"KULTUR" MANIFESTO

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 36, 6 November 1920, Page 7

"KULTUR" MANIFESTO

GERMAN PROFESSORS'FAMOUS DEFENCE OF THE WAR . 8 SIGNATORIES' PRESENT VIEWS By Telegraph-Proßß AnßOciation..Oopyrl*lit {Kcc. November 5, 7.20 p.m.) Berlin, November 4. Out of 93 German intellectual signatories to the -famous luiltur manifesto of October, 1914, defending Germany's war aims and war conduct, eighteen aro dead. Tho remninder have been sent circulars on the subject Forty-eHit profess recantation on various grounds. Several say they 'lent their names without seeing the manifesto Others declare that their eyes have been opened. Sixteen refused to recant, olid seventeen didnot reply. Aus.-jV.Z. Cable Assn. .Tho German professors and authors compiled n manifesto for l'he benefit of the World of Culture." The document bore the signatures qf most of the bestknown names ill the world of German learning and literature. The first paragraph, dealing with the responsibility for the war," contained -.liio pnssago:—"Ofi'en enough lias ivnhelm if in the 2« yeara of his reign show 11 himself lo bo the promoter of world-peaco; often enough have our enemies admitted this. Yes, this same Em.pcror whom tliey now dare to call an Attila has for docaaos been scoffed ati by iihem for his uncompromising love of peace. Only when an overwhelming torce, which had;long beon lurking on the frontiers-, fell upon our nation from three sides did ho rise up like a man." The second paragraph averred that England 11 ml Franco violated the neutrality of Belgium • The fourth began: "It is not true that tho lifo and property of a single Belgian citizen lias been touched by our soldiers except when the bitterest necessity for self-defence rendered it unavoidable. . . ." ' A paragraph dealing with Louvain began: "It is not true that our troops raged liko brutes in Louvain. With heavy hearts they were obliged 4) take reprisals against a furious population by bombarding a portion of tho town." The last section ran: "It is not (rue that the fight against our so-called militarism is noti, as our enemies hypocritically aver, a figjit. against our culture. Without German militarism German culture would long ago have been swept off tho. face of the earth. . . ."