BERLIN IN WARTIME.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1328, 24 November 1914, Page 4

BERLIN IN WARTIME.

FLAGS AND MOURNERS

The Handeisblad publishes a letter from its Berlin correspondent dated September' 6th, describing the feelings in the German capital. He says

“Yesterday the public stood waiting in two long straight lines on the Potsdamerplatz. From the neighbouring stations a string of Red Cross and other hospital waggons approached in a slow procession. A trainload of wounded had arrived. A few men ceremoniously bared their heads in salute to the poor fellows in the locked carriages. It was long before the lugubrious procession had passed by. “Every moment one meets wounded soldiers in the city—young men leaning with difficulty on thick sticks, and officers with arms in slings. They look very sombre —these first sacrifices of the war. And despite good care and excellent nourishment after they have been wounded one can see by their hollow cheeks and pale complexions, pale ' beneath the brown of the sunburn, how terrible the hardships of the conflict must have been, Every day wounded officers come from both west and east by express trains to Berlin.

“lii Germany the practice of wearing mourning is still firmly adhered to, and in these days there is so large a number of men and women in black clothes to be seen going along the si reel with sad faces that a request has been made that people will icstrici themselves to inward sorrow. Berlin has in the past week seen 10,000 refugees come from Hast Prussia men, women and children who have been obliged to foresake their homes to escape with their lives from the Russian invasion.

“Berlin thus now already recognises the cruel misery of the war. And yet for a week past this selfsame Berlin has been beflagged as if the pomp of victory was already definitely assured, as if no sacrifices of the war were to be found in Germany. It began with the first successes in Northern France, and with the defeat of the Russians at Tanneuberg. From many balconies the black, white and red flag of Germany was exhibited, beside it the black and white of Prussia, the blue and white of Bavaria, and the black and yellow of Austria. On Sedan day the number of flags yyas much greater still.

“Street- hawkers ply a busy trade in flags from their handcarts, and in the great warehouses, where except in the provision department it is so strikingly quiet and empty, rooms are devoted to the sale of flags. When in the short war reports of General Quartermaster von Stein the name of Paris was first announced, the Berliners hastened to put flags out. But was it necessary that this external sign of rejoicing should remain exhibited on the following night and the following day and again the following night ? What must the silently-grieving think of this, the hobbling wounded, the sombre East Prussian refugees? It is very difficult to penetrate the soul of a people.”