1918-07-02 — Page 7

BLUFFING THE WHOLE WORLD.

DESPERATE STATE OF AFFAIRS IN GERMANY,

[BY ERNEST LIONEL PYKE ]

WHAT THEY THINK OF US.. Our Contemptible little Army," which afforded the Kaiser so much amuse- ment in 1914, has now become, according to the official North German Gazettes Germany's toughest and most obstinate foo"

That, broadly speaking, is the change of opinion that has taken place through out Germany in regard to Great Britain during the long period of the war,

THE HONGKONG DAILY PRESS, TUESDAY, JULY 2ND, 1918,

BELGIUM AND IRELAND APPEAL TO THE ROMAN CATHOLIC HIERARCHY:

In a protest addressed to Cardinal Logue against the attitude adopted by the Irish Roman Catholic Hierarchy m re- the President, ittee, secretaries of the Ligue

and Britannique say:-

GERMAN DESERTERS,

THOUSANDS HAVE FLED TO HOLLAND:

Ab Bergen-aan-Zes which, be it known, is a small watering-place in Holland. there is a camp for German deserters, where those who have fied from the armies of the Kaiser and who have been unable to obtain employment, have been corralled by the Dutch. Altogether, counting those who are able to maintain themselves, it is estimated that there are now within the jurisdiction of the Dutch

It is solely ne Belgians-betrayed by a lawless and dishonourable enemy that Eminence and from the Catholic Bishop We crave a patient bearing from your of Ireland His Eminence Cardinal Mercier has already been compelled to protest in Rome against the attitude of the Holy See, the representative of moral law, towards the violation of Belgian neutrality Our souls were profoundly more than 20,000 Germas, cowed in troubled at the silence of the Vatican af spirit by the merciless discipline of their the time when our country constantly armies. Henry Suydam, a staff corres expected a ringing appeal from the Holy pondent of the Brooklyn Eagle, recently Father to the General Conference, pro- visited the camp, and he writes There was a time, some 25 or 30 years claiming a new Crusado in defence of ago, when great business men in London, the right. Even the Government of Bel- Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Glasgow, tholic

although it contains a large and elsewhere were so short-sighted as to th

did not hesitate to majorited Minister harbour hordes of young German clerks, Vatican to lodge his respectful protest who were welcomed because they gave against an attitude which was evidently their services free. Those clerks were hosile to Belgian interests, and one which business spies. Every German is of a has been severely criticised in the autho spying nature. Germans spy on each riser organs of the Catholic Press other continually.

Moved, therefore, by the same considere, tions as prompted Cardinal Mercier and the Belginn Government, we also are im- pelled to an energetic protest against

the nction of the Irish Episcopary. As Belgians we have a right to count on the support of all the coun: tries forming the United Kingdom; Ire land is among them her

signature stan is equally with those of her colleagues at the which guarantees our

England is overrun with German apies to-day, everyone of whom should be in terned.

Almost the first person to whom I spoke on arriving in London three weeks ago was an uninterned German, who was as surprised to see me as I was to meet him. The young German clerks to whom I have alluded returned to Germany load- ed with our secrets and with tales of what the Americana esilensy money," stories of a nation given up to week-ends, of the playing of games--foolish games, the Germans think them of the absence of drilling, of huge wages, fortune, easily made, fat businesses decaying in the hands of the second and third generation,

so on.

and that time Germany was in the fire Bush of the enormous prosperity which Followed her victory over France. She was censing to be the poor relation of Europe. Saxony, the German Lanca shire, and the provinces of Silesia, Rhineland, and Westphalia were develop ing at a speedy rate. The British inven- tion of aniline lyes had been pushel: to the utmost by the Germans. American electrical inventions were also equally exploited.

THE DIRTH OF KATE.

The envy with which Germans have always regarded England developed into scientifically inculcated Hate, which was camouflaged by visits and return visits of mayors, Lurgomasters, soientists, lite rary men, notorists, and other groups of representative persons who were sent here to throw dust in the eyes of whnt. a Grinan described to me ag **the most easily flattered English."

The difference between the treatment of wonten in Germany and in England was one of the original causes of German dislike and contempt for us. In Ger many a woman is simply a housewife (lausfran), and that she should inter- vene in public life is regarded as proof of tifcudence on the part of the mal section of the population.

instruct its

at the

THE CAUSE OF THE WAR. EFFECT OF GERMAN EDUCATION.

