BLUFFING THE WHOLE WORLD

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 223, 8 June 1918, Page 7

BLUFFING THE WHOLE WORLD

DESPERATE STATE OF AFFAIRS IN

.GERMANY'

AN INTIMATE GLIMPSE (By Kmcst Lionel .l'vke, in the "Daily' Mail.") 111'. Lrnest Lionel l'vke, was release*! from Kuhleben Camp on March 7, lifter being interned for iij years/ He, enjoyed 1 , extraordinary opportunities for observing the state of affairs in Berlin, .as he. was allowed to visit the capital under escort twice or thrice a month in his capacity as kitchen inspector of.the camp. Mr. l'vke, who is an estate agent left London on July 25,' 19U, for Horn-' burg, where he was taking the cure when war broke out. of the 10th Mountain Battery of tho lioyal 'Artillery, he was for nine years, a member of the Holborn Borough Council, and for eight years, was on the Board of Guardians: for St- Giles. He is also a .Freeman-of iho City-of London.' ' 1 '■ > • •

Someone' said to me yesterday;-".Don't yon think London is beginning to look - . -shabby?" No, I do not. think so. Berlin to-day is really shabby and unkempt. I have always in my uiiiul Ihe background l of the seventy .or eighty visits 1 have ■ -paid to Berlin since.my arrival at lfuhlenen in .1914-. Berlin at that time was not• in- the first .flush of.war fervour. That'was passing away.. .Something had • gone* wrong with the-war—exactly, what, the public did not know. The Army had not-reached Paris according to the six - week's time-table allotted to that task. The popuiace'was .very frightened about' Russia.. The normal night lifo of Ber- ' lin, with its; the.ilres, restaurants, and cabarets, was in fail blast. Regiments, - ..smartly dressed in now iield-grey,' swung . through .the streets and there was music everywhere, ...The .war would, not be over by.Christmas as had .be.4n expected,, but another three months would finish it.. How, lio one seemed to know! All Germany's -recent wars—the Danish, Austrian, -and. French—had finished rapidly. Nothing could withstand. German might and "Dentschlaud . über . Alles." The trains still bore the insignia London', - Paris, or . St.; Petersburg. Even then - soldiens entrained with., their rifles coy-' • ered-.with oak leaves,, and tho cannon ' .were also wreathed with'the emblem of victory.- Here and there I met a doubting Thomas. - England was a hard nut to crack.;. The coming of England into tho war had enraged tho Germans, more than any other happening in tlicir liis- ' tory. However, they got over the shock of this great war factor and had readied the stasre when they, were belittling England. They began to boast over their cups, which were, then still full, that, tho Berlin policemen would be sufficient .to tackle the' British -Army. The comic papel's were filled witli pictures ■of longtoothed 'sportsmen" with big pipes and very short kilts. Contempt for "Sportsmen." Now if there is one word uiore than an.otuer which embodies German contempt when speaking of soldiering ■it is "sportsman." A nation of bad losers iiiul bad winners .has no conception of the chivalry of Anglo-Saxon gauies and spurts, liorseracmg there is iu Gtjfmany in plenty, b.ut it is a matter of j;amDling. Trotting -likewise. Massed gymnastics,, invwhi.cn 1.00 moil Miiw as. one, appeal to them, but the idea of a. boxing contest in; which t'no ciuplo begin by shaking bauds and end by shirking hltnd's is something that i.hey tcg'ud as absolute foolishness ami - .>s a sign of inferiority, just as they consider votes tor women « sign of vulgarity and decay. So John Bull's little Army was.a ".contemptible little Army" and v.ks - written off the slate as of no acs-nin!. except by the doubting' Thomases, .who, however, were very careful about expressing their views. : Vhe American soldier is regarded a? of even less importance in -the war than' was. the Britisher, for the reason that the Germans .believe that their, undersea boats'will stop l any considerable.nuin- .. her; of'-Americans . front-'-- arriving in :• --also ' re- . . giirded as sportsmen, br '-mo'fioy- grub- ' tiers ibent on business' only.' Evidently by Government orders, _ the German papers, comic and otherwise, have been put to the task of-making the Americans look ridiculous and contemptible in the eyes of the Germans. Berlin a few i weeks ago was tilled with photographs of seven captured Americans. "I do not ngreo with Mr. Wile that the Germans are at nil awake to the American situation. That they are disappointed in the result of" the submarine warfare is beyond question. It has not starved England in twelve ' weeks as they had thought, bfit it will, they believe, certainly prevent the landing in France of i Americans. Another theory of some is that the Americans should be allowed to land and then he starved' by tho ; sinking of the supply boats. ' i Well; as'to shabby Berlin: Little by little the shadow of war fell across Berlin. Going .into the town ; two .or three times a month, and-some- , times more, from Ruhleben, which is some eight miles from- tlie city, I could ; always note .some small change. Certain ■, articles began';to be difficult- .to got. , Prices rose. .There was a great increase , in the number'of wounded men that one ( - F;iw in .the, Tiergarten on fine mornings. , Shops began to shut up. More and more 1 was the announcement''ion 'shop shutters: j "Slum Closed ;, proprietor "'gone to the ( ■war." At first the women did not wear { mourning, or one saw very- little of it; , but later on it was increasingly notice- . able, until to-day one finds Berlin women j very largely dressed in black. Motor- j cars disappeared, then most of -the taxi- j cabs, then the few remaining taxicabs had no rubber for the. wheels, houses ultimately., vanished, and so at last Ber- j lin. which is, I liear.'.eay by comparison ( with some of the provincial cities, bei'an to seem emnty.. Tc resembles London , on a, dull Sunday, with' no inotoreni'nibuses and only a few tramway- ( cars. , Haggard Faces, Now:, as to the appearance of the neople. . I mentioned |n a former article the re- j duction in the weight of Hackenschmidt, ( the Russian wrestling "lion." lie is a • man of large means, yet lie had to sub- j mit to . the exhaustion of his physique [ and strength owina to food deprivations, j I. could see the difference in the peonlo with whom I camc into contact at the' ( rarious shops with which I dealt in the 1 course of my .affairs.- The effect cf the j starvation diet on the women is to make c the countenance of the average 1 Berlin | lady, which' usually is not the Venus ] type, even.'more plain.. At present to ( walk along the Unter dc'n Lindon on a ; sunny morning is to meet facc'aftor face j haggard and yellow, with deep darlc. rims v .round, (he eyes.'' It is not necessary here r to dwell upon the effect of Ihe impoverished diet upon motherhood and upon { delicate people. . The richest get to Swil- j zerlad or Holland if they can. There are cunning rich people who do obtain £ food by immense expense and underhand ( methods and risk of punishment. That f fact is well known. The process .is j known by the German slang term of o 'V'hieben," which means' to "wangle" a [ tiling l>y-crooked methods. I was not so anxious to get into Berlin { as I might otherwise, have been, for my . English parcels had given mc a well-fed [ appearance that causcd many queer ; glanccs to be directed at a youngish-look- ( ing man (t am .13) in mufti. 1 took care v to keep my military escort near me; and „ of course I 'carried my day's provisions . with mc.

