A PROCLAMATION

Levin Daily Chronicle, 25 July 1918, Page 4

A PROCLAMATION

F®tTNT> ON THE BATTLEFIELD. [ • I TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN } STRAIGHT TALK TO WORKERS. j "" i An interesting and rather ironie pamphlet has been received by an Auckland gentleman. One of the boys at the front picked it up on the battlefield, and sent it out here to him. It is a proclamation in German, but unfortunately—though for obvious reasons—it giveg no indication whence it was issued. There is a number and initials en the corner of the leaflet, and at its head is the phrase, "By Balloon," in English. Beneath is the same phrase in • German. Then follows the text. Translated it is:— "To the United Soldiers of the German Working Classes, —German workmen, you are traitors to your class. You unite with the higher powers, with your capitalists, and are trying to conquer other lands, kill working men and women, and then seize their lands and chattels. How you must love these j higher powers. They arc driving you !j before them like beasts to the slaughter house, just .to fight for them; they call | you 'food for cannon.' They boast that ' they do not care how many of you are ; killed in battle, and yet you lovo them, i They love the war, they have no intention of ever stopping it. They prefer . that the war continue, for never yet j have their profits been so great. The ; land owners profit on food production j is immense, while your families are > starving. The "manufacturers and coal- \ mine owners are making sueli huge pro- | fits that tlioy are jifraid to give the right amount; they don't even have to pay for the war with their taxes. You have to pay for the war. Now you arc I-paying for it with your life; after the war you will pay because you will have i no work, and will starve with hunger. Yon are gaining nothing by the war; you are not even earning money. Salaries are low, food and clothing almost unprocurable. Your capitalists have all their plans made, so that when the war is over they will use all your working I strength for their own ends, and should you then strike tliey will turn thoir maehine-guns on you, as already happened before. Because in their eyes you are only food for their ' cannons, and what matters it how many of you are killed? They have betrayed you. They made the war, because at heart they were afTaid of you. They realised that Germany was on the verge of a tremendous upheaval. And 'therefore they began .this war so as to make sure of their own authority. And they will continue it yet, because they are again afraid of what will happen afterwards. They just told you Germany had to fight. AU working classes all over the world except you know that you have been betrayed. You allowed yourselves to be deceived so easily. They say you have no strength of spirit, that you allow yourselves without resistance to be driven like cattle to the slaughter. They know- how your officers treat you. j They have seen with their own eyes how these officers, themselves . among the captured, strike you in the faec, because you are common soldiers. But they wonder how such a thing could be. You | give your lives in hundreds of thousands so that your capitalists and officers, who strike you in the face, can rule your country, and lay their plans to conquer also the workers of other lands. When the time comes for you to go back to your country, where there is no work given you, and you expeei the workers of other lands to .help you, do you r»ally believe'ithey will? The other eflliuwnes will turn and tell you that you *re the traitors of the working classes, tkat you helped the capitalists to b»wju®r the world, and then the capitalists, instead of 'thanks, turn on you, as it is certain they Will, Then you may be sure no •other working class in the world will help you. They will say to you, 'As you have made your beds, so lie on them.