OFFICERS INSULT MEN

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 210, 24 November 1927, Page 11

OFFICERS INSULT MEN

CAUSE OF GERMAN COLLAPSE: LETTERS BY HINDENBURG By Cable. —Press Association. — Copyright. LONDON, Wednesday I The gross insults and offensive behaviour of the German officers toward their men is quoted as one of the most potent causes of the German collapse in the Great War. In a book, Commandant Coeltz, of the German General Staff, publishes circulars which were issued by the Minister of War, and also by Marshal von Hindenburg, who is now President, in which the attention of officers of the armies was called to their gross insults and offensive behaviour toward the men. Marshal von Hindenburg strongly reprehended the officers, and pro- , | ceeded to point out that the soldiers ; not only suffered by their dishonourable acts and humiliating insults, but 1 j the knowledge of those things proj voked the greatest discontent among . i the civilian population. 1 The admonitions of the Minister 1 of War to the officers ""peoialiy , mentioned that soldiers had written, bitterly complaining of their ; treatment. ( The Minister emphasised the fact • that the army was then constituted of ; educated citizens, worthy of different i treatment than hitherto. German historians have explained ■ the defeat of their armies by declar- , ing that the civilian front broke. —A. i and N.Z.