Conditions in Germany

Levin Daily Chronicle, 11 June 1918, Page 4

Conditions in Germany

AN AMERICAN SEES THINGS AS THEY ARE.

I Since Mr Thomas Curtiii, an American journalist, wrote for the "Times" the articles afterwards republished under the title of "The Land of Deepening Shadow," no accounts of conditions in Germany have aroused so much interest as those written recently for the "Daily Mail" by Mr Ernest Lionel Pyke, a London business man who returned to London in March after having been in Germany since the beginning of the war. His articles, which appeared in the early • days of the German offensive in the West, attracted much attention in other newspapers, one of which, advised its readers to read them by the side of the battle communiques from Berlin. We have warned our readers not to accept all stories of German starvation as true, but there arc circumstances in Mr Pyke's case that make his articles worthy of attention, and give them special weight. He spent three and a-half years of the war in Euhleben Camp, leaving it as recently as March 7th, and he occupied a position in the camp which enabled him to visit Berlin two or three times a month. In this capacity he met Germans of all classes. To these exceptional opportunities for observing German conditions ho brought a mind keen for facts, and the firm conviction he took away with him, which has been strengthened since his return by investigation of other reports on the same subject, is ' thait Britain does not realise how desperate is Germany's economic condition, that in pretending that she can carry on, Germany is putting up a huge bluff, and that the offensive in the West was primarily undertaken because victory had to be won quickly in order to avoid an economic collapse. £9 FOR A LUNCH. Like other Englishmen who have returned from Germany, Mr Pyke was at once struck by. differences between the conditions in the two countries. The British appear to these returned men in every way better off than the Germans. To men who have seen the food shortage in Germany, grumbling about rations is a joke. Mr Pyke, after revisiting the London restaurants, exclaims: "Food shortage! High prices! In Berlin I paid £9 for a bad lunch for two, and we went away hungry." Not even well-to-do people can always get enough food in Germany, and besides the shortage ,of food, there is a lack of other things ordinarily in daily use, the continued absence of which affects the civilian moral. It may not sound so bad, he says, to be told that bread, sugar, potatoes, margarine, meat and tobacco are rationed, but that is by no means all. There are no illuminating oils, no butter, tea or coffee; no rice, rubber or soap; very few medicines; very little paper, and practically no cotton or leather. It i may v not seem a great personal hardship to be without rubber, but for one thing, shortage of rubber means going without artificial teeth, more of which •'re wanted than ever before,' owing to ' 'he quality of the war-bread. SOAPLESS DAYS. One can live without soap, but imag- ' ine the discomfort of jt. All over Germany men now have to shave without soap; this and haying to wash without it are not actual privations, but "one of the myriads of daily annoyances that are causing the cry for peace.'' Mr Pyke contrasts the comfortable life of the man over military age in England with the day' of the corresponding type in Germany, which begins with a soapless shave, a soapless bath, and a breakfast of war bread and imitation coffee, goes on to a thin lunch, at which, if he is lucky, he may get the leg of a fowl for eight shillings, and ends with an equally thin dinner, the main dish of which may J be a stew composed of the offal of various animals. Unless he has had the foresight to lay in a store of tobacco, he will have to content" himself with the deplorable article now doled out in rations. This is the ense of a man of some means; it may bo imagined how the poor people fare. NOT ENOUGH TO EAT. The broad fact, says Mr Pyke, is that there is not enough to eat. There is any quantity of money in the country, but money cannot buy food, because the food is not there. A workman at Buheleben camp, who was very free in his political opinions, showed Mr Pyke [ one day a thick wad of paper money. "I have got all this,'' he said, ''but look at these'' —and ho produced a small piece of sausage and some black war bread—"and I have only got this wretched food by depriving my wife of a share.' The abundant supplies of fruit and vegetables in London reminded Mr Pyke that at Euhleben he had paid 12s for a fresh cabbage, and 4s Cd a pound for Brussels sprouts. Oranges, lemons, bananas and nuts, plentiful in London, aro unobtainable in Germany. Leather was so scarce two years ago that a pair of ordinary boots cost £4 ss; to-day they are unobtainable at any price. In everything the army has the first call. The Government takes care that the soldiers are well fed, and the vigorous way in which the troops have been attacking on the Western front during' the past two months shows thfit their physical condition and their moral is good. Mr Pyke also declares that Germany is much nearer the limit of her manpower than England. He was astonished on returning to see men painting houses, and miles of well-clipped hedges. He judges both the economic and man-power problems to bo five or six times more acute in Germany than in England. The Germans, however, do not know that there is this difference; they are taught by the Govern-ment-inspired Press that every condition in Germany is equally severe among the British. II P u t KO considers the spirit of the people in England higher than in Germany, when l , he flays, there is a great deal of inarticulate discontent. A SURGING DISCONTENT. There is, indeed, "a sinking and increasing amount of revchitionarv undercurrent in Germany," which, o\vin°- to the lack of food, may overcome tlv> docility and discipline that have made Germany so. unfavourable a field for the revolutionary spirit. The people's one thought is peace, and they loo* to victories in the West to bring i(, and as a result give them more food. But many thinking Germans, says Mr Pyke, realise that it by 710 means follows that the capture of Amiens and the Channel ports would bring them peace and food. Why should such successes, or the capture, of Paris, do so if the Allies hold out? The occupation of the whole of Northern Franc- would not solve the problem of supplies for Germany, and what over happens, Mr | Pyke things that a- time will come when the Gorman people will be physically unable to go 011 with the war. A continuation of successes would, of course, help the Germans to bear heavy burdens, but what will happen when j failure begins to be apparent? These j articles make one think that the first serious German defeat that could not 1 be hidden or explained away bv the German Staff would be followed by 1 serious internal developments in Germany.