PRO-GERMAN SVEN HEDIN

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 3978, 10 July 1915, Page 8

PRO-GERMAN SVEN HEDIN

In the preface to the English edition of his pro-German book, “With the German Armies in the West,” Dr Sven Hedin, the muchtravelled Swede, says his faith in German’s victory is more unshakable than ever. Here is an extract from the book-

“Here at Headquarters everyone speaks with the greatest respect of the Frenchmen as opponents, and no one denies the bravery of the British soldiers. ‘They go straight into perdition without flinching and fall, but do not yield before the fire of machineguns.’ * Of the prisoners it was said that there was a great difference between the British and the French. The former would stand with their hands in their pockets and a pipe in their mouths when spoken to by an officer, and a salute was' only elicited by a reprimand. The Frenchmen, on the other hand, always salute the German officers without being told, and this is probably due to their mherited military spirit and to the trait of inborn courtesy which pervades the whole nation.”

In another place Dr Sven Hedin states that while the Russians need only 4 per cent of guards, the Britisn require 10 per cent.: “The reason ruay possibly be found-in the inborn servility traceable to generations of serfdom, but the principal reason of the difficulty in handling the English prisoners is probably that they have no national servieo and have not 'accustomed themselves to discipline. The eases of insubordination in the prisoners’ camps are almost entirely confined to the British prisoners. The punishment for the first offence consisting in letting the culprit stand a couplfe of hours to guard the guns on a little flat eminence near the camp, where the wind usually blew cold and strong. After a graver offence the delinquent was usually tied to a tre-' for an hour or two, but this latter punishment has only been resorted to in isolated cases.”