The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1917. LETTERS TAKEN FROM GERMANS

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 19 February 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1917. LETTERS TAKEN FROM GERMANS

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

How the German people themselves view the war and what the internal condition of Germany is, are subjects about which the most conflicting reports continue to be made. A noted French historian and soldier has hit upon a way to let the answer to these j questions be given by Germans who are in the forefront of the battle. He has collected all the letters and other documents found on German prisoners and on the dead bodies of killed, officers, and has published a digest of them in book form, Hib aim has been to present the Yhost striking letters and passages revealing internal discontent, and a growing resentment against the au-, thors of the war. “Current History” has made translations of a number of these letters from facsimile copies in the original German, and has published them as a fair representation of what the whole aggregation of letters convey. Commenting upon his work, the French historian says that “Germany, after the middle of March, learned, little by little, that the Vcr dun drive was a failure; learned it in spite of a shamelessly lying pre ss and of bulletins stupifying in their impostuie. It was the most immense deception that a people ever experienced Then all the pent-up feelings of the nation burst forth. During those five months of anxiety, of hope, of effort, of deceptions, and of rancour, Peace! Peace! was the leitmotif. The people understood there were those in her midst wno caused the war, who were profiting by it; criminals, one of the lettei s called them. It was in the light of the battle of Verdun, lost by the Crown Prince, in the august pi\ sence of the Emperor, with the best GOl man blood that the truth gradually appeared. This is why it is v\ orth while to group these documents which constitute a page of German history and psychology, written by Gei many herself. “When the orders to capture Verdun were given by the Kaiser, the German Army regarded it a stupendous work, but all sections »>cne impe.ul cf success. There was going to no a fight such as the work: had never seen, but a decision was loped tor Giat would result in peace. Disillusionment soon came, as shown by letters and note-books, in one cf ivhich was written, “The men are being dragged by force to butchery.” Another said, “On the Russian front it was child’s play compared with artillery here.” The let ers go on in kis pitiably despondent, hopeless

strain,putting beyond all doubt the fact that the Kaiser made the greatest blunder since the minute he de{dared war. The despair evidenced in almost every letter and notebook quoted was pathetic in the extreme; all but the frailest thread of hope of fever leaving the trenches before Ver- [ dun was abandoned, aim the condition I into which the weather and the French /■guns had forced the men qouid not be worse. For weeks they could neither move forward or go backward, so effectually did the French guns sweep every inch of the ground. Judged by records by Germans themselves, which they never intended should reach Allied hands, Germany is beaten, and the only cry is peace! peace! The state of starvation to which the British Navy has reduced Germany is disclosed in the letter of | a banker, an officer in the Array, ! home on sick leave, to a fellow-officer still at the front. He writes: “The economic situation leaves a painful impression; if war with America is 1 added, the population will end by ■ gradually dying of hunger. Spoiled meat is given to the poor, but no one ! can eat it. Sugar, coffee, tea, etc., all are confiscated. Doctors "have ascertained that the civil population is suffering from insufficient nourishment. Manufacturers of war supplies are alone making millions, and are well satisfied with the business. All others are sighing and recriminating. Some people believe energetic submarine war will soon finish England, but there will be a fine disillusionment at the end.” A German woman in a letter to her husband at the front, say-s: “Almost every day there is a general war of women. They fight in the street like tinkers. You poor devils fight at the front, and we women fight for a mouthful to eat.” A German father, writing to his son finishes by saying, “This war will not be ended with arms. The side that has something to put in its stomach the longer is the one that will win, and that does not mean us.” this collection of letters and notebooks taken from captured and killed Germans uniformly contributes evidence similar to the few brief excerpts taken therefrom, it

constitutes most convincing testimony as to the condition of life in Germany and the German belief with respect to war and peace. All the writings are from Germans to Germans, information that was never intended for Germany’s enemies. , They may not convey anything from a distinctly official source, but they are far more valuable from the viewpoint of reliability than if they did. They at least strongly corroborate and strongly reinforce the views expressed by Sir Douglas Haig last week, that decisive results will be achieved this coming summer that will bring war to an end. For further corroboration a comparison may be made between food cditions in the two countries —Britain and Germany—and between the confidence and optimism of the one as compared with the hopelessness and despair of the other. ,