"THE BLOND BEAST"

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 116, 2 February 1918, Page 8

"THE BLOND BEAST"

Ix his recent speech in the Reichstag on the war situation, the German Chancellor (Count Hkktling) saicl: "Mn. Lloyd Geoi:ge> while appreciating .Germany's political, economic, and cultural position, adjudges her guilty of tho utmost possible crimes. We cannot understand such feelings." Count Heist, ling must be .extremely dense if he does not know why Germany is regarded by the civilised mankind as the enemy of the. human race.- The evidence that she has committed the "utmost possible crimes" is so overwhelmingly conclusive (hat the. word German has become a synonym for brutality of the most callous and deliberate kind. The German,doctrine of "[rightfulness" shocked the conscience of tho world, and the. thoroughgoing manner in which this theory has been put into

practice since the outbreak of the 'wifr has horrified tho non-Tputonic nations. Tho fact that the Gcrma-us c<annofc understand the repulsion with which they arc regarded is in itself a striking . proof of their moral obliquity, and Count Hketling's surprise that other nations should look upon Germany as an outcast shows how completely tho national conscience has been deadened. German philosophers and politicians haye turned tho moral law upside down, and deeds which normal-minded people condemn as ghastly crimes ate belauded as virtues by the Junker class. The Hun's picture of himself as the "lilond Dcast" is in itself a sufficient explanation of his evil reputation in the world. In the schoolhouse of Suzoy,' in France, is\a sketch, drawn by some German artist, of the "blond beast," a mixture of the Teuton man ancl the_ Teuton brute. In a graphic description of this damning picture, Mr. James Milne expresses surprise that the Hun, who has smashed down so many walls, should have left the_ school of Suzoy standing "to convict him of being'himEe'f." The world (writes Mr, Milne) will hold the Blond Beast to his mark in that school of Suzojr,' and-the right word is "mark," the signature of savage man, when red force ruled, as a study of. the frescoes makes clear. Tho chief one is dominated by -two figures, beings of massive form and buffoon aspect, who spit cynicism from their horrid mouths and- sensualism from their leering eyes. Their elephantine fefet, their gross legs, their monstrous bodies, their cruel arms, and their faun-like heads, all symbolise the characteristics of tho brute. But to complete this foul exhibition, the Hun must give his creatures tails vith an impish wag in them, and small horns on their triumphant brows. If you were to mingle Pan and a satyr, and emphasise the uncanniness of -such, you -would- have a being like those rf);u:sive emanations of Hun art and tho Hun soul.

It is a disgusting picture/ but it helps to explain the_ mind of a nation that could receive the news of the sinking of the Lusitania with shouts of jubilation and gloat over the murder of Nurse Cavell. This study in colours by the Hun himself fully justifies the world's'condemnation of which Count Hertling complains. It confirms and emphasises *be testimony of_ facts which establish Germany s guilt and infamy; and, as 'Mr. Milne remarks; down tho tide of time, while it can be preserved", pilgrims will exclaim. ."Ah, that was the spirit which drenched Europe in blood."