A VISIT TO WAR RIDDEN GERMANY.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 290, 6 July 1917, Page 4 (Supplement)

A VISIT TO WAR RIDDEN GERMANY.

NATION DRAGGED DOWN BY HUNGER AND CHEMICAL FOODSTUFFS. "Germany has suffered all shecan. Fdo not beleave we i-.u\ suffer much longer. .Most Germans would prefer death to this kind of life—death or revolt. We cannot and will not continue to starve, and see our dear one-, starve, and for what?'' This statement (writes the "Daily Express'' representative) was made three days ago in Hamburg by a leading citizen to a special correspondent whom 1 sent to German-/ to investigate the food conditions after thirty months of war. It ra fleets the feelings of nine Germansout of ten, or. as another German jocularly put it, "Our two watchwords are 'Enough' and '.More.' The first applies to the war, the second to food."

Germany, despite all her bluff, despite her super-organisation, has now reached the point where feeding stops and despair begins. My envoy visited Bremen, Hamburg, and five or six other North German cities He remained in the countrv three weeks, and talked with manv people of s'l clas»er, from munition workers io munition manufacturers, from lanllords to peasants, and to many wome ■ of all stations. The only answer die get, except from a handful of maniacs, was: "Germany har lost the war. The best course would be to save •vhat still remains to be saved of Germany." He was also told that "if the war lasted until the rummer, blood would run in streams in the German towns." My correspondent noted a tremendous difference frrm the conditions reported in the "Daily Express" a few months ago. The German nation is now feeding on beetroot used as a substitute for potatoes, vegetables and cereals, and even for bread and meat. They are manufacturing all sorts cf filthy substitutes for ordinary food. Substitute for cheese, for omelettes, for baeon, for syrups, and for a thousand other art'cles, are all sold in packages. When the contents were analysed it was found that the packages contained nothing but a mixture of beetroot, salt, and a little colouring matter. The people poisoned by these dishonest goods are counted by thousands in everv town. • The Government are fully aware of the fraud, but declined to interfere as long as no contagious disease followed, for the absence of "substitutes" woulr? expore the terrible shortage of all foodstuffs.- The sale of these worthless "foods" not onlv helped the authorities to bluff the people, bit also was a source of profit for tba tradespeople and indirectly for the Government.

My correspondent v'sited famoutestaurants in Hamburg, where h's cot fish for which he paid ten times tln> price />:»•'! f° r caviare liofore tie war. The bread w.ns uneatable, and no potatoes were to be had, an 1 no vegetables exceot beets. The same conditions prevailed in Bremen, except that he managed ti get a tiny ration of potatoes by heavily bribing three waiters. What imnressed him more than anything else was the sight on market day in Bremen of hundreds of women arriving at market early, hoping to get provisions. Half an hour after the stalls opened all were empty, and most of the women returned home with empty baskets, and many with tears in their eyes.

Some were happy at the chance of buying; bones. These were only obtainable by card, .is they are generally sent to factories, where the greasy substar.ee is extracted anl sent to munition factories. Bones are now sold in Bremen market at n higher price than meat in peace time. My correspondent also witnessed the children coming out of the publv; schools. All looked underfed. UPdergrown, and unhappy. All were unwashed, because of the lack of soap, and many of them had contracted tuberculosis. Within the last twelve months Bremen girls schools have lost or.e third of their pupils. .Many were too weak to L-tand the strain of study. But the war not only affects children. Grown people show signs of actual want of food, and men and women constantly faint in the streets and offices. Tin; officials of the Bremen first aid institution are busy all day picking u.) fainting people. Everybody, without exception, expresses great dissatisfaction with th • civilian authorities, especially with Schorlemcr, Batocki. and BcthmannHollweg, the trio who are held resprnsible for Germany's misery, and who are now more blamed than "accursed England.'" Bremen women are often heard saying: "If Schor lemer comes here he will be stoned." Confidence in Hindenburg remains practically undiminished, but the number of those who know that Germany is making for disaster is increasing.

Most of the men are away, either at the front, or in the factories, or in the prison camps abroad, and th.' women are entrusted with the impossible duty of keeping the homo tires burning without fuel. Revolutionary ideas among wemen have increased in the proportion of one thousand to one. It was owing to the fact that women wrote revolutionary letters to their husbands in the trenches that the authorities practically stopped correspondent except, as the regulations say, "to express wishes for good health an 1 victory." Germany's women are determined to bring the war to an early end at any price. The number of thos-< locked up in gaol "in their own interest" runs into four figures weekly.

TERRORISM. Another remarkable eymptom f Germany's present state of mind is the increase of terrorism and i i anonymous denunciation;-. This a-": of cowardice was always a typical German trait. l>ut the war has turned it into a habit, and it is unscrupulously encouraged by the police authorities. Everybody denounce; cvervhodv else -the servant her master, the employee his employer. and .ilwavs anonymously. Uto (hereby becomes intolerable to any--1)0(1 v tJI Germans, and the few neu-t-als remaining in Germany are leav■lie rapidly. Hamburg's Danish and Dutch "colonies are now reduced practically tc nothing. Hamburg's harbour is natnriilr Dip Faddert spot in Hambure though t1... shipyards ire buzzing with al- - llerr Tallin's new scheme to" Ce ' ouicl< buildin,< or pcems to have caught the fanry ( . tho lending shipping concern-?, ant sll are building ship? for use m peace.