HOW GERMANY HATES.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 125, 28 January 1915, Page 6

HOW GERMANY HATES.

; We lirtvc Uad a good deal of literature telling of the Allies’ point of view in the present struggle, and the publication. oi the German \\ hits Papei gft.ye us the German official explanation of the causes of the war; but, apart from stray references in the cablegrams, little has been said about the mental attitude of the press and the public in Germany. Therefore, a section of Dr Fitchett’s history of the month, in “Life,” for January, devoted to this special subject will be welcomed. Dr Fitchett. points out that in Germany, as elsewhere, the newspaper counts for much in moulding public opinion. “And it must always be remembered,” he adds, “that German newspapers have a special function. They are, in a sense, part of the machinery of Government. There are very few newspapers that do not obey the direct or indirect inspiration of the Press Department of the Wilhelmsfcrasse, which has been, since the days of Bismarck, one of the most important departments in the German Foreign Office, directed and manned by Government servants specially selected for the work. “So the German papers are encouraged to express ‘popular’ views about the war: views which all good citizens of the Fatherland entertain or ought to entertain about the merit and tiirnnph of everything German, and the wickedness and fast-coming ruin of everything non-German; and the result is the creation of a very curious literature. It opens to the reader a world of hate, of disguised fears, of furious aspirations, and of quite astonishing ignorance—all struggling to And utterance.”

In half a docen pages Dr Fitchett gives a capital selection of extracts from the Germ’an press exhibiting all these qualities, and showing how industriously anil thoroughly the seeds of hatred against Great Britain are being sown. This is Indeed the dominant note in the newspaper literature of Germany to-day. But Dr Fitchett holds that “when the tumult of the present war has died into silence, and t he sky of the race has been cleansed from the battlesmoke that new darkens it, facts .will be seen in clear outline, and the hates bred of war will die.” • This departure of “Life” for January, which we have emphasised .by quotation, is only one section ot a wonderfully full, bright, and informative issue of that always good magazine. ■'