The Taihape Daily Times WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1916. AN ASTOUNDING REVELATION.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 1 November 1916, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1916. AN ASTOUNDING REVELATION.

AND WAIMAKINO ADVOCATE (With which is incorporated The Taihape Post and Waimarino News).

A news item, from Amsterdam that came to hand yesterday, reporting a scene of an unusual character in the German Reichstag, will prove a severe shock to the moral sense of most British people, We had gathered from utterances and events that the Kaiser was a superman of so high an order that his people had come to look upon him as something superior to the Pope with respect to infallibility, but the world will learn with alarm that the whole .of German military officialdom has assumed the position that its members are incapable of doing moral wrong. In other words, no matter to what moral brutishness they descend, they commit no wrong, and there is no power to restrain or punish them. In fact, it is apparent that brutism in its worst form is, really a part of the German military cultur The world has held its hands in horror at the fearfully distressing, wanton orgies freely indulged in by the common soldiery in conquered countries —in Belgium, Prance, Poland, and Servia. More especially as this unnaturalness is encouraged by the highest source of German military law and command. It is quite common knowledge that German soldiery were promised full opportunity fortb*' gratification of the very lowest of their brutish passions among the peoples they were ahle to overpower, and that this encouragement was followed up to an extreme that would be impossible to surpass in frightfulness. That this cannot be exaggerated ts beyond question, but, although it has been stated by people of neutrar countries residing in Germauy at various times, it was not generally be-

lieved that the German military superman had developed to a degree or perfection that whatver his superthought, super notions and super passions led him into, he must remain without moral taint, and beyond even the raised fingers of -his own people. The reported scene in the Reichstag disclose the rottenness of the morals of the German military superman, and now that the Allies have given undeniable proof that he individually is not superior, or even the equal of men he is at war with, the super bubble has burst and members of the popular House—Socialist and Government—with the Press of Germany, have raised a "shindy" of no common character against the orgies of villainy that are practiced in Germany upon the daughters of German people. The eye of the Hun militant brute rests upon an attractive damsel, and a military arrest follows, and this lass is eventually the fellow-prisoner of a host of other unfortunates the cable designates prostitutes. These angry scenes reported, occurred in the Reichstag last Saturday. While debating the justness or otherwise of the military arrests of civilians, various Deputies gave a long catalogue of instances of oppression. Dittmann, the Socialist, said the military haa established a reign of terror, ane a reign of orgies of baseness and villainy; young girls were arrested in the streets and made the associates of prostitutes. This attack on Mili tary animalism was by no means confined to Socialist Deputies, for the cable states that eren Government supporters joined in the condemnation. Herr Helfferich defended the military, but angry exclamations and constant interruptions prevented him bolstering up the military super brutishness; he was unable to pacity members and the sitting was suspended. Newspapers, commenting oyi what they term the noisiest sitting since the war commenced, bitterly resent Helfferich's offensive tore, and they are demanding that he be made to apologise or resign. We have read in continental newspapers that German officers were perpetrating in Germany on German girls and women, under the guise of legal military arrest, what the common soldier was enjcouraged to do amongst the population of conquered territory. There is no questioning an arrest ordered by a military officer, his will Is supreme, because, as the cable states, the Government has restricted the control hitherto exercised by Reichstag Committees. Yet, Australia has proclaimed against the suppression of men with such instincts. Australian mothers and daughters have votec: against these super brutes being restrained and : punished. They -have voted to extend the reign of frightfulness to their own land, to their'own homes, unwittingly it undoubtedly was; but their! trust should have been in their well-informed leaders instead of in the minions and spies of Germany. Let all our 3 r oung men read the cable referred to and think, out for themselves* what it means to New Zealand if these German military devils should succeed in their efforts to rule the world. If they will only co this there will-be no shortage in our reinforcements. Let them reason the facts to the full extent of their legitimate meaning and there will be ir need for any operation of the Military Service Act. Do not let us smugly befool ourselves that this supreme insult to German women is untrue, for there is abundant evidence without that coming from the German House of Parliament and from German newspapers, that it is common practice, and yesterday's cable is only a final clinch of the fulness of its truth. The Allies have divested the German mind of the superman idea, and it seems as though the German people are going to insist upon the elimination of tne acts of the super-brute, at least, an they are practiced upon their own sisters and daughters. It is for our young men to take the step that will prevent the practices of super-bru-tishness in this and other British countries.