The Chronicle PUBLISHED DAILY. LEVIN. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1915. "THE TRUCULENT TEUTON."

Horowhenua Chronicle, 27 October 1915, Page 2

The Chronicle PUBLISHED DAILY. LEVIN. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1915. "THE TRUCULENT TEUTON."

A critical survey oi German characteristics is made by Sydney lirouks in tlio course ol an article on "The Truculent Teuton," lately published in The i''ortnightly llcviow (London). The writer traces the phases of social and moral transition through nhicu the German Empire as a whole him passed during the last three decades, and he concludes with a comparison ol the personal qualities ot Englishmen and Uermans. iJU. says that the streak o>l brutality and the lust U> dominate and humiliate are characteristics that have their roots far down in the Teutonic temperament. Their treatment of women and their attitude towards the sex are such as follow inevitably from these traits. Tin? sweetness and good humour and easy gradations of English lite find little* parallel in that laud of rigid castes, oi splenetic envy and backbiting, oi systematised spying. Ats careful of th« outward l'ornis of politeness as he is oi his person or his title, the German lotions a calculated code of behaviour that implies no ivapect iind it> based on no spirit ol consideration. We, the least ceremonious of peoples in our social intercourse, have far .more of the essence of good manners. The German has the stridency and touchiness in his social and political conduct of the par venu. We, an older, more assured and tolerant nation, a natural growth -where they are an artificial creation, have* many faults, 'but the inexperience and self-aiasertivGiiess and bumpkin blataney of youth are not among them. The Germans understand things and facts, but ITiey do not, as we do. understand men. They lack the power of dramatic sympathy to cuter into oth'or people's emotions, or to grnsp the moral factors (the imponrlerabilia) of a situation. Tn their relations with alien subject peoples their truculent and purblind intelligence always leads them astray. They hare not the capacity a« a governing power to win cither affection or respect. They are far more nepossiblc to ide.'is than to the appeal of sentiment. Thoir power ifi in their collective gregnrioiisik\ss. tTieir love of work. thpir_ instinct for following. A mingling of the tiro peiplc would produce a rnop of supermen : and it is, perhaps, the supremo tragedy of the war that it should'ha vo doKCpnoVd upon the very nations that have most to learn from one another.