THE GLOOM OF BERLIN

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10273, 7 May 1919, Page 7

THE GLOOM OF BERLIN

HUNGER PESSIMISM

HUNS REAP LEGACY OF DEFEAT.

I landed in Germany at the end of January from the littlo steamboat that conveys passengers iron: the Swiss to the Gorman shore, of Lake Constant-*, (states a correspondent in a reocnt issue of tho ''Sally Nows"). The Customs ana passports wore In the hands ofl the Red Guards, and the senior officer in chargo was a Bavarian sergeant. They were fur more civil and apparently no less efficient than their predecessors before the Revolution. Travelling in Germany has settled down, and hore at letist the Government seemed to have -boon wonderfully nnccessful in restoring order. Yon are still urged to insure your luggage, but the indiscriminate plundering of trunks that characterised tho early day* of the- Revolution has stopped. On the trains R-ed Guards and tho old Government officials work side by side m apparent harmony. Certainly, in so far as' travelling oohditions are any test, the Government appears to be getting control once more. But this control is precarious and superficial. "BREAD" AND ."JAM".

My first meal on German soil was a nasty jar. I had not expected much; 1 had prepared myself for » shoes., but the reality was much more depositing than anything I could hare anticipated. The bread was almost ulieat. able, and though in time one got inured to the na&ty aniseed flavour, 1 cannot pretend that 1 ever approached German bread with confidence. The coffee was a mystery whioh I did not attempt to solve. A. notico in a railway carriage urging all good citiBens to collect acorns nnd to forward them to some central authority provided a possible clue. Butter, of cotirse, one never sees; if one made a fuss a tired waiter produced a_ queer, sickly-looking glue, which lie nicknamed jam. Such was breakfast in Munich.

The food struck' me as no better in Munich than in Berlin, but I.believe that those who knew the ropes', and who have plenty of money for bribery ean obtain food move easily In Bavaria than in Prussia. The bread is certainly bettor in Berlin, but butter, which is unobtainable in Prussia, can be bought for a trifle, of 80 marks the pound in Munich, if you know where to go.

There is at present a fair supply of meat. The -Government are living on their capital .as far as food- is concerned, and in order to keep people quiet they have slaughtered live stock indiscriminately. They are gambling on the hope of getting fond .through the Entente, and if they draw a blank, God help them. SMUGGLED MEAT.

But meat, though fairly plentiful, is expensive. When I was in Berlin I was 1 given tho address of a restaurant which'enjoyed a "private clientele, and which succeeded in smuggling in meat Under illicit conditions. Here it was possible to get a good soup and a wellcooked piece of meat, with vegetables, for 10 marks.

Before the war the mark was, roughly, worth a shilling;; to-day it is. worth sixpence, but this drop in value is only apparent to the Englishman who buys marks -.with,, shillings or francs, and, obviously, does not help tho German whose money is derived from unearned income or whoso wages hare remained stationary, as was the case till recently with most Government employees. Under ten marks it was impossible to got a satisfying meal. I stayed at the Adlon, which is one of the very best and most modern of the Berlin hotels. At the Adlon it was possible to get real tea not orsatz, and for a small pot of tea without milk one paid two and a half marks. For a small portion of cako one paid another mark. The cakes had a leathery, brown-paper taste. WAR'S HELPLESS VICTIMS. The poor are, of course, in a very bad way, and it is a mystery how they exist at all. Tho death-rate among children continues to be vc/.y high indeed, owing to tho appalling dearth of milk. Infant mortality varies from place to place, and is, of course, highest where the Spartacists have obtained a temporary ascendancy. In Dusseklorf, for instanco, two children out of three die within it week of birth.

But it is not only food that iJ scarce. A suit of clothes mado of indifferent material costs 1000 marks, or more than tho equivalent of £SO at tho old rate of exchange. Paper substitutes are common.

Leather is equally soarce. In the hotels there are notices warning guests not to leave their boots outside thoir rooms, but to deliver them personally to the servant!*; A pair of boots loft in a passage is stolen i*S once, and tho thief may he anybody from a sorvant to a respectable citizen.

Gormany is to somo extent rovortmg to conditions of primitive batter. If you want to got something done a small -pieco of chocolato worth a couple

of franos in Switzerland goes further as a bribe than 40 or 50 marks in German money. • PRECIOUS SOAP. I was travelling one day in ra firstclass oarnago, and I got into conversation with an important Government official, who was wearing a' fur coat, a relio of peace. • I was -'anxious to got a telegram sent off from a station at which lie was leaving tho tain. I asked him to wend off my telegram, and I begged hun to accept a small cako of soap.

In normal ijimes the offer, of a cako of soap might be.taken amiss, but I could see. «. grateful bosom heaving behind the fur coat, and there waa no mistakwith. which, he placed the soap in the ho thanked me, or the reverential oaro with whioh ihe placed tthe soap in the bottom of his bag.

On leaving the country I .gave a piece of ohoeolate to a. Customs official who threatened to be inquisitive. ' Ho seoinod overwhelmed by the miraculous stroke of good foptiuue.

If anyone feels uncomfortably happy, I should prescribe a short stay in, Berlin. A week in Berlin would convert Mark Tap ley into a super-Sohopen-liauer. The streete aro. crowded with soldiers in dirty uniforms and civilians Cn drab, shabby clothes. Mover does one seo a cheerful faoo. The Prussian ati tho beat of times does not irradiate- gladness, and the Prussian to-day is suffering from perpetual liver, tevery -face you pass has tho same deprossed, seedy, disconsolate expression.. If you see a smartly-dressed woman or a cheerful smilo, you may t>a oortain that you have met. a foreigner. The children look drawn and pinched. Tihoro is something infectious in tho prevailing gloom. It oatß into one's soul. This depression is. partly duo to the consciousness of defeat, but only partly. Tho animal needs tend to BfWiamp tiho national sentiments. TWO BURNING QUESTIONS.

Tho war is written off as a bad debt, and the only two subjects of general interest aro food and intornnl politics. "When shall we ge& foodP' 1 an*! "Will tho Bolsheviks repeat their Russian triumph in Berlin P" Theso aro the cmostdons tihat confront Berlin, the problems •which dominate all other issues.

Tho Berliner, of course, feels tho defeat moro than tho citizen of Munich. In tho Southern Staocs tho defeat is felt loss as a dofeat of Germany than as '% defeat of Prussia. Tho Bavarian comforts himself with the reflection that oven if Germany has beon boo-ten Prussia has been humiliated. Ho feels that ho was a fool to lot himself bo draaced into Prussia's wiar, but that even defeat is not entirely without redeeming features, if it diminishes tno prestigo nnd tho arrogance of Berlin. But the Berliner has no such consoling considerations to mitigato tho collapse of ihis system, unless, indeed, ho belongs to tho proletariat, which has boon oxploited in poaoo and onsluved in war, >and in this case he fools that tho defeat of liis masters is, to somo oxtont, a victory for lida own claws. Pcrhoips ho is riglrt.