[i •pssno.iu | j is the establishment of German liegeI mony oil tho Continent, and in due | course Uie conquest of England's positi ion as a world power on the principle 1 "Ote-toi de la que jo in'y metre." 1 The demonstration is largely founded • on our oid friend Befuhardi, whom the j writer turns outs.de-in wi'tli great ! effect. This, indeed, is not difficult, 1 since Bernhardi is a master/in the art of' giving himse'.f, and his country, away. ''Neither France, nor Russia, nor England," writes the General, "'needs to their interests.'' Yet here is Germany being driven to the sacrifice of millions of her sons (to say nothing of other people's sons) because s-lie is assured, first that Russia, and then that Kng,land, had diabolically planned a murderous attack upon her! "A PLACE JN THE SUN." As to tlie celebrated "place in the sun," our author enumerates the amazing triumphs of Gwiianv's commerce and industry, shows how she lias been rapidly out-distancing ail ; European rivals, how "miration is j rising—and then asks what p.nce in t-lio | sun she can possibly require "that she . does not already possess? He shows that it is not the commercial classes . which make play with, this catchword, j but the Junker class, "for whom the j economic prosperity of a country only ! exists in so far as it provides the means 1 for military enterprises." "What we . are really claiming," he concludes, "is ! not a place in the sun for ourselves. .' »>:it a place in the shade for evervone t i=e. *

With admirable fairness ho reviews the political relations of Germanv and England, and shows that England, far from having pursued an aggressive policy towards Germany, lias made con-stant-efforts to win her friendship, on'.y stopping short of the sacrfiee of her insu.ar security and her position .as a power in the wor'd. The neutralitv convention proposed by Germanv would have meruit- nothing less than the rerunciation of England's rigjht-s as a fret* moral agent. Tlie xrliole difficulty. :•> onr author c-'enrlv exnlains. s'rosf* from the iF-sfcarred ambition of tli« first military Power ;n the work] io be a>o first nayail Power. "What would Oermnnv and a 1! "Europe hr.yo said." lie asks. "-"f En a?and, b"-ng tho fi-st Gfa Power, had suddenly set to work t 0 moke herself ns, strnnc as Gornwy by land us. welL?" \ question irlilch o'ir Junkers may well take to heart.

OF/RM.-X.Y'St '-FXGMT TOR I FKEEBOII." ! Germany Is told «-i;ai> sho is fighting Uk" salccy. freouom, the to cxi-i----"T.ie v.cid -fiL-euom «s h«.kv tvu- ' Staiuiy on Liiv iips <■! me. pLop.e wno : io> nicr.y wou.d nave crossed themj sv ;Vwi iiiree times Ji they nad lieard lilt- tabooed u_"i at 111 tne nioutiis or others. Ue have aU .suddenly, and without excepr.oii, turned into freedom : lovers—cspecia-.iy those uiio nvre or oid | enthusiasts for vject.on-' \Yx> have become so devoted t-o freedom that we want to confer it- . nov oruy on our own people, but on al. tne ptner peoples of the earth (see the Chancel-or's manifesto to Amern-a.). . . Social Democrats," clericals, progrtss- • ists, Po'es, Danes, Alsatians—an the former enemies < f the Empire are now pressed by the Prussian Junker to his : sympathetic heart, on condition, of ; course, that they keep tho truce. which means, as is we'il. known, thai i they think, write, and speak as the : Junkers do." The people who make Russia the arcit-em-my of Gewnany me as far { from the truth as those who reserve t that distinction i< r Eug and: "AVliere, then, is the truth? What do we really want? Against whom and ior what are we lighting? These are questions which everyone answers diferentiy. We are plunged into a gigantic spiritual confusion, an ocean ; of lies and misrepresentations, which is. alas! of Wood-red hue, and tinea tens to sweep away German happiness and German prosperity.

