GERMANS IN LONDON

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 347, 22 January 1918, Page 1

GERMANS IN LONDON

Their influence Amounts to a Scandal Walter Tv. Morrison, an Englishman, on his arrival in New York on his way to Southern California to look after interests there, said that the German influence in social circles in London had developed into a serious scandal. Determined efforts bad been made by Englishmen of high standing, he said, to check this social German propaganda, but without avail. "Just before I left London," said Mr Morrison, "one of thebest-known clubs in the St .Tames' section had to call a special meeting of all its members to vote upon a motion barring certain German members, ono of whom was a well-known baron, from the club premises for the duration of the war It hardly seems credible that Englishmen should have t<derated Germans silting in the club window and conversing in their native tongue while German airships were flying over tho city and dropping bombs on women and children. These Gorman members upheld the sinking of the Lusitacia and the Zeppelin raids over England, and defied the club committee to oust them from their privileges, until some resolute Englishmen got together and determined to put a stop to the scandal. Try to imagine any Englishman allowed to be at large in Berlin and using one of tho best clubs over three years after the commencement of rhe war and criticising the actions of the Germans in the language of an enemy nation. " When the meeting of the members was convened tho Germans, led by the baron, made a fight and insisted that the club had no right to suspend them. Some ( f the English members belonging to pacifist factions actually spoke up for the enemy aliens and said 'it would be a little harsh, don't you know,' to bar them from the privileges of the club just because they were Germans It was pointed out with some ferv our that news of value to the enemy could be obtained easily in a' club where members trusted each other's honour and spoke freely. Finally the Germans were voted out. " Loyal Englishmen look upon a pacifist as being more dangerous in the country than a German, because the latter is regarded as an enemy and a watch is kept upon his movements, while the pacifist goes about preaching disloyalty against his country under the pretence lhat he is doing it for the good of humanity. " German agents are working as actively in London as they are in New York and all over the world. With the entry of the United States into the war we all believe that the end is in sight.''