The Love They Bear Us.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 217, 13 October 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Love They Bear Us.

By The Rev. R. J. CAMPBELL.

(One of the inevitable results of the Big Push will bo more peace prattle. Wo shall be told that we must meet the German people in a forgiving and generous spirit. In this stinging reply to a Bavarian M.P.'s song of hate tha Rev. R. J. Campbell warns Us in advance of the coming danger.)

A fortnight ago or thereabouts a speech was made in Munich which gives somo indication of the state ot mind of the German people as a whole, and not merely the Prussian in particular, with regard to the British people and indeed the entire English-speaking world. It was delivered by a Dr. Schlittenbauer, a prominent member cf the Bavarian National Assembly, and was frantically cheered by an audience of some thousands of persons representative of all ranks and classes in Bavaria. ROME AND*CARTHAGE. It is a revelation. It shows that those in this country who think that Prussia, and Prussia only, is the enemy needing to be crushed, and that the rest of Germany has no great illwill towards us, is in fact kindly and well-disposed, and would be peaceable enough if it could be freed from the malign influence of Prussian militarism, are quite mistaken. Nothing vould be further from the truth.

Hero are some points from the speech : I England, in association with Ameri- I can Anglo-Saxondom, is our most in- I ■veterate foe. England is the soul of | the resistance to us, and, both secretly and openly supported by America, Kngland is the soul of the coming economic war. We must recognise that our future depends upon our triumpn ov.ir England. Do not let the German people be lulled by any other belief. South Germany is under no delusion about it. Our people talk little about the Russians and recognise the heroism of the French, but when they speak of England their soifcs boil with the deepest rage. In South Germany friendship for England never can and never will be entertained. The trouble m between Germany and Anglo-Saxon-dom is like that of old between Carthage and Rome. Now, as then, the issue is One or the Other. There '.;> not room for both. The war has but one aim to which all others are narrowed: destroy the British Empire; crush for ever the power of AngloSaxondom. j

ALL SAVE THE HYPHENATED. The purpose of the gathering at which the philippic was uttered was to demand immediate resumption of ruthless submarine warfare, even should it lead to war with tho United States. The meeting nearly went mad with excitement and fury during its delivery, and it was qiute evident that the sentiments it expressed were those of the hearers. It should be noticed that they never say British. To them everything hateful is summed up in the one word England. At the beginning of the war they knew so little of us that occasionally they sought to discriminate between prisoners of English nationality and Scotsmen, Canadians, or Australians. Irish, of course, they flattered and tried to seduce from their allegiance to the flag, but that they should have been so far misled as to suppose that Scots or Colonials were less their foes than men of English birth, or less loyal to the British bond, is truly astonishing. England, England was and is still the cr.^ —England the one adversary to be overcome, the one name and power to which no mercy must he shown. But now we see what the name England means in German mouths, or has come to mean. It means all who speak with English tongue, including not only those who live under the Union Jack in that vast domrafon of ours Which comprises a fifth of the globe, but the great Republic of the West as well. Perhaps it would be more correct to say the whole of the hundred millions in the United States with the exception of tho German-Americans. That is a large order, and 1 hope America likes the compliment. We need not mind. WE ARE LEARNING. Now this is what I call a revelation, not because it is so very new, but because it is so very explicit. The bewildering thing to us is its venomousnoss. Not even yet can we understand it Wo have none of this feeling of loathing, black, implacable, devilish, that apparently our enemies have for us, though assuredly wo are less tolerant to them than wo were at the beginning of the war. We have c-onie to know more of what German hatred means, unaccountablo though it be t 0 the majority of us. There it is, a fact to be reckoned with, and not to be explained away —a foul, terrible, murderous rancour that, to all appearance will outlast the war and tho life-time of the youngest of us. Let us measure its menace and prepao ourselves for what it has still to do. HISTORICAL PARALLEL

