LITTLE PICTURES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11332, 9 March 1915, Page 2

LITTLE PICTURES.

VIVID FLASHES OF WAR. I. GERMAX BOASTF VLXEBS. In patriotic fervour for the German cause, and wilful blindness U> any merit in the enemy, German scholars ai;<i professors, have surpassed all their <'Oiui i rymen. Ami among pa t iuo vm:German professors the lirst place belongs to Professor Adoll Lasson, ol Berlin University, an old gentleman in th'> t i.'s, who is tho author of several philosophical books, :>nd as long ago an 18(i8 (.before the Franco-Prus-sian war) wrote a bonk on the " Ideal of Culture arid War." 'J wo let-tors written by Professor Lasson to a Dutch correspondent, which" were first published in tho '' Netherlands .Review " (Amsterdam), have attracted a. great deal of attention. The following are the- chief passages in the letters:—

For months I have not written to a single foreigner; a foreigner is an enemy until he proves that, he is not. Ono cannot, rest neutral in relationship to Germany and the. German people. Either ono must consider Germany as the most perfect political creation that, history has known, or one must approve' her destruction, her extermination. A man who is not German knows nothing of Germany. We are morally and intellectually superior to alt-without peers. It is tho samo with our organisations and institutions. Our army is, as it were, the image in miniature of the intelligence and the morality of the German people. "We must sacrifice, the "Best and the noblest amongst its in a war against tho Russian brutes, tho Jingli'.li ■mercenaries and the Belgian fanatics. The French are those who are most lik° us. Wo shall have no peace ns long as the three European meddlers will not, be stricken down. We wish to • have peace and security, and wa shall guarantee it to others. We wish to be able to'pursue our work of civilisation. We small leave nothing to be explained or excused. Wo are not a violent people. Wo threaten no- one so long as he does not attack us. Wo do good to. everybody. " England has a policy which reminds one of the European States of the eighteenth century. Germany, on the contrary, has taught the world to use conscience as the guide in diplomacy, and to make war in a spirit of loyalty. England is going to her ruin. France may yet. be saved. As to Russia, she must no more be our neighbour. This time we shall wipe tlie slate clean. Our truo foe is England.

Woe to you Albion ! God is with us, and is defending our just emu,p. "We hnvo no friends. All fear us, ;>nd look upon ns as dangerous, because wo are intelligent. active and morally superior. We are (ho froost people in the. world, tor wo know how to obey. Our law is reason. Our force is tho force. of Mio niind: our victory tho victory of that. That is why wo aro ahlo to struggle against numerous enemies ns did Frederick 11. in othor days. Tho Europoim conspiracy has woven around us a web of lies and slander. As for us. wo aro truthful, our characteristics are humanity. gontlene.ss, con.vcienco. tho virtues (>f Christ. In a world of wickedness wo _ represent lore, and God in with us!" Tho reports of the French and Belgian commissions on tho horrible outrages perpetrated by German soldiers on old men, women and children, form an interesting contrast to "Professor Las-son's opinion of the nation to which lie belongs.

11. SPY HUNTING. Detached though England is from the actual scenes of warfare and reasonably safe from any attack save from the air, and in spite of the fact that, in London and out, the country has remained quiet and' apparently undisturbed through the stirring times of tho last two months, there is yet evidence enough that she is in a state of war. Colonial troops are reported to be stationed everywhere, the censorship is strict, economy is being more and more rigidly practised, and patriotism is being daily fanned into a flamo more fierce and inextinguishable. In addition, reports are coming to us of a spirit pervading the whole nation, of unity and a shoulder to shoulder sympathy. that is bringing all classes" of tho people closer together than they have stood for many a year past. Ono example of this is given by Henry Reuterdahl, in his account in Collier's Weekly " of tho system of surveillance, partly official, partly unofficial, that goes on day after day arid night after night, in the effort to rid England of the plague of espionage with which it is said to be infested. His personal observations of the working out of this system were conducted at some considerable risk to himself, as he says:—

Mv first Sunday I spont with a pal of mine near a naval port, but before I could come he had to ask the authorities for permission to have me and to explain my identity. My name did not sound healthy. I had a glimpse of the war from the inside, not tho far-flung battle lino across Channel—khaki-clad men charging under bursting shrapnel --but of the dogged silent determination of those left behind to guard home ground, searching in the dark for hidden enemies like a pack of terriers—women, children, rich men, poor men. Their nights aro spent, not in bed, but patrolling the la new and the thickets, _ the culverts or the railroad's, challenging every passer-by. searching every face. And this I call practical patriotism and splendid— not like the Fourth of July speeches in. the United States or the weak-kneedness shown by those of our peoples who dug out of New England 1 and buried their silverware during the Spanish war because of Cervera's phantom fleets. Right here is something for ub to learn and store away, should the flash ever strike us.

Over the forts the arcs of the searchlight cut the heavens searching for the stray Zeppelins of the Germans, and against the greenish glare are the outlines of the guns. Through ;my glasses I could see the men operating the lights.

On the road to the city, with the dockyard beyond, the scoutmaster divided his section of Boy Scouts and sang out the orders for the night. In silence the boys went to their stations. The orders were to halt everything, and no moter nor carriage nor any pedestrians could pass nuless hailed. The hail is "good night,'' and unless answered at once and in the King's clearest' English, tho Boy Scout blows his whistle and the signal is taken up by the others down the road vntil it reaches the sentry, who shoots first and asks questions afterwards.

A detachment of scouts arc searching the railroad track, the main lino to London. As the train thunders by tho boys hug the ground ; with their staffs they examine each culvert, penetrate each shadow, and crawl underneath the bridges. From early" in the evening to dawn the silent. serious lads aj-e on duty, cheerily they trot about, some of them barely eleven, and when exhausted they tuck in in tho Scoutmaster's motor. Here are the sons of cooks, butchers, naval officers, and the Scoutmaster himself a figure of international prominence in the naval wo.rld. No effort is too big, no night too long, for it takes many hands to watch the roads, the approaches to the power-house and the water-reser-voirs of the largest naval base in the kingdom. Soldiers are wanted elsewhere, so others must help to see that no stick of dynamite cuts the water supply. And when the men are worn out from their nights' vigils in addition to their own daily duties, tho women turn to and do their trick in tho watch, as allies to the territorials guarding the main points; the babies ore left with the nurses.

Hysteria, nerves, you say? No - spies! Many of them hare been enught redhauded and despatched to the Great Beyond without, either obituary or coroner's inquest, and all within the district of this base. Not a line appears in the papers ; no'one knows or speaks. 111. DYED HORSES. White horses can congratulate themselves on tho fact that their colour is too conspicuous for modern warfare, where the chief law guiding the movement of troops, guns and transports is that of invisibility. The development of motor-driven vehicles in recent years has seriously reduced tho supply of horses suitable for war purposes, and therefore some experiment.', have been made since the outbreak of war in dyeing white horses so rs to render them available for war. But tho results have been as unsatisfactory as those generally experienced by.ladies who dye their treses in the endeavour to keep pace with the changes of fashion. Many hair dyes have been tried on white horses in France, but none of them has been found to resist the continuous rains of tho \Yinter. In some cases the, dyes have developed into unexpected colours under the action of the weather. and at present France lias a number of bottle-green and purple coloured horses, which formerly were white.