NEW HYMN OF HATE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2681, 29 January 1916, Page 3

NEW HYMN OF HATE

ODE OF A "PRISONER IN ENGLAND." The Germans have a new "Hymn of Hate." This 0110 is supposed to express the feelings of "The Prisoner in England." It was written by Georg von Kries, and is published (says the graph") in the "Deutsche Tages Zeitung," the organ of the Agrarian Party. The following is the translation of the "Hymn":— "One day is like the other, and every day is grey: each day is full of fog, and overy draught is. cutting. "There is no fire on the hearth, there is 110 glow in any stove. "We warm ourselves with internal anger, we warm ourselves with rage, for outside our walls there is loud rejoicing, and many a golden palace is being built on false victories. "They revile us with words, they spit in our faces; we suspect the truth, however, and do not believe what they say. "We suspect that the German battlecry has Jong been resounding through Russia, that our comrades are gaining victories . . . and we are not with them, "The thunder of our cannon—which is the German tempest—penetrates thick | walls, and reaches .us in..our dungeon. "We hear, for we believe that it is so; we see it as clear as daylight, Germany's sun of triumph' breaking through the enemy musses! "We clench our fists savagely, and wish we were there. ■ • "111 vain! They tore us from our ships to bring us here; every boat'of our hearts cried .vainly for nome, and now hunger and thirst are reducing us day by day. ' . .•■' . "We lie here like beggars, in tno frost, with open doors. -We may not tight for Germany, we only starve for her! "But hark! ■ That is the sound of propellers travelling inland along the course of the Thames I "May every bomb hit you, . accursed England, till London's factories are in ashes, and her palatial banks are mere heaps of ruins! "Each bomb will have eaid to you, 'So we hated you I 1 "And if the bombs, fell on us, we should not complain, as that would mean an end to .our torments, and would be preferable to an English Court of Law. "We should then die like other warriors, simultaneously with our enemies. Now, like the dogs, we feel only our ad- , versaries' blows.

"The others are dying in battle, , and their • blood flows gloriously, while we are dying, without honour, of misery, hate and rage." What "the people" in Prussia think of the poem may be judged from the following remarks, made by the "Vorwaris," the central organ of the Socialist Party:— "Wo (imagined that the time for 'Hymns of Hate' had passed, but this wretched composition shows us that we were ivrong. If Herr von Kries and the 'Deutsche Tages Zeitung' are absolute-

ly intent on hating, we have no objection ; they should restrict themselves, however, to nourishing their 'misery, hate, and ragoYon facts that aro known to be true." .