""Ihe confusion arises from the fact' that there is ;i tacit conspiracy among those who know not to toil the Truth, wlule they have lorgotten to come to an understanding as to what, they are *.o subsb-tute ior it. So each lies as the spirit moves him, and the lies hurtle against each other in space like 11 or (liiforonrstaty>ns not tuned to oacli other Jonathan Swi|ffc was right- when lie said. 'As universal a practice as lvinsr is and as easy a one as it. seems, it is astonishing thai it lias been brought tf> so little perfection, even b\- those wno are most ' celebrated in that lacn'ty.' Th:s part the book cciit-ains a good many b'ank .spaces showing ■whore' nassnges have beer, cut out- bv the Censorship —the Swiss Censorship, of Tt would be interesting; to know inst- where the Censor drmv the line; for the author sneaks with vct 'or-sdentVe freedom even. of such exalted nersonages tlie Kaiser. the Crown Prince, and (more the Imperial Chancellor. , -THE CRIME.'' By far "the longest section of "'J""Accuseis time clovo ted to '■Tlie it consols of ;i very acute auu marching analysis oi tiie evidence coutamtd ill tlie diplomatic 'io.umeucs published by 1110 nations,anil u criiohing exposure ui the laiaelioous, concea.menis. evas.oiis, misrepresentations. hvpoer.sies, aud insolences u hereby tiei-maiiy has nougat- to tnrow upon .Russia unci Jirig.aud tiie responsibility for the outbreak oi' war. He; teai-s to shreds the German White Book, and the muddle headed fallacies of the Chancellor's speeches. He perhaps attributes to Dr Jiethmann-Hod-weg too much conscious vi.la'iiy. I rather read in him a man of very mediocre ability, to whom clearness oi : thought is unknown, and who i«i probably the first dupe of his own sophistries. To Sir Edward Urev, ou the other band, our author doc-s neither more nor less than justice when lie says: 'The English Secretary of State had, from the outbreak of the crisis, the whole direction of the work of peace, and did :il! that any human . being cou'd have done to avert the . calamity." He fj notes, and makes i his own, the eulogy which Mr Asquith ■ pronounced on iiis colleague in the . House of Commons o - i August 6. On the question of Belgium, our author's position is that of every man ; who does not hold that the moral code : of tiie supreme State is. and ought t< i be, that of the wiid beast in the jungle. l*he book was finished in Kebruary. si tl}at the writer does not know, how

thoroughly the atrocity accusations have been proved. He accepts tlie very doubtful story that ihe Lou vain outrage arose from shots lired by civilians from the houses. A!] the riore telling is his denunciat'Vrn of the theory that such incidents justify uiilinlited and indiscriminating incendiarism and massacre. PATRIOTS OT? CRTMTX.\T,>. Ho tr'ls of a visit to a "Krno"—a pcture theatre-—iu Benin in the early fi-iys o? the war. where the programme , 'ibistrnterl tho f-ennan perversion of ideas on this subject j

"Two war films were exhibited. The j first showed tho rising jji the Tyrol in lbUil, under Andreas Holer, the second. a series of frane-tirenr scenes in ! IS7O. In the lirst the who.o people is in arms against the French invaders; Andreas Holer himself, the leader and hero, is 110 general, but an innkeeper• and the rest, nro peasants., handicraftsmen and labourers, with the-ir women and children, a!i armed awl taking part in the fight-. The sympathies of tlie author are ot' course 011 the Tyrole.se .side. Tlie French are shot down from every sort 'if ambush. from behind hbuses. rocks, and trees. In ilile time it all ends iii the victory and liberation ■fit the people. Then comas the franctireur drama, of IS7O, and s|l! is changed. Now the Freneh defenders of their country have become scoundrels and criminals. Even their features show thoir evil instincts. They, too. shoot from ambush like the Tvrolese of ISOf); but what was there a light for freedom is here treachery and outrr.ee. The punishment- is nob lonic de'riyedGerman remforee<nents storm into the vili age. and house?; go up in flames, "id. amid the s!iri"ks of women and children, a dozen men and boys are ranged the churchyard wnJl Mid "subjected 10 martin l law." The ri':tion is obi-ions: Acrn.inst thn French, a people in arms! Against thp (Germans. criminal;; worthy if dentil! The of e\'erv—where, from >h,: summits of German i'Uell'!"--"cf- 'lmvn, to the lowest 'kino" playwright!" lJionji.il the author is not in possession of the full evidence .-s to tlie deeds of his countrymen, he quotes from a German newspaper a letter irom an officer headed: "A Day of Honour for Our Regiment. 7 ' describing with hellish gusto a massacre of French wounded, and rightly calls it "a bestial document.'' It cannot be said "-hat the author has entirely avoided the dangers that besot the eager dialectician. He now and then loses sense of proportion and runs an argument into the ground. Though never disngenuous, he is now and then (I think) not quite fair. But the flaws in his work are as nothing to the - merits. Tt is a tremendous demonstration of the insanity of the whole world-convulsion, addressed primarily to Germany as the nation which has made, an idol of war, but well deserving to be taken to heart by all natonis. hel. movent 01 neutral. It leads up __ -io the ido<U of "a Peaee League- of Free "Peoples." and one feels on laving it down that, if only this ron.vu.sion were once past, such an ideal need not be so very distant.