Speaking at the Royalty Theatre on May 4th, during the performance of The Prime Minister, Mr. Hall Cains, said that in his view the real cause of the war lay deep down in the education of the German people, who had for forty years been taught in their schools and universities that the German race was destined by Providence to inherit the earth, that war was to be their way to this world supremacy, that werey was weakness and peace to be despised, and, therefore, they were justified in com mitting any international crinies that seemed to them to be necessary to the power and expansion of the German Empire, While England ought to main. tain her traditional glory as a safe re- There is no outward distinction in this fuge for the exiles of liberty from less camp from any of the various prison invoured lands, she ought also to protect. camps scattered around Europe, or, in her own people from a criminal race who deed, from the miscellaneous camps in had been educated to believe that, though Holland itself, for Holland is dotted for purposes of livelihood they might with concentration-depots for Belgian have to seek the shelter and protection refugees for Dutch unemployed, for of our country, they must never cease to British and German interned troops, be the subjects, and even the glaves, of and for exchanged prisoners,

their own. Thy damuuble doctrines, in I went to the deserters' camp at defence of crime which had been openly Bergen-cau-Zee on a depressing day—promulgated in Germany by widely- one of those periods of rain and mist known and highly placed professors and that makes these town on the Dutch pastors (some of them, like Harnack, at coast seem like mere islands in the North tached to the Imperial Court) were Sea. You chug through the Dutch sefficient to show us what tragic lengths swamps to the north of Alkmaar in we might still have to go to in order to steam-tram, and the screeching of the put an end to this war, and all wal miniatura locomotive is the one sound and re-establish the peace and safety of that breaks the insistent Dutch silence the world,

This is very quaint and charming, like upon us, a fact never to be forgotten point and that point is the camp. The so many things in Holland, up to a This

support has been given lavishly by England, Scotland, Wales, the Domin. deserter is a new phenomenon, at least one, and the Colonies of Great Britain.in my own experience in matters of war. Is it possible that the Irish 1 think I must have expected to see a Hierarchy, whose spiritual mission it is group of minor prophets in. a Dutch to teach the Irish people a really Chris wilderness. It was, at any rate, a shock pudiate their pledged word, nou, betree to catch sight, of men stralling around ing their ancient traditions, to tread the clothes or torn uniforms, looking the bathway of cowardly connivance in a das tardly crime? Your Eminence, this at- British lines, me France. Their appear titude of hostility towards the spiritual interests of democracy is the more dis- ace however, was a mere item; it was turbing in that the point under dispute the ntinosphere of the camp that counted, is purely civil, for your clergy are exempt an atmosphere such as I have never met from the duty of risking the safety of anywhere during my three years' con- tact with so many primitive aspects of their persons in defence of moral right.

the war-an atmosphere that I can com pare with only one thing, the curious depression disintegration, almost, spread abroad in Petrograd by the Russian exiles who came tramping back from Siberia in March, 1917.

raiso

foot of the Treality which was forced

noutrality, a

will them to

IN TERIZOR OF TOMMY."

same as German prisoners behind the

He

GREAT FAMINE IN PERSIA

TYPHUS EPIDEMIC.

Persin is in the grip of the worst famine in its history, according to ad-

by U.S.A. De partient recently, the cable, mate he department stated that this food shortage was so neute that the prople were eating.

ass dogs, and cats

message canie through the American Legation at Teheran, and was forwarded

the American Committee on Armenian and Syrian Relief in New York City from that organization's representativo in Persin. The report stated that the conditions, were very desperate.

The faurine is accompanid by typhus Aid from the United States is asked to relieve the suffering.

Sone time ago the State Department received a request from the Persian Gov ernment for a loan to nid in fighting the famine, but the department replied that the law did not permit the granting of loans except to Governments which

war against Germany, engaged in the

To cut a long story short-there has been in Germany an increasing fear of the British soldier. He is no longer a

The first German that I interviewed mere sportsman. He no longer shows was the camp cook, who was a German what they consider to be fear by shaking sailor about thirty years of age, of sturdy hands with the Germans when he is takenlysique and quick mentality. prisoner. He is a barbarous fellow, is shouted Achtung! in regular drill but, in order to meet the situation, the the Englishman" inchading, of course, ground fashion when I entered the facts were presented to relief societica,

have already done more Scottish. Welsh, Irish, Canadian, Aus- kitchen, and the three spoons of his which tralian, New Zealand, and Cape hold three assistants clattered to the floor. philanthropie relief work than the Per jerk). He fights unfairly was the They clicked their wooden clogs together sign Government had asked by way of a complaint made.. The Germans especially at the heel, and that ineffable, beaningdan. admired him for this, for they frankly expression of dog-like devotion assumed admire unfairness. They found that be would fight with his st, a brick, a pickaxe, or a trench knife

结业

Papers. The German Emperor was con- spiowously absent; but Hindenburg änd Ludendorff glaved on one side, while Kerensky and Miliukoff beamed on the other. There were no German flag, no German inscriptions, no drawings, but enough pictures of German troops.

