The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER SATURDAY. OCTOBER 2, ]915. A MAD NATION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 29, 2 October 1915, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER SATURDAY. OCTOBER 2, ]915. A MAD NATION.

' 1 1at Ins '<ooll very :vj Il.v termed ‘‘Vim lu.uucv 101 self-admiration’,” seems 'to . presses* the German mind at tins time, jtltpuglr if tlii* truth about what Rns- ■ sip is doing in the East and France Utiil Britiiin in tjn'tAVesh jy jijJlo.vvedvdj'* reach, fju* German people, . they willj jhardly Jty so uplifted. “Idle” quotes from tliel expressions ol’ -Mr Shad well, [ in the current number ol the ■ VKdin-’ burgh Review,” who writes an article on “German War literature,” based on the study of a number of works b.Vj well-known (ierman writers.’ and he says they “reveal with the utmost clearness this curious psychological! feature of the (ierman people.” “The dominant’ note of these hooks is the transcendent superiority of everything (ierman. and the measureless inferior-! ity of all other nations. Not only is this set out \\ iLh the utmost emphasis! and in groat detail, but the conscious-] ness oi it permeates every corner and cranny ol the (ierman mind, and col-1 ours the (ierman view of everything. ”l A neutral wriley in “The Times” recently described the effect of travel-] ling in Germany, and hearing German talk, as hypnotic. “A perusal of these pamphlets,” says .Mr Shadwell, “has' exactly the same ctfect. After a time,! one begins to wonder if one is on one’s' bead or one’s heels, 'asleep or awake. 1 alive or dead. The whole world seems upside down or whirling in a nnpl and lantastic dance. “One can understand the effect ol this atmosphere on the (ierman people. They are sell-hypno-tised into a state which makes them

impervious to external impressions, and blind and deaf to sights and sounds patent to the res! of the world. Here is the touchstone of truth which enables one to regain one's mental balance the judgment of the world at large." Mr Shadwell goes on to say that “the intensity and universality tin* lunatic fervour of (ierman self-esteem is not yet realised by the outside world. It is at the bottom ol the whole thing, tin* war itself. lie* spirit in which it is waged, t hi* methods employed. Perhaps nothing like it has ever been known before.” Faery nation has its own share of vanity, but it is usually qualified by some lap- 1 sc- into common sense and reticence. “Not so the Gormans. Thcv claim

superiority in every quality and every relation ol life. They are, in their nu n eyes, all compact of merits; their opponents am a mass ot defects. 'They are hnr.stinp; with sell-admiration, and cannot keep it in, 'The war lias let it loose in a vast and unrestrained Hood. “Taken as a w hole, the tierman war literature is u symphonic paean ot self-exaltations of sonority and of rhythm; some passages are marked piano :md andante, others fortissimo, and prestissimo; now the strings take np the theme, now the brass, now the wood wind; hut it is ever the same theme Our Xohle Selves, the erealness and elory 1 of the (ierman people in the past, the pre*sent. and the future; the ‘miserable character and late of their foes.’' 01,

course this is all very well, lint it does not tor one moment account lor, or excuse the fiendish (ierman brutality and swinishness which have horrified civilisation, or the tearful deeds which cry aloud for titling punishment.