“THE LAND OF DEEPENING SHADOW.”

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 7914, 4 August 1917, Page 4 (Supplement)

“THE LAND OF DEEPENING SHADOW.”

Ono of the few men who, not being a German, can claim to have been in close touch with the heart of things in Germany for the greater part of the war period is Mr. D. Thomas Curtin, an American journalist who has done a great deal of valuable work for the English press. He was in Berlin on that dav of cloudless blue, the first of August, 1914, when the dense mass swayed before the lloyal Palace to see William 11. come out upon the balcony to hid his people rise to arms. On that occasion, says Mr. Curtin, ‘•eyes sparkled, checks flushed, tho buzz changed to cheering, tho cheering swelled to a roar. The army which had been brought to the highest perfection, the army which would sweep Europe—at last tho German people could see what it would do—won id show the world what it would do. The anticipation intoxicated them.” Again, in tho dying days of 1915, he found the people of Berlin almost) as supremely confident of victory as they were in tho delirious days of 1914, when popular sentiment found expression in the cry “Hocn der Krieg!” (“Hurrah for the War!") And he was there again, not only in Berlin, but all over Germany, a year later, to note and study on the spot what he describes in hi? most interesting book as “ those absorbingly interesting changes” which bear so vitally upon the progress and outcome of the war. It is in its authentic revelation of these changes hi tho popular attitude that “The Land of Deepening Shadow’’ (Hodder and Stoughton) possesses its chief interest for us at tho present time; but there is much else in it which, if not entirely new', is both valuable and instructive. There is, for instance, tho evidence of the systematic perversion of the German mind, for Mr. Curtin shows how even the boys and girls ot Germany have had their littlo souls cursed by “incubated hate” and their youthful energies commandeered for war work. Tho schoolmaster, ho says, has played his part in the training of the child to militarism, State worship, and enemy hatred as effectively as the professor, tho clergyman, th 0 editors, and the moving picture producers. Mr. Curtin tells of a group of diplomats and newspaper correspondents being gathered together at lunch in a German city early in the war, when one of the latter, an American, asked how' a certain proposition which was being discussed would suit public opinion. “Will public opinion favour such a move?” no questioned. “Public opinion! Public opinion!” a member of the German Foreign Offico repeated, in a tone which showed that he was honestly perplexed. “ Wily, we create it!” And, says, Mr Curtin, he spoke the truth: they certainly do. People who enjoy the blessings of a free press would do well to read Mr. Curtin’s enlightening description of the complete and abject subjection of tho newspapers of Germany to official authority. But, as we have said, the most interesting feature of Mr. Curtin’s work is his realistic pen-picture of tiie deepening shadow that is falling over Germany. Germany is playing her last desperate card -—the submarine— and her leaders be

says, are faced with the task of keeping tho population hopeful on an alarmingly decreasing diet. “In Germany,” lie remarks, “you feel that the drama of tho battlefield lias changed to tho drama of the larder. Hope and despair succeed one another in the determination to hold out economically wiiilo soldier and sailor convince the woild that Germany cannot Ik? beaten. I ooplc laugh at the blockade, sneer nr tlie blockade, and curse the blockade ii. the same breath. A headline of victory, a mention of tho army, the army they loro ,and they boast again. Then a placo in the food line, or a seat at table, and they whine at the long war, a ul rage against 'British treachery.' Like a cork tossing on the waves—such is the spirit of Germany. The majority struggle on in the distorted bel iof that Germany was forced to defend herself from attack planned by (•rent Britain, while the minority are kept in check by armed patrols and preventive arrest.’ Everywhere ono sees evidence of the fact that the spirit of ‘All for the Fatherland’ is yielding to the spirit of the self-preservation of tho individual.”