MORALE OF THE ENEMY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2440, 20 April 1915, Page 5

MORALE OF THE ENEMY

SOME IMPRESSIONS BY "EYE-WITNESS" (Reo. April 19, 6 p.m.) \ London, April 19. "Eye-Witness" says that the Germans at St. Hubert, on Thursday, for some reason, displayed the white flag, but lowered it on finding that there was no desire on the part of our troops to communicate with. them. "One battalion _ accounted For fifteen German . snipers in two days. "A German at Richebourg shouted: 'Wo are attacking in forty-eight hours I' They have not yet carried out their threat. "According to a deserter the enemy's bread ration consists of one loaf daily, amongst four. "Letters taken from Gorman soldiors are increasingly pessimistic. They state that the officers behave with studied truculence. This is bonis out by the use .of the 'cat-o'-nine-tails' which is well established. '.'One prisoner who was oaptured at Neuvo Chapello stated that twenty men were digging trenches when the subaltern in charge suddenly produced his revolver and declared that ho would blow out the brains of the first idle man <he saw. "One consequence of the general mistrust amongst the men is that thev do not exchange grievances for fear those reach the ears of their seniors. The outward forms of discipline . are unreliable. In the trenches, when an officer passes a man the lattc-r must spring to attention and .remain at 'shoulder arms,' possibly for a quarter of an hour. _ "German confidence may. bo, diminished, but it can only be destroyed by a defeat which is neither explainable nor _ hideable. Such a defeat, might possibly have an immediate and overwhelming effcct on tho whole nation, which would be decisive."—("Times" and Sydney "Sun" Services^.)'.'