Food grumbling is'the curse of Germany to-day, and wlicu tlic'Jrcnt smash conies J imagine Uiat the Junker class will lmve a particularly bad timer of it. For there lias been- a great deal of war profiteering ill Germany, open and flagrant. Food supplies have been held back for a rise in' prices; industrial companies have doubled, trebled, and i|iiadruplcd their dividends. The taxation of wealth has not been cuinm»nsnrale with Ihe situation," and "victorious" Germany is full of bitterness. Thefts of food from trains and shops have become' as common a crime as hoarding, which even after three nnd a half years of wapis still- goin* o" I'igs, geese, and rabbits are secretin fattened in cellars and sold fo the "whiel>er" (the neonle who buy or sell food by illicit methods*. at enormous prices. .Just before last Christmas 1. wnsiglad to buy a secretly fattened fowl for 455. I was robbing one (lennnn of a good nieal. No,' I .cannot say that I see any-

thing shabby in London, either in the' appearanco of the streets or tho. people. London seems as full of life as on that 2'lth of July, IDM, when I made my foolish summer trip to Homburg, AVe had such constant accounts of the bomb-

ing of London in the German newspapers and from German gossips that when i arrived hero the week beforo last I ex-

pected to find at least some indication that the Germans had been here. Up to date, the visitor to London has great difficulty in finding any traces of where bombs have fallen.

Our London shops are a sight for soro eyes after tho bare windows of Berlin. . Compare Harrod's or S.elfridge's with y Wertheim's, . What plenty in the windows of these great London merchants! •- Or compare tho country roads of Engt land with those in Germany. Yestere day I actually passed a Hock of sheep, !•: Compare ihe restaurants! Just out .of 1( ' curiosity I asked in a London restaurant 1 for the following extras:—l'ickles; ehutu ney, and Worcester sauce. They were e supplied as at any other time. AH tho Berlin restaurants that remain open uso a line camouflage bill of fare, but it all , comes down to potatoes or swedes in . some form or other. Tablecloths were , long ago forbidden in Germany as in--1 volving' the uso of coal, blcaching |. chemicals, aud labour. Around me in my f London restaurant were men of between M 3 and 50, -well turned out, with stiff collars. Those same men if in Germany |. would have been running depots at the ; front—and-with no starched collars, for , Germany is starchless and washingless. [ People tell me that there are a, number I of men of military age in Government. . offices in Englaud. Ido not believe that . there is one man of military age in any • Government office in Germany. Quite apart from the power of the Government [ public opinion would render it impos- ; sible. Too many-young Germans have been killed for the public to tolerate any : shirking. More Pearls Than Pork. How many men have been killed. 1 am asked daily. Nobody knows. No oiie in Germany believes in the losses as published. It, is not difficult for any per-, •sou on the spot to ascertain that there .are men of Ins own circle who have disappeared and never been accounted for in any list. The Germans liavo a strange way of exaggerating their captures and minimising, their losses. I should like to know liow many of their alleged 15,000 prisoners the other day were medical men, orderlies, and wounded men who coujd'not get away. Today a little touch of .brightness is added ■ to the Berlin scene by the costumes of Turkish, Austrian, alul Bulgarian officers on leave. And on this point I believe that the officers of the-German Army get longer leavo than British officers, the strain of this new kind of warfaro being considered as rendering more leavo necessary than formerly. Is London shabby. . I should think ' not, and especially are our women not shabby.. If any of them grumble, let them realise that an Englishwoman.married to a well-off member of the Berlin Bourse told me that sho had just made ' •a dress for herself from a pair of curtains! Here, again, it was not a question of money but of famine of-material.. Yet one of. the curious Pacts about the war is that furs seem more plentiful everywhere than normally. There is not lack of furs or of fine diamonds in Berlin. Friediandcr's, in the Unter den Linden, is ablaze with gems and silver plate. Gratz, the well-known jeweller of Charlottenburg, told me that he had never done such business, despite . the increase.in the price of .his wares. But unfortunately for the German health, it is easier to get pearls than pork. The lack of traffic. .in' Berlin . streets, -the melancholy look on the faces of the people, and the difficulty of getting about form, a contagious element of depression. . Saddest and . most disngreeable of all' are the wan faces oft I the children. German child-lifc to-day is .a tragedy, and when the inevitable I crash conies the mob will not forget the . sufferings of their children at the hands j of the military Moloch.