“SUI GENERIS”

Waikato Times, Volume 90, Issue 14023, 28 March 1919, Page 3

“SUI GENERIS”

PUZZLE OF HUN MENTALITY. AT SCAPA FLOW. “ It is all very well to talk about psychology and understanding the German mind," said a naval officer, “ but I’m hanged if I know where r.o start." Certainly, if one studies the officers and crews of the 70-odd ships in the German Scapa Flow lleet one does not know where to start. They are so unBritish ; in fact, they are so unlike the rest of the world in their behaviour that there seems no logical bridge ny which one can cross to appreciate their mental workings. Their lack of discipline has already been much commented on, and may be broadly attributed to their degeneration as a fighting force; but to what mental process can one attribute the fact that the German seamen slavishly obeys a direction given him by a Britisli officer, and yet preserves an altitude of neutrality towards his own ?

For that is the general experience of our officers who have on duty visited the German ships. The German seaman will run about at once at a hint from a -British officer. Perhaps that is the spirit that made the German waiter the success he was In pre-war days, but the British naval man finds it difficult to understand, for he cannot, by any stretch of imagination, picture himself acting likewise in siimilar circumstances. Yet another puzzle is that the German seamen have been seen to salute their representative on the Sailors’ and Workmen’s Council when they have disregarded their own officers.

The mental processes of the German officer, too, are no less difficult. The German officer occasionally salutes a British officer. It seems so much to depend on .the nature of the German himself whether he does or not. But contrast with this the fact that when some American minesweepers passed through the German lines all the officers on the deck of one of the German ships stood to the salute as the leading American vessel passed. Why? One hazards the guess that the Germans may think the Americans more friendly than the British, but one canot understand the reasoning. Yet another point which astonishes the naval officer. At the very time that the German High Seas Fleet was abandoning its proud title by refusing to light, a gallant submarine officer — for there is no other adjective to most men’s minds—made an attempt to get into Scapa Flow and wreak havoc among the units of the British Fleet then assembled there. He failed, and his submarine was blown up owing f.o our adequate defences, but it was a .bold attempt and in accord with the best traditions of naval warfare.

Truly, one Is “ hanged if one knows where to start ” to understand the German naval mind.