TOUR OF BAVARIA

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 175, 19 April 1919, Page 3

TOUR OF BAVARIA

FOOD AND COAL SUPPLIES SPIEIT OF THE PEOPLE. ("Times" Special Correspondent.) London, l''el>runry it. However well one may have known <!ormany nnrt the Germans before the vnr, one cannot help being frequently astonished when bne visits the country now. The general conditions of life offer the strongest contrasts oven within a singlo State such? as Bavaria (where, recent cablegrams tell us, Bolshevism has gained the ascendancy). A person living entirely in hotels might easily form thu most erroneous conclusions. At Lindan, Munich, Augsburg, Nuromburg, Bamberg, or AVeimar I found the food, except the bread, in tilie hotels excellent. Butter, milk and real coffee or tea were missing. But I have never had larger portions of meat, vegetables, and potatoes in Swiss hotels during tie last few months. In one or two instances, as in Augsburg, meat or game was more plentiful than in Swiss hotels, though prices, of course, were very high compared with those of five years ago. At the same time it is undeniable that the middle and lower classes are far from well fed. Thoso among fcho lower classes who were not working in ammunition factories are living on potatoes, ,erv unwholesome bread, and malt coffee, and in their case the misery is appalling. Tuberculosis is spreading greatly among the mote de^

urate. Meat can be bought only once a week, at 6 marks for the cheapest- quality, mostly sausage. The worst quality of chocolate costs 30 marks a pound, snd the best 50 marks; a general offered an acquaintance of mine 100 marks for one tablet of good chocolate. For a Christinas turkey or a goose people paid 120 marks; for a buttle of white wine 18 marks is thj lowest price; the simplest umbrella one could, imagine costs 42 marks in Munich; a workman's suit, ready made, and costing 50 marks before the war, now costs 250 marks, and cannot be obtained without a special card. Contrasted witn these are such prices as 4 marKs 50 ior fine ties or 6 marks and 7 marks 50 for gloves, which are apparently real wool, or 31 marks for strong leather boots or excellent quality from the Army sto-.'ks. The coal shortage is not so great in Bavaria as, for instance, in Switzerland, the rations being larger and the prices much lower. Yet the present crisis in the German coal districts and the absence of all fuel from the Stonr mines, which are under French control, is beginning to mako itself felt even sn Bavaria, where large reserves of coal had been stocked, in .saxony, however, industrial enterprise is already paralysed by want of coal. The streets of the towns I saw were scarcely lit at all, with the exception of a lew chief centres. In Nuremberg r.U lights go out automatically at 9 p.m.; people who wish to sit un longer use small acetylene lamps. In Munich restaurants, concerts, etc., closs at 10, in Weimar at 11 p.m., an exception being generally made for Saturday nights, when the sucalli'd "police hour" is 11.30. Until tno opening of the National Assembly Bavaria was the only German State in which fast trains were still running, and these only ran on the line Limlau-Muiuch-Nuremberg-Bnmberg, one going daily in eacii direction. Since February 5 the service has been extended in the direction of Weimar, whence a fast train connection has "been, established with Berlin. These trains a~e often three, four, live, or six hours late, the only reason known being frequent dcfects in the engines, wliicl) need hours ior repairing.

The Officials. I could nev<;.r have imagined that the German, or any other population, would ilksc conditions in such an indifferent manner, but the effects of prolonged food shortage, r.nd perhaps of general depression, l'.ave miule them almost apathetic. It was interesting to see how little the class, or .rather caste, of officials had changed. Strangers are treated with courtesy, mid 1 could not wish for a more' cordial reception than the Oberburgernieister of \\ eimar, l)r. Donndorf, gave me. 'The llerlin officials, of whom 110 fewer than 500 had taken up uieir uwide in the quiet old town, were also polite to strangers, but they cvidentlv expected the customary deep respect jor their titles from their own countrymen, who would bow low in n. servile manner as of old. In Munich a merchant of some standing, who had spoken sliarn'ly to a higher official who was neglecti.ig him, was threatened with prosecution tor ''insult to officials. One is rather struck with the bad treatment which seems to have become the rule with regard to the returned soldiers. In the trains soldiers often complained to me that since 1916 no civilian would allow them a seat in a car, even if they had travelled in open cattle trucks for a week : or longer through tiie Balkans in order to spend four days of leave will) their families. In the first davs of February I saw two different bodies of heavy cavalry entering Munich which had returned from 'J'illis and the Caucasus by way of the Ukraine and Poland. The reception given to them by the population was very quiet, a few flags being hung out—exclusively Bavarian, no Empire flags. The men were, on Hussian horses and wore snii'll bunches of flowers in their caps. At the Town Hall two or three speeches were exchanged, during which the soldiers smoked, their pipes, to the great disgust of elderly citizens. In the evenings there were special dinners and dances in their honour. As a rule married men when they leave the army return to their work, so far as it; is possible; but this is not the rule with the single men. Those belonging to the lower classes loiter about the streets, mostly in a dilapidated state— dangerous-looking ruffians. These are, apart from a few fanatical intellectuals, the real Spartacists, and there are some in every town of Bavaria, and probably of Germany—only they do not feel strong enough outside of three or four northern cities to undertake anything very serious. As all unemployed get 12 marks a day, they do not care to work, so that a Government call for several thousand workers was answered by six men.

Increased Theft, Demoralisation Ims already gone very far. Stealing is so general that I had only to turn ray back upon my room in one of the largest hotels of Munich for two minutes \o iind Hint my goloshes, woollen comforter, and gloves had disappeared, and I immediately understood the printed warning not to nut a pair of hoots outside a door for cleaning. It was generally confirmed that it is the guests of the hotels, not the servants, who steal. The explanation given for these conditions was that every man had learnt stealing at the front, and that litter privation was tempting the poor to steal now whenever they could.

While the lower clnsses, as well as the war profiteers, have glided into a whirl of reckless pleasure-seeking, <nd dancing is very popular, others deplore this recklessness at such a time. The development of spiritualism is very marked, as is also a certain laxity in the relations between the sexes, A striking thing is the continued ignorance intrcgard to political questions,.such as German diplomacy, (lie merits of Prince Lichnow.iky, or the real attitude of the European Powers towards Germany before and during the war. One or two large newspapers try to do justice to England and America, but. France is everywhere nut down as merely bloodthirsty and revengeful. 'Soldiers, with tho exception of the old regular officers and under-officcrs, speak of militarism as a foul system, wliieli was broken up through the defeat of I heir army. One reserve officer told me that the English pamphlets dropped over the German linos had convinced him by Iheir arguments that the war could not be won by the Germans. The old phrases of English "envy," .French "rcvanche," Russian "spirit of conquest,and the so-called "policy of encirclement" of Edward VII are, however, still to be beard. It is pertectlj clear, in fact, that the military spirit is almost unchanged, and that the idea of warfare against n foreign nation is still the most natural Hung lo a German. There are. a few adherents to the I.eagno of Kations idea, but they are not taken seriously.