SYDNEY GIRL'S STORY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11207, 13 October 1914, Page 5

SYDNEY GIRL'S STORY.

WEEKS OF SURVEILLANCE.

AUSTRAL'ANS SOT G.'GLiSII.

PEOPLE LOVE THE KAISER.

(Special Representative Sydney '"Sun.")

LONDON, October 3. Miss Dora Hounes, who was ior two years comieci-ed with the loung Women's (Jnristian Association in &yaney, has returned hom Berlin.

VV lien the war brolie out she was engaged in an office in the city, and • the inst intimation she had ' was a r<\ tapping at her window by a German - ; neigxiixnir, followed by the remark, iu English, " lou get out." She waa living m a hostelry like that in which she lived in Sydney._ The matron of the institution, hearing tlie warning, . dismissed her instantly with the aj- ; mark,. "You must leave."' . ■; i .. Miss Holmes was supported by the American Embassy for seven weeks, . -7 and she had to report to the police ' every third day. German victories : meant pleasant greetings at the police : station, while German reverses brought sharp taunts. The English, she says, . are positively hated. When .English men and women were seen in the streets the police touched them on the' shoulders and ejaculated, " lou come," whereupon they were taken to thestation and placed in the cells. They:, were given no explanation. Australians were allowed their liberty, the Germans saying, " You are not English—you are totally different." An Australian family, who had been incarcerated, stated their nationality, . and they were immediately released. " Hundreds of thousands of troops are endlessly passing through Berlin, but it is always at night," Miss Holmes went on, " because women en»>. .- cumbered them when the marching was done in the day time. The spirit oi militarism impregnates tlie whole population. Next door to where I lived a boy of eight formed a little army of children of his own age and drilled them until they were as perfect as the Prussian Guard. They had captains, lieutenants, and sergeants. " A German officer said, l lf England had only waited six . years we would have had a navy equal to hers, and we would havo become masters ci the world.' "One afternoon I saw ;i German officer in the Unter den Linden. The * boys quizzed him, and asserted that ho was a spy. The police sefzed him, and it was discovered that he was a • Frenchman in a German uniform. The crowd thumped and kicked him, and: the police took him away. He was -.; instantly shot." Miss Holmes, who has no money, is " seeking employment. She said that' the people loved the Kaiser, and that' they considered him before their own ' parents. Miss Holmes is a native of Sydney, and for two years was chief steno- ' grapher and typist for the _ loung Women's Christian Association m Castlereagh Street. Last < April she left to gain a general business cxperi* i enee in Germany.