MAN YET BRUTE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 136, 4 March 1919, Page 8

MAN YET BRUTE

THE GERMAN MASK OF HYPOCRISY WHAT THE WAR REVEALED (By W. Douglas Newton.) ])r. Muehlon. the Director of Krupp's, reveals the great difficulty of bringing the average German within the scope of the ordinary European civilisation. The German is not. as members of other civilised races. There aro nioinents when ha ceases to lie an ordinary man and becomes n savage. Ho. departs suddenly from the plane of Immunity to the plane of the brute, kicks over all the laws which civilisation has set up for the prolection of the commonweal, and amazes, disgusts, and endangers his neighbours bv his abrupt reversion to the cave-man. T,his danger of sudden transition, the knowledge of which is forcing tlio Allies to go-warily when dealing with tho defeated Central Powers, has been .experienced first hand in the (until lately) occupied scenes of France and I'elgium. In Lille a woman told me the story; of Fritz. Fritz came to her as a revelation. He destroyed much of her faith, in the tales of the brutal German. Fritz was quite, a charming young man.. He was attached to a German headquarters, and was billeted on her. After he had been in her house a week she could not 'nave imagined a better lodger. Fritz caused no trouble. In fact, he was a great help. He regarded himself as'one of the family. If he could not break down the unspoken' hostility that the woman herself could not help exhibiting to an invader he was soon on the most intimate tnms with her children. He became tieir playmate and chum. There were brothers and sisters in Germany, and he unuerstood the fine art of romping and makebelieve. • He never complained, on the contrary, he made himself useful. He cleaned up his own room, he helped in drawing rations, he carried water 'and coal, and was always ready to help in the house. An ideal lodger. But for the fortunes of cruel war it would have been.a happiness to have this good-natnred, jolly, sympathetic fellow in the home. "A. charming fellow, but yes,' said the woman of Lille.. "In spite, of _ oneself, one could not help loving him.' Then she looked at me, and with a little smile, a little shrug' characteristically French, she said drily, "All the same. Fritz came round with an axe when the orders for retreat were given. Ri smashed all mv furniture to pieces. ... Look at it. There is nothing left. Nearlv every village in North France has tlie same story. The story of men who seemed as. kindly and as friendly as one's own- menfolk, until, without a word of warning,- they saw red, and the elemental brute burst through. "They were all right," said a Belgian villager. "We had had (hem for years, and there was usually no .complaint. They treated us very well. We were already thinking that they were, after all. as unfortunate as ourselves. They were men like us, but they had been wickedly forced • into the war. T£?n something would happen. Once you English, beat them in a battle—they were immediately wolves. They struck us, they robbed us, they insulted us, they promised us death, thpy drove us off the pavement. Those-of our old men who did not salute the officers were slashed across the face with canes. You would not know them for the same people. They were a race who had seemed men, but were now seen to be. animals."

At another place women told practically the same story. The Germans appeared kindly beings, part of the universal. civilisation up to the moment of crises; then, as Dr. lluehlon was able to foresee, the instinctive barbarian.broke out, they became "blind with fury." Forced to retire, for example, they went about tho streets and houses smashing mid stealing. Astonished «t this complete chango, the French, who had thought them so amiable, reminded thorn of their friendliness; they were answered only with snarls, and threats, and even blows. It is this bar sinister which calls for caution in .formulating peace terms. If the Gorman people were as other people of Europe, if (hey were always what they ordinarily seem to be, then the problem would be a simple one. But the fact thai they are not makes them the more dangerous to' handle. What would be the use of building up peace on the character of Fritz, the good-na-tured, without taking into consideration that, at some future date, Fritz will'suddenly, shed his good nature and come round our homes with an axe?