FIRE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1430, 29 July 1915, Page 4

FIRE.

Translation from Lille War Gazette, 3rd March, 1915. (This is a weekly newspaper, issued by the Germans in Lille, in German.) (By LieutenanGColonel Kaden.) As children many of us have played with it; some of us have seen an outbreak of fire. First a small tongue-like flame appears, it grows into a devastating fury of heat. We out here in the field have seen more than enough of it. But there is also the Are of joy, of sacred enthusiasm ! It arose from sacrificial altars, from mountain heights of Germany, and lit up the heavens at the time of solstice and whenever the home countries were in danger, This year fires of joy shall flare from the Bismarck Columns throughout the length and breadth of Germany, for on Ist April, jnst one hundred years ago, our country’s greatest son was born. Let ns celebrate this event in a manner deep, farreaching and mighty ! Blood and Iron. Let every German, man or woman, young or old, find in bis heart a Bismarck Column, a pillar of fire now in these days of storm and stress. Let this fire, enkindled in every German breast, be a fire of joy, of holiest enthusiasm. But let it be terrible, unfettered, let it carry horror and destruction ! Call it Hate. Let no one come to yon with “Love thine enemy !” We all have but one enemy, England ! How long have we wooed Tier almost to the point of Onr selfabasement. She would none of us, so leave to her the apostles oi peace, the “No War” disciples. The time has passed when we would do homage to everything English—our cousins that were ! “God punish England 1” “May He punish her!” This is the greeting that now passes when Geimans meet. The fire of this righteous hate is all aglow !

You men of Germany, from east and west, forced to shed your blood in the defence of your homeland through England’s infamous envy and haired of Germany’s progress, feed the flame that burns in your souls. We have but one war cry, “God punish England !'’ Hiss this to one another in the trenches, in the charge, hiss as it were the sound of licking flames. Behold in every dead comrade a sacrifice forced from you by this accursed people. Take ten fold vengeance for each hero’s death ! You German people at home, feed this fire of hale ! You mothers, engrave Ibis in the heart of the babe at your breast! You thousands of teachers, to whom millions of German children look up with eyes and hearts, leach Hate ! Unquenchable Hate! You homes ol German learning pile up the fuel on this fire ! Tell the nation that this hate is not mi German, that it is not poison for our people. Write in letters ot fire the name of our bitterest enemy. You guardians of the truth, feed this sacred Hate ! You German fathers, lead your children up to the high hills of our homeland, at their feet our dear country bathed in sunshine. Your women and children shall starve ; bestial, devilish conception. England wills it ! Surely, all this is In you rises against such infamy ! Listen to the ceaseless song of the German forest, behold the fruitful fields like rolling seas, then will your love for this wondrous laud find the right words, Hate, unquenchable Hate. Germany, Germany above all! Let it be inculcated in your children and it will grow like a land slide, irresistible, trom generation to generation. You fathers, proclaim it aloud over the billowing fields, that the toiling peasant below may hear you, that the birds of the forest may fly away with the message ; into all the land, that echoes from German cliffs send it reverberating like the clanging of bells from tower to tower throughout the country side : “Hate, Hate, the accursed English, Hate !” Yon masters, carry the flame to your workshops ; axe and hammer will fall the heaviest when arms are nerved by this Hate ! You peasants, guard this flame, tan it anew in the hearts of your toilers, that the hand may rest heavy on the plough that throws up the soil of our homeland. What Carthage was to Rome, England is' to Germany. For Rome as for us it is a question of “to te or not to be.” May our people find a faithful mentor like Cato. His “celerum censeo, Cathagiuem esse delandam’’ tor us Germans means: “God Punish England.’’ N.B.—A copy of this newspaper was found on a German prisoner captured during the recent fighting at Neuve Chappelle. It is of interest as showing the hatred for Great Britain which is being sedulously cultivated in Germany. This hatred is being encouraged and fostered officially by every possible means.