THROUGH GERMAN SPECTACLES.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 187, 30 June 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

THROUGH GERMAN SPECTACLES.

FATHERLANDS DOFBTS OF THE KAISER'S CAUSE.

WHAT STEPHEN O'CONNOR TOLD THE "TAGEBLATT."

The new campaign in the German press to prove to neutrals that England began the war has been a complete and unqualified failure. The Scandinavian newspapers have cither ridiculed it or dismissed it with a dignified rebuke, according to their feelings towards the Allies, while the Dutch journals, as a whole, have condemned it as both baseless and foolish. This scepticism, not unniinglcd with contempt, lias roused some of the German papers to the anger which the liar generally displays when bis falsehoods evoke the scorn of honest men, and Millie of them, like the Berlin "Kreuzzeitung," seek to bolster up a bad case with further falsehoods fortified by abusive language of the kind that has already done so much damage to the German cauo among Continental neutrals. THE INSIDIOUS DOUBT. The ''Tvreuzz?itung" has to go back to the Haldane incident to support its contention — "Even to-day, amid the clash and chmg of war, the question is still frequently heard: Why was it that German statesmen did not succeed in arriving at an understanding with Haldane? The answer is: Because Messrs Asquith and Grey, even five years ago, did not desire such a thing as an understanding with Germany. "Haldane's mission was a trick which was to bring the conviction home to till the world that England had employed the utmost means to get into harmony with Germany. The object of Haldane's journey was simply to throw dust in the eyes of all nations. "Not long before his arrival in Berlin, there was already talk between British and Russian diplomats of _ a stand against 'a common enemy.'— which, of course, was Germany. Afterwards, when Haldane was busy negotiating in Germany, the English Minister of Marine, Churchill, publicly designated the German fleet as a ' luxury.' "We hope now that those secrot Anglophiles who never test from their utterly futile questionings and doubtHigs have been answered, and that we shall henceforth be spared the indignity when entering a place of public resort of hearing suspicions being cast as to the righteousness of the German cause." The significance of this last sentence will not be lost on those who have followed the new trend of German national opinion. The German people are under no delusion as to who began the war. There are very few of them who now brieve that the German cause is just, and even these are dwindling to insignificance. MANHOOD OF EUROPE. Into several of the German newspapers a curious new note is creeping. The "Yossische Zctiiug" says, lor instance : ~ , ~ "It is trulv deplorable that after twenty months of the most awful warfare the vanity of our enemies does not permit them to seek a formula that might satisfy all sides. -So far from doing so, they assume the heavy responsibility of continuing the wholesale carnage. They refuse to comprehend that if to-day Germain could be conquered tne *™l"Z would survive the conquered bj onlj a few minutes. •'ln the face of this terrific responsibility, the Entente Powers continue their 'murder of humanity. And to what purpose? To crush a nation of •seventy millions out of existence to wipe it from the face of the earth. "Was ever anvthmg more mad. more grotesque, conceived by human brain r I t . is not the end of Germany that they arc bringing about, but the end of the manhood of Europe." But what was it that Germanj sought to bring about.- Not von Bernbardi alone, nor Ireitschkc a'one hut the Kaiser iiWi "»d all Ins minions, a-s well as bis shackled Ire-, were all out for world-dominion below they found themselves battering in vain against the stone walls ol trance, oi Britain and of Russia. CONSCIENCE OF MR. ASQUITH. In a final effort to bind together the rotten remain of this old lie, the oincial "Cologne Gazette essays anctliei attack on Mr Asquith:— "Never did that pious Christian, Asquith anv more than any other English Premier, dream of throttling Germanv. Not on your life! YS ho could think the 'honourable men on the Thames capable of Mich a thing as that? But to squeeze us slowly, to deprive us of air to breathe to hamper our trade and i-utm off tromncmarkets constituted lor the la* ten years the amhition of every Bntif.li statesman, and this mucn no one knows better than Mr Asquith. •• His conscience is, oh! so clear and , )U rc! He knows how, at the Algoeiras conierer.ee. Germany was flung aside, how England and France made a secret compact to thnnt Germany out ol Morocco. He knows bow we bad to ti.dit against the British monopolists fe-every inch of the Bagdad railway simply because the wealthy owners o India trembled at the slightest st oSrard towards the East taken • the Germans. He knows how glad Engird was to see. the irreparable breach created by the Bosnian crisis between \u-tria and Rusmii, and how, evei smce LUO7 the numerous partly secret ;,„d partly ope. arrangements with Russia planned the part to be phned lev En-'and m a Gorman-Russian war. ■••Wherever Germany wished to .tretch forth her arm., wherever Mie wanted to secure ever so luodest « lull,, bit of territory. iliw kngl.um placed her-elf in the way. Tins is the history of the la.t ten years Depute ,11 this, nothing could be clearer than the eon-cience of Mr Asquith!

liKATIN'Ci Till-: AIR. It h;m remained for the Merlin "Ta«"..olatf to point the moral. J'.s correspondent lias had a ta'k with a British prisoner, one Stephen 0 Connor : . '•O'C'nini"!' w.i- a Hclfa-t man, and |„.f,n-e th war lie »n- the London re- ,,,...., ntalive of a hire factory at I'lau- ,'.,', j n Sax'>n\. " lint how if? Unif'-" I i\,ked him." "Yn'.i wmkid for Germans, and ye| yon took up arm* :■.'- i.illr-t US." • ■ \v,.!| sir." he replied, "my eountrv called me" I replied, "You talk like an Knjjish re roiling - rgeani' ; hut he air-wered with a -mile, " N'o. sir. it is niv conviction. My country ca11(.,1 ( ~1 me. and I responded to her call." •■'And did vou ask youiwdf whai your conntrv called you 1 >r " 1 pursued. ■•That ; i- a thing tbat one does not a,k, The Knehrdi went to nar lor t'.e sake of Belgium and franc.': lh.it I, ;, fact sir." he H-ehed. "Very good, in; hoy," I room •<!.

"You are fighting for a conviction, and that docs you honour; but we Germans have quite another idea about the origin of the war." ''Finally I asked him who, according to his opinion, would wm. "Certainly the Allies,'' wan hi.s answer. "And as for your Zepps, I can assure you that they help the recruiting officers immensely." "All this was uttered in a tone of such sincere conviction that 1 could not help asking myself, if such ideas as those have struck firm root among the people of Eng'and, whether we are not lieating the air. whether German blood and German treasure are not really l>cing poured out with such a reckless band in the quixotic attempt to break down a stupid.but seemingly unshakeable -tone wall."