The procedure of the Government in the cases of these Germans is peculiar, The writer says:-

a German soldier when addressing u superior, came across their faces,otographs cut from German illustrated. nan discipline is taught to stick; very dventure to say that through the stiffness, becomes automatic like shaking British Tommies, the Canadians, and hands or raising one's hat. Australians, John Bull has asserted for Now this cook was a good type of man, himself a place in Germany which he by no infans a coward, and with an evid The English hocame the specin study never held before. Our toughest and out desire to express himself. He most obstinate foe," they say Their answer - da Wohl with fierce enthu- of a great many Germans. In the som mer they and their red Baedeker guide.

present attitude is that our soldiers are sins, when I asked him whether he was hooks could have been seen in hundrede immensely courageous and dogged, aura deserter and he bellowed a wohl! in England, Scotland Wales, and curiofficers unscientific, our equipment per- again when I asked whether he had been busly enough, very largely in Ireland. fect.

at the front, but beyond that he was When I asked why ho

The nut who surrenders himself to the At every point they communed with a I have had a special opportunity of non-committal.

uave German hotel waiter in touch with discussing the British Army with the had deserted, and what he thought of Dutch authorities either in or out of the local Gorman Consul:

relays of military guards at Ruhleben German Government, a look of fear uniform, and declares himself a deserter, It became an obsession with the Ger-and have seen the scales fall from their enme into his eyes, he stuttered and is required to establish his status, as the mans that Great Britain was a fat, over-43ēm.

apologized, and wound up by admitting presumptive, evidence is that he is an ripe plum, and that the German Michael Admiration for the British soldier has that it was not safe to discuss these actual belligerent. Many airmen, both Kritish and German, have been fareed to had only to give the tree one good shake increased the national Hate by adding a things." and the fruit would be his. That is how large element of fear thereto. The in He had been in the galley of the Ger- descend un Dutch territory during the things were up to 1914, when, according dividua) Cierman is now frightened of the man battle-ship Frauenfob during some war, because of engine trouble, and thes to the universal belief of the German individual. Briton. The trench raids of the earlier naval actions. Just before men have often put themselves miles from mob. Mr. Gray (Viscount Grey of

which were a form of warfare invented the Jutland engagement he laid been their abandoned airplane and then given Fallodon), amazed Germany by bringing. by our side, sent a shiver of fear through sent down to Zeebrugge, where he cooked themselves up as dissenters, for the de about a world war in order to destroy but the German Army. They were un

for submarine crews for whom heserters and allowed to return to their own "Britain's greatest traile competitor."

expected. They were not according to cherished great admiration. Their ap. country, if they so clect, while the ordi- Unfortunately for me I was in Ger- the German lawa of war. Therefore petites, he said, were monstrous. Heary soldier who is compelled, for soma many at the moment, when Great Britain they were grossly unfair, For that had never seen met eat such quantities declared that he would not stand idly

with such speed, such devouring eager by and de France and little Belgium The German oficial attitude towards | Ress.

Une day, being satiated with German trampled upon. I say German Hate in England to-day is one of intense anger its most virulent, explosive form. So far and annoyance at our obstinacy war, he walked up the Belgian coast to ns I am personally concerned 1 make no obstinacy in refusing to be gulled as the Knocke, went into hiding for some time, complaint, as it was the fortune of war Russians were. This hate is being added and then “ by an claborate process, I have travelled all over the world and to by the unholy alliance between Mrcrawled under the wire entanglements knocked up against Germans everywhere Wilton, Mr. Lloyd George, and A. along the frontier, escaped the scutries, and, expecting nothing good from them. Clemenceau."

and arrived on Dutch territory, I was not, therefore, surprised at receiv. In the days of American neutrality I It is not at all unlikely that he will Sng nothing.

eventually land in Hoboken, for he says that he should like to ge his mother and his sweetheart after the war, but if Ger many refuses to grant an amnesty he will go to America.

