HYPNOTISED BY THE HUNS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LX, Issue 17077, 3 September 1917, Page 6

HYPNOTISED BY THE HUNS.

A PROTEST

By THORPE LEE

He was talking so distinctly in the hotel lounge after dinner that I was compelled to listen.

1 did not want to listen. I wanted to read.- But this young man's voice was so penetrating, the kind of vpice which comes frv.n rural rectories or from smaller', more remote type of English country house where " girl" must be pronounced "gaynil" and all the vowels are' sounded in the mouth, not brought up, full and resonant, from the chest. He was talking about the war. His theme was the excellence of the German organisation and leadership. Not an uncommon theme among us. We arc, as a nation, more inclined to admire the merits of others than to acknowledge our own. That is not' a bad attitude of mind in cvsneraJ, but it can be carried too far. I think some of us are inclined to carry it too far just now —to allow ourselves to be hypnotised by the j undoubted, but not superhuman, ability of the Huns.

"Eh am not a pro-German," this young man was saying, "but Eh cannot; see the use of denying that tliey have proved themselves quite extraordinarily competent. Their system is perfectly wonderful. Their leaders are extremely able. Mackensen'is a great man. Falkenhayn too. Eh Ido not see how we tan refuse to admit their greatness."

I was tempted to but i into the discussion. My tongue tingled to ask him what he knew of Mackensen and Ealkenhayu. I found it hard to sit still and be forced to listen to this one-sided and ill-founded argument. However, it; is not my habit to join in discussions uninvited. I came up to my room to write this article instead. What is there %{wonderful" about tlio ■ German military organisation? Not, certainly, the perfection of its mechanism. Given forty years of constant, hard-working preparation, with material to'work tipon so sheeplike as th,e German race, and only very stupid organisers could have failed to produce a smoothly running machine. Not, certainly, the performance by the machine of the task for which'it was created. Everyone knows it was created in order to ensure quick victory. THE REAL HUN WONDER. The ''wonderful" thing about the German military system is its collapse. It has made its boastful inventions look foolish. They took forty years to perfect it. In less than three years the British nation, although it- was rather slow in starting, has put into the fieid an' Army which is not only-as good but 'better, and-which 'has already begun knocking it out.

No one who has seen anything of tn.e war denies that the. German soldier fights well. But fighting well has nothing to do with the systems in force .before the war. —unless you contend that the Germans only fight well because of their system, as to which fewwould agr.ee Almost all troops are plucky ond enduring. Courage is the result of temperament, not of preparation.

Take the matters which preparation could alfect. The German trenches are well made. True, but so are the British trenches. The German transport is precise and punctual. So is the British transport. The German ( artillery is good. The Brithish artillery is better. Here is another thought. ' The Germans concentrated-t«e:r energy upon making an Array. Their Army has not done was exoected of it. We British concentrated upon a navy. Chir Navy has done what was. expected of it. 'It has kept the German Navy and Germany's merchant • vessels off the seas. If there is anything "wonderful" here I think it can fairly he chalked up to t}s. And then those "great" men, Mae,kensen and Falkenhayn, what have they done? Mackensen drove back the Russians. Why? Because they had no ammunition. He invaded Rumania. True, but considering that the Rumanians were unprepared for war, he tooK a long time over it, and Falkenhayii failed lamentably to carry out his part of the scheme- They are clever, skilful soldiers no doubt. So they ought to be, when you think of the training they have had. But not more clever and skilful than Haig, than Gough, than Maude. Great? No.

That is what I would have said to the young man in the lounge. I feel all the better for saying it now.

as to drawing of interest, etc., lias been cureiully wwac-u out, ana it the samekind. ol scheme were adopted by other iirnis tinou^nout thj Jjomnuou, very valuable anci substantial encouragement v.'Oiud be t^iven to stall's to do likewise, thus opening up channels i:or thousands of small stream.^ which at the confluence, would form a mighty river of dollars .flowing directly into the Treasury of Liberty. At the head of this stupendous effort Sir Joseph Ward stands as the propounder of the greatest borrowingl scheme ever placed before the people of New Zealand by any Minuter for Finance. Sir Joseph's fertile brain will •unquestionably find ;t way of getting at the "big fellow," but if employers of labour will only take iip the torch of small effort and wave it wide, the fine example set by the firm at Marton will have far-reach-ing effects in contributing to the success of the Liberty Loan, and marking L 91.7 as the year of "bigest things'' ever accomplished by the people of New Zealand, he, 1 firmly believe, are* determined to retain their hold on God's Own Country, and never allow it to become the kingdom of Kniserdom.