Wairarapa Daily Times [Established 44 Years.] TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1919. THE KULTURED BURGLAR.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 45, Issue 13753, 4 February 1919, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established 44 Years.] TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1919. THE KULTURED BURGLAR.

Eighty million pounds sterling is the estimated value of the stolen works of art which Germany has already been compelled to restore to Prance. We haVe no report us yet regarding the Belgian losses in this respect, but they may well be at least equal in amount. In times gone by we were fairly well acquainted with the art treasures of Brussels and Antwerp, and know full well that the mere money value of Belgium's art store was fabulous. Is T ot only were there rich accumulations lin private collections and. national or municipal museums, but the churches were I no less fully endowed. As everybody I knows, the Koraan Church was to European mediaeval art what Buddhism was to the Chinese and Japanese—the great suggester, inspirer, patron and friend. Lagging far behind the French and Flemings in his command of true art, the Hun has taken advantage of the past four years to play the burglar on a big scale. Had he not finally been collared by the Allied police, he', would have made a most successful haul, and, in his own dialect, have "got safely off with the swag. ,. Now, being in custody, the criminal is being compelled to disgorge his dll-gotten spoil. His friends will doubtless pity him. Poor fellow! a shame it is that those Americans, British, French and others should havo spoiled his little game! One who has shown so keen an appreciation of art, too! But it was not art alone which attracted the Hun. Nothing of value came amiss to him. Your ordin-

ary burglar has usually to devote his main attention to valuables in small compass. Not so the invading Him. Ho had thousands of motor trucks returning empty after unloading their ammunition and other supplies. Why not employ them? Tho thought was a happy one — for the Hun —and no sooner said than done. Germany, proud of her organising powers, set to work to systematise the burglarious emptying of France and

Belgium. Not merely art work, but everything else was seized. Metals, os-

pocially the precious metals, machinery, stocks of woven goods, clothing, raw materials, household furniture, nothing came amiss. Transport was there —why not use it? "Visitors to the depopulated districts tell us that' even where houses ■aro left standing there is nothing in them. Everything has vanished, and, as wo know, vast quantities of such goods have been disposed of in neutral and other lands. Fortunately, the Hun (poor fellow!) has been caught. Winston Churchill says of him, "It is intended to make Germany pay to the uttermost farthing for the harm she has done. , * . He wasn't thinking of the burglar's "swag" so much as of other things, for he enumerates "gold, shipping securities, and other valuable liquid assets." And once more the Hun's friends will lift up their hands in holy horror at the justice being meted out to

him. We have not the slightest objection to the exercise of every form of the private sympathy where sympathy is

deserved, but for the time being we, as a nation, are dealing with another nation caught flagrante dclicto in the greatest series of crimes ever conceived. Consequently, the i nmediate word is justice: and no other.