Among the things never to be forgotten was the treatment of British invalida in the watering places of Germany and Austria. Especially vile was the treat ment of the heart patients at Nauheim by the orders of Frince Henry of Prussia the Kaiser's brother whose special role it has been to fool the English and Ameri eans Marienbad and Carlsbad behaved atrociouis

reason they are feared though admired.

heard Mr. Wilson described by some Germans as a statesman, by others as a great man of business, who was keeping his country out of the war in order to seize the trade of Britain, France, and Germany. He has now begun to he re- garded with the intense hatred accorded to

41

reason, to trespass on Dutch soil in interned for the duration of the war without choice.

no

Deserters are of two sorts-men who are in actual military service, and thoge who wish to avoid it here is difference in their treatment, once the Dutch Government undertake, their care. These men bare no money, work is scarce, and, in any case, they have no references of good behavior in a previous employ ment. As such men, without money or work, would naturally be a danger if allowed to roam about Holland as vag- rants, they are confined in the camp at Borgen aan Zee. Their names are listed at the employment agencies, and the

Outside, a young Bavarian was pacing up and down in the rain. The Eagle corsands of them have thus got work and respondent approached him and asked

But

released from confinement.

The German Legation in The Hague renounces these Germans, and the Gov ernment takes no pay, naturally, but they have the prerogative, so far as the Dutch Government is concerned, of re turning to Germany at any time, although what punishment would he meted out by the German military authorities is not evident.

Mr. Grey, Mr. Lloyd George, and Lord Northielife, whom the German suddenly Government bas honoured by specially Do you think the German Govern starting a newspaper for him, the intent will ever pardon deserters?" Meanwhile Germans, many of them of Northelife Jail, with which the British He regarded me in a determined way, military age, were allowed to leave Engprison camps are plentifully deluged as if he had been thinking about just land quite peaceably foolish proceed I suppose we have some real friends in that point. Then he said, as one who ing which has cost untold suffering to our Germany, but they are so few as not to states as axiom: If Germany wins, prisoners in Germany who could have be worth considering. I found one, a there will be no pardons, been exchanged if we had had enough brother Mason, whose great kindness I Yes, we know that I said. Gerraan pawns in our hands at home. shall never forget. To mention him do you think the Germans have a chance

Within a few months of the outbreak would bring upon him social ostracism to win!" of the war the soldiers in Germany began in his own circle and probably a tangible The man gritted his teeth and said to talk about the fighting qualities of the expression of offieis) displeasure. grimly That is by no means impos British, and there came the first change The early battles against Great Britain sible. in public opinion that I noticed. If were undoubtedly, hate battles. Lissau- Then he went off again, squdging about You know the Germans they are really or's Hymn of Hate" was sung as the in the mud, as if the prospect angered fost transparent people. The change in grey-blue waves of Germans advanced to him in a personal way, as it well might. the opinion held of our military prowess laughter. The present battles are also. But he would say nothing. The German took the form of belittling the idea of late battles but primarily they are Government, it becins, sends out spics as raising a large British Army. The bread battles intensified by the failure deserters and plants" them in various Contemptible little Army had been of Roumania and the Ukraine to yield camps to acquire signs of revolutionary craebed, but the Contemptibles had killed food, as definitely promised to the Ger- gossip... very large numbers of Germans Thank man people,

These mon ere disowned by the German the camp goodness that danger was ended, they The dislike of many Germans for the Government, of course. They are men said, adding that The new Army would British is based very largely on jealous without a country, and that, intrinsically I merely a mob.”---

grounds. Before the war a distinguished is a very awkward position, in these German said to me. All my friends bay days when a passport is more precious their clothes, hats, boats, linen, and than a bank-account. There was indeed haberdashery in London. We like to look more than a tough of the Philip Asian like Englishmen.”

legend in one of the smaller barracks, where I found several youthe manufae turing trinkets out of odds and ends of wood and fin - The wall was pasted with (Costinseed gi foot of next Column.)

I remember the photographs in the Getman newspapers of our boys drilling in the parks without uniform-sometimes without rifles. Those photography misled shout our capacity to organise, for the Gestans can easily be made to think what they want to think.

(Continued at fout of seat colours-}

"I never heard of anyone who wanted to look like a German,? I remarked in reply Daily Hail

(To be continued.)

With the deserters, in a camp at Bergen aan Zee is quartered a whole cosmopolitan rogues, awaiting possible deportation. The camp is, in fact, a sort of penal colony for foreigners in Holland, although the Germian deserters and the common vagabonds do not mix. I saw Chinese, Roumanian Russians Indians, South-Americans, Poles, Hun- garians a dozen nationalities. These men are, however, of no significance in this connection, except in so far as they lower quite distinctly, the moral tons of As evidence of the perfection of the German mpionage system it may be said that none of these deserters has been able to communicate with his relatives in Germany. The brand of outcast has bean stamped upon them; letters address ed to them or sent by them are stopped. They may not come into contact with Germans at any point. They have bo some non-Germans, which is something much worse, in the German mind, than mere English or Americans.

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