The Birth of Prussianism

Horowhenua Chronicle, 30 August 1915, Page 2

The Birth of Prussianism

Mv Hiiairo Uelloc, in hi/s neu'ly-pufj-lifehed "A General .Sketch ol the European War' , (,-Nelfcon and (Sons), a uook concerned (explains the .Sketch; with the lirst phase of that titanic conflict ol the will of peoples whicli we call the Great War, is nothing if not explanatory—and oonvinoing-whethor he bo dealing with causes, opposing forces, oi , the earlier results oi the cla.sh oi * arms. To show the general value ui" his work let us quote on I'ruesiHiiiiin, a very potent factor.

"About two hundred years ago, ur a little more, there appeared one body of Gorman-speaking men rather different from the rest. . . . They were the product of a conquest undertaken late in the Middle Ages by German knignte over a mixed Pagan population, Lithuanian and Slavonic, which inhabited the heaths and forests along the Baltic tic Sea. These German Knights succeeded in their task, and compelled the subject population to accept Christianity, just as the Germans themselves had been compelled to accept it by their more powerful and civilised neighbours, the French, hundreds ot years before. The two populations ol thie East lialtic district, the largo majority which was Slavonic and Lithuanian, and the minority which was really German, mixed and produced a third thing, which we now know as the Prussian." That was the beginning, one may take it, of that scientifically matured militancy of blood and iron tlio Allies are battling to crush.