For a parallel deliberately drawn in the speech aforesaid gives us much to think about. Dr. Schl ttenbauer compares tho struggle between Kngland and Oerniany, or ralf.er between Anglo-Saxondom and (iermanv, to that between Rome and Carthage in an ago long gone bv. This is a very suggestive parallel ndoecl. Perhaps not ono in ten of mv readers knows just how much it signifies. Home and Carthage divided the ovcrlordship of ihe civilHed world between tliem at a t-me when England as England did not exist and the American continent had not been dreamed of by the people of Europe Home's possessions, roughly spcakin.'.. lav along the northern >lmivs ot flu Mediterranean Xoa : Carthage occupied the south-- that is, the whole ui* Northern Africa.

j The Bavarian is supposed to I l>e closely allied to the English fin character. Make no mistake \ ahout it: : All Germany hates f all Anglo-Saxondom— X INCLUDING AMERICA.

The parallel with to-day is very striking in* several ways. Rome, lik» Great Britain, was more favourably situated for maritime purposes than Carthage or Germany. Carthage, like Germany, had colonial ambitions and sailed her lines of ships into the furthest harbours of the known habitabla globo. Everywhere she went she found the flag of Rome, just as Germanyfinds the British flag to-day. And sne did not like lit; no more does Germany * # * OUR DUTY TO POSTERITY. Rome was a great imperial power, knew how to subdue and dvilise rude and ignorant people; Carthago never had that secret. Rome governed by interfering as little as possible with local habitg and customs while' preserving order and developing resources; Carthage stamped on those that came under her yoke and ground them to powder; she was perhaps the cruellest power that has ever exercised dominion. The Pax Romana was a wonderful and beneficent fact, precisely as the Pax Britannica is to-day. Roman Law forms the basis of the common law of the greater part of Christendom. Carthago knew nothing but the rule of material might. She produced one of the greatest generals that ever lived, Hannibal, the Napoleon of his

age, and he all but overthrew the Roman Empire by catching its statesmen unprepared. In the end they wore him down, however, not by brilliance but by shear subbornnoss ani tho slow accumulation of force. Time was on their side and military prestige on his. We know the result. The struggle went on, and on, and on, but it ended the ambitions of Carthage. Hardly a .irace of the remains of that once mighty power is to be found among the rud_> dwellings of the wild tribes of North Africa to-day. Had Carthage won modern Europe could not have come 'into ( being. Liberty and constitutional government would, humanly speaking, have been unheard of. Instead of a family of nations wo should probably have had » universal military despotism Eased on Oriental models. Thank heaven victory ultimately resfrod with the arms of Rome

A * T EW AND SANER WORLD. It is well that Dr. Schlittenbauer is so frank. We now know where we are. tor ho can hardly mean seriously to imply that Germany is other than tha modern representative of the ideals of ancient Carthage. It is a military might once more against the styritual idea, forco against fellowship, tho machine aga'nst the man; and there ca i bo no truce between the two. Let us hope that the present war may see th'is trouble brought to a finish ; but, if not. it must go on as of old till the one kills the other. It is not the German people wc have to destroy, but this monstrous (lea that lias token jiossession of them. Let that l>e brought to nought on the battlefield, now or twenty years hence, and our children may live in a saner world.

* # n THE TASK BEFORE US. Another thing Dr. Schlittenbauer s speech indicates is that it is not only Kaiserism and Junkensm we are fighting, but the spirit of the whole German nation, north and south. When we read of the Kaiser's amazing brag and bluster, we imagine his cwn people are laughing at it as well as we. Nothing of the kind; it represents them. It would be impossible in our country, for the good and suffiaienfl reason that our spirit is different. It would be incredible that King George should use such language, language •ikin to blasphemy sometimes and that of a raving lunatic at others. But 't suits the German people. They like it and applaud it in their war-lord because it exactly expresses their own mood with relation to other peoples. And we have got to demonstrate its futility. That is the task before n« and it is going to be a harder task than most Britons realise. The present war, unspeakably dreadful ns it is, may not mean the end of it. The end of it may not come in our time. A new world is in the making, a new international equilibrium heng established morally as well as materially, and it will ta.k« a long while for things to settle down aagin. Does tho British race even at this late hour realise the magnitude of the issue ?