HOW GERMANY FARES TO-DAY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3092, 24 May 1917, Page 7

HOW GERMANY FARES TO-DAY

FLIGHT OF CIVILIANS BRIBING THE FRONTIER GUARDS IFrom a Special Correspondent.) ._ Delemont, March 10. i!. [Three deserters who succeeded in ■crossing the Swiss frontier last, night have reached Delemont in a tired and ."depressed condition. After eating a, hearty meal the doserters presented themselves before tho Swiss officer commanding the district, who put them_ through tho, customary cross- ■ examination. Later in tiie day the deserters left for Berne under military escort.] : Newspaper paragraphs similar to the i*ee just quoted now. appear with astonishing regularity in tho Swiss newspapers; and, according to an authoritative estimate, not fewer than 150 Gorman soldiera deserted into Switzerland during the month of February. The deserter, is jaofc usually the best type of soldier, and authorities are doubtless acting wisely in locking them all ur> in a iarge concentration camp situated in the interior of the country. It is satisfactory to know that about 95 per cent, of the thousands thoro interned aro Ger■mans or Austrian?. : , I have juefc made the journey on foot 'along the frontier from Basle to a point .opposite Delemont, and can testify personally to the extraordinary precautions adopted on the German side against those, anxious to desert. tho Fatherland at, this critical moment. Along the ■frontier, and situated at about-a quarter o£ a mile from Switzerland, aro two .'.rows of high barbed wire fences. At

3*>ints dotted along the line wore Gerttan sentries in. their "feldgrau" uni- ! form. I heard that tho wire fences, electrically charged though they arc, ■constitute the least dangerous of tho obstacles that tho deserter has to overcome before he reaches Switzerland. Man. traps and deep pits, the. openings vjf which are skilfully covered by twigs, ,dead leaves and loose earth, are, I heard, ■to be_ found in abundance in. the German frontier zone. area. Tho reports of the j-constanfc desertions on .tho part of the ..Germans soldiers—desertions which are .said toinoreaso during a Franco-British offensive or pa the eve of a German; ofifensive—induced mo to make this joursey along part of .the frontier, and in doing, so I stumbled across a curious fact-rnajnely, that most of the deserters ere German civilians, fathers of families, ■elderly women, a few "flappers," and not .the.hoops, of (he Emperor... ■ Escaping Into Switzerland. i I was told, both, bj two fugitives whom N-l was lucky enough to meet, hero at Deleisnbht, and by many of the Swiss villagers to whom the arrival of German T civilians is ceasing to bo a novelty, that ■,the recently promulgated civilian service ,uaw ajid the growing food . scarcity ao'count for this flight, from tho Fatherland. The desertions among civilians .havegreatly increased sinco tho BrandeniMrgere—most arrogant of Prussians, and '.unite nnbribable—have " been relieved (along , the Swiss frontier by , Landsturm and Landwehr men. The latter, middle;eged German fathers of families' in the imain, moTe readily sympathise with tho ■standpoint ■of those elderly' Germans, ;with sons, maybe, fighting at the front, '.who believe they are justified, in trying ;to escape from, the economic rigours of the Patberland -and the iron.. regimewhich, has been introduced among tho German civilians' who have "vohinteorr ed"- for national service. ■ When a, suit6ble bribe is- offered, either in. money or in foodstuffs, the sentry, I was-told,. Sβ often willing to look the other way. I found that the civilian deserters wcro a vastly 6nperior; body of people to tho soldiers who crossed the frontier. Tako itbe case of the two fugitives I met hero this afternoon, enjoying what might havo i'been their first satisfying. meal for ■months s.t a local hotel. ' All the ritual '.which the- German, introduced, into his eating in peace time was visible—the enormous na-pkins, the toothpicks, tho laltexnative use of fingora and forks in I the choke of dainty morsels from tho J plate. Their meal over, the , 'Germans talked frankly. Thoy admitted their flight from Germany, but argued that they were not disloyal to their country. The wife said that one of her sons had died in hospital from wounds; another was missing, and two were still ■at.tho front. Had sho not done, nho asked, a (German woman's duty?

. ■ I asked her why ehe had left Germany, and she replied without; heaitation: "Life is very hard in Germany iiow, particularly for those of us ivho aro growing old. My hueband has alwayo %ceu able to keep me -well clothed, warm and well fed—always, until .this winter. Only th<> 6oldierfi in the trenches,', the tbtJ rich, and the workers in the munitions factories are well fed now in Germany; and il} spite of all our coalfields ■were were almost frozon in ow flat. Our landlord paid us one mark compensation for lack of heating—compensation due to us according to the terms of our tenancy—on no ferwer than 29 days einco ■Christmas. The very rich, who motor into remote country districts, and purchase foodstuffs at famine prices from

the peasants, do not. go "hungry in Germany; but the poor and the middle-close are Buffering terribly. Luckily my children aTe grown-up. It. is children and Hie inralkle who suffer most in Germany. They say we. have plenty of coivfi; but for soma ronton or another milk is very scarce. I am a thoroughly loyal German, but I am afraid to get into Switzerland." Commandeering by the State, The: husband finished his toothpick operations with a I'ourish, and. nodded approval. "Life is very, very hard in Germany," ho said.. ' "The Gorman' people are a wonderful people. 'Courage is pre-eminently a. German virtue." lie paused. "What my wife save is qitilo true. .Only in my own case I think I should have seen tho war through had not I he authorities commandeered my business, t am a boot manufacturer in a largo industrial'city— 1.1 ml; is, 1 was until recently. I had a good business; I paid good wages; J always paid my taxes; I think I was a. good citizen. Last month the military authorities informed me that my factory was lo he commandeered by the State; that I must, make a return at. onco of all my workpeople and must accept as 'ncloqiiate compensation' tho cheque enclosed. Protests proved unavailing, so T cm-ried out the instructions and paid the cheque into my , bank. I do not know whether it is proposed to turn my factory into a munitions factory, or whether tho commandeering '" the product'of the now national service policy in Germany, whereby many of the smaller factories in certain industries are being closed, the qmployors compensated, and the workpeople compelled to make munitions. If T hnd remained in Germany T,'too, might, havo been compelled to do hard manual labour in an arms factory, at five marks a day. T decided to 'leave the country.' The plan adopted to leave Germany was the ■■■usual one. Tlie couple, for health's sake, name on a visit to a village near the frontier; and -jvlien nettled there, witliin sight of freedom, got into touch with certain of the frontier guards 'By means of a. largo cash payment and tlie promise of a further larpe sum to be sent, to an address mentioned by the soldiers as soon as the fugitives reached Switzerland, they were allowed to leave Germany. "Tho wholo business will have cost me' lflflO marks," said the German.