A JUNKER LAMENT

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 263, 25 July 1918, Page 9

A JUNKER LAMENT

ZABERNISM AT A DISCOUNT. Sidelights on the conditions obtaining in Berlin ;irc given by the "Kraiz 'Aeitiing," the- leading organ of the Prussian Conservatives. .According to figures pub- , lished by the city statistical department, the wages earned by adult workers of both sexes have muro than doubled in the period .March, 191!, to September, 1017, and the "Kreuz Zeitung" greatly deplore* this fact. Tho working class not only gains enormous sums ol' money nowadays, it says, but spends money as lavishly us do tho war profiteers. For example, several of tho deiu\v>t wine restaurant in Beriin linvo to closo on Sunday evenings to prevent all their stock of fond .being cat en up by munition workers. The Junker organ is even more concerned, however, over the altered demeanour of the .Berlin public towards oflicers in uniform. Every day, it says, cases occur of the public taking a hostile attitude towards an officer who reprirannds a policeman lor not saluting him witn due respect. A spirit of insubordination is manifesting itself in cevlniu sections of the Berlin population, tho organ of the military class observes, in a manner which makes an appeal to the public an urgent necessity. Things havo reached eucli a pass in Berlin, tho "Kreuz fleituug" continues, that an officer hardly dares nowadays to stop a man in the street and reprove him for not saluting properly. In such a case an officer is merely doing duty, the journsjl, remarks, and it ascribes the altered attitude of tho public to the agitation against officers.conducted by the Socialists before the war. The. "Basel Nachrichtcn" learns from Mannheim that while, tho inhabitants are. hiding in oelliu's after hearing tho'eignat that gives warning of the approach of enemy aircraft, thieves take the opportunity offered them above ground. Tho last time an alarm was sounded, it states, a clothier's shop was completely cleared of its stock of veady-inade suit-:. A tobacconist was robbed of cigars and cigarettes to the value of a hundred pounds, an<| watches and jewellery to tho Mil'.K- of a thousand pounds were taken from a jeweller's shop. In no case has any trace of the thieves boon found.