WOUNDED GERMANY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2352, 7 January 1915, Page 6

WOUNDED GERMANY

IMPRESSION IN THE CITIES

LOST ENTHUSIASM

The article printed below is tho second written (for the "Daily News," date November 14) by a subject of a ueutral State, who has had special opportunities or observing conditions in Germany, where he made a considerable tour, during the first three months of the war. He gives an interesting description of street scenes ii\ Berlin and Cologne. Tho latter lie describes as "the Capital of .Wounded Germany." "A sad morning—grey, like the uniform of the wounded soldiers whom I meet in the street. It is cold—as if tho Russians had sent their winter a month in advance to lie German capital. I walk in the direction of the Royal Castle, and pass the Arsenal. . A crowd is entering it solemnly to ? ee the captured flags and guns. I ■ 'tor myself. There axe guns, richly dec..'ated, from 1870—from Laon and La Fere—but the people pass them, giving all their attention to the guns which arc newly taken. They, are crowding round a French gun marked "120 court." There are artless pictures in the main hall, one showing the crowning of the German Emperor in Versailles. Bismarck is standing among the generals before tho Kaiser like a third-rate actor., German official art could never express things well. We. leave the Arsenal and go ,to the other end of Unter den Linden. ■ On my way to the Brandenburger Thor, all along the boulevard, I see everywhere portraits of the Kaiser ' and favourite generals—Von Haeseler, Von Bulow, Von Emmich, even Von Hindenburg. A few months ago nobody would have had the courage to expose a photo of Von Snndenßurg. He was in disgrace, suspended. 'In manoeuvres he had pushed the enemy out of East Prussia, though the. "enemy" happened to :be the Kaiser himself. The Super-Teuton would not recognise that he was beaten. Von Kluck's. Misfortune. "Your Majesty," said von Hindenburg, "then here is Germany open for you—walk iu!" That reply brought about von Hindenburg's fall. When Russians were near Konigsberg he was called back from inactivity to save the situation. He managed to do it, and now wo see his ugly head in all the shops—the head typical of a Prussian: non-commissioned officer. One does not see Von Kluck's portrait so often, . though he has the most alert and most sympathetic face of all the German generals. He made a mistake, in so far as he* arrived almost in time before Paris, while the Crown Prince never came at all. In Prussian official language they say now that von Kluck mauch'ed too quickly. . That is why we do not see so many photographs of him and so mani more of the Crown Prince. At length I reach the Brandenburger Thor, having passed many wounded on the way. Their uniforms are worn and dirty: iflio grey cloth, is unsatisfactory and' not durable. The . guard is just being mounted, and it seems to me, an inhabitant' of a non-military country, a foolish act. But here is the heart of Germany. I close my byes,_ and a vision arises before me. A bright sunny day, the Kaiser, ridine at the head of his glorious troops— the victorious entry into Berlin. Tho are decorated with flags, and there is a shouting crowd. • So it was after '70. And in that I discover the cause of the war. Such a. victorious return from the battlefields is denied to the present generation,- to the Kaiser, his son,' and to the military junts. Wounded Everywhere, There is no place in great Germany where theraare no wounded. I have .seen them in every station. in every train, going east, west, south,; north. In Berlin I have seen them in. every street, 1 entering the theatres, leaving ■ the. ■ cafes. In the Cafe Bauer Unter; den Linden, where"' I drink a glass of tea' (it is hot water with a light brown colour,' probably occasioned by tea, which is getting, scarce m Germany), there are at a taole.four wounded soldiers with a Red Cross nurse. Later on after midnight I meet a band of eight in charge of two nurses. ■ Of course, these men are only slightly wounded, and the nurses are not necessary for assistance. One of the first mobilisation measures was to expel a certain section of the female element from the Friedrichstrasse. They have their owii camp in a remote place. Public balls were stopped. The latter was easy enough,, but the Friedrichstrasse —aH that need be said is that the Police President was not by any means entirely successful.' Cologne might be called tho Capital of Wounded Germany.' Along.the Rhine no house is without founded. In the big hall of the station, in the large waiting rooms,: I seem to livo in a wounded world, and I wonder if, I am not wounded myself. The first man I see at breakfast is a wounded officer; the first man I meet in the street is wounded.' Yet it is not a horrible sight. There aro no suggestions of. real battlefield horrors. The traveller cannot look into the many trains running from the west with the seriously wounded arid in the hospitals. The wounded in the street look quite satisfied, and the public do not seem moved. On the contrary, they seem proud of it. This need not surprise you. Wo are in the country where University students fight with the 6abre, aud' a man with a doctor's title ought to have a long cut over his face—by preference from tho ear, right over the cheek, giving a littlo finish to the nose. It will mark tho favourite place on- his cheek, where his bride-will kiss him later. Lost Enthusiasm. During my stay in Germany, I saw only one weeping woman. "No, I have no details yet," she said to' her neighbour, who bought a. ticket for her at a railway station. Poor soul, she represented but one of thousands and thousands' of homes. The first 60 lists of losses must give nearly 800,000' men killed, wounded, or missing. "But a friend of mine who fell on September 13- is not yet in the list,'' said a man yesterday evening. "I think; my valuation ia not too high ,if I suggest that the total losses of the German Army to date exceed one million men. I spoke to different men, whose positions gave .them an idea of the figures. They confirmed my impressions. Some convalesr cont wounded have returned to the front, but not with the'same enthusiasm, and the last volunteers and Landsturm men, who are now drawn in, have lost the enthusiasm of August, They do not fight for their own territory like the French and Belgians, or for vital interests like the English. They still believe that tlie Tsar had deceived their Emperor; but is that a reason to suffer so much in trenches far from their home ? That is the state of mind of the soldier. Eight days ago I had a conversation with a Red Cross man: "80,000 English will be taken prisoners at Nieuwport, I '' ho said. "Is thero a now bulletin?" I asked him. "No," he answered, "the papers do not know anything, but I tTo. I camo from the front just now with a train of wounded. We have g' it the English in a triangle whence th«.y cannot escape. Thoy must surrender or be drowned in the sea. You will hear of it one of these .days."