IN GERMANY.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 28 April 1917, Page 6

IN GERMANY.

j OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. i PROPOSAL TO MOBILISE ALL l MADMEN. |. A FIRST SELECTION OF CANDIDATES. 1 London. The ‘‘mass levy” in Germany, aa :was to have been expected, has proved a, complete fiasco. The civilian mobilisation was made purely voluntary though the terms of the official aaHouncement conveyed the impression that the people were to be dragooned into State service on any wages the Government cared to offer.

It now appears that the only thing that was the matter with voluntary civilian service in Germany was that there were no volunteers, and in the present temper of the almost famishing people, and faced by the open antagonism of the Social Democrats, the Government did not dare to make their measure compulsory. ARMY OF THE INSANE.

In this dilemma Dr. Kurt Thomolin comes forward with a happy suggestion which he promulgates through Maximilian Harden’s review, the Ziekunft. It is that all the lunatics in Germany (presumably meaning all those at present confined in asylums) should be set to work in the national service:—

The Fatherland stands urgently in need of labour. The willing and skilful hands which once ministered to our incomparable national industries are now occupied in the holy task of grappling with our enemies. Meanwhile there remains to us a rich source of labour which has hitherto never been tapped.

What should be done now is to organise workshops and factories where the insane can be set to. vrork under a special surveillance, and under the direction of medical men.

These establishments would be a species of factory-asylum. When in a serviceable condition the insane would be set to work, to the great advantage of his own health. As soon a$ he suffered any fresh mental seizure he would be reconductcd to his cell.

In this way a great 'elf.ment of strength which now lies fallow would be utilised for the benefit of the Fatherland. REYENTLOW READY. I>r. Thomolin might go somewhat further afield and add a welcome finish to his scheme by mobilising some of the writers in the German daily press who have long since qualified for this proposed bureau of lunatic labour. The staffs of the Kreuzzeitung, the Cologne Volkszeitung, and the Krupp journal at Essen might go over to. Dr. Thomalin in a body, while the ravings of Revent - low entitle him to immediate admission. ~No better certificate is needed than the following extracts from an article which he contributes to the Deutsche Tageszeitung;—

“The name Belgium must disappear altogther from the map. It is sheer nonsense to talk about any Belgium at all, for in a Belgium State the freedom of the Flemish people 'would be an impossibility. “Real freedom for the two nationalities in Belgium soil, the Flemings and the Walloons,, can solely be secured by a complete separation of both, and by their being placed side by side under, German protection. Further existence of the Belgian Government and the Belgian Royal House is entirely out of the question, as is also the idea of allowing the sons of King Albert to. reign in Flanders and Wallonia. The Belgium of hitherto mush be effaced altogether from the map of Europe.” , j THEIR MISSION. ' j ‘Another candidate for Dr. Thomolin’s I colony of Bedlamites is to be found nnder the aegis of the Augsburger Zeitung in whose columns he writes as follows;

Let us await the greatest decision in the world’s history with coolness and with complete confidence in ourselves. Politics consists in obtaining all that it is possible to obtain; war is only a continuation of politics by other means.

“Let us not expect any miracle as the result of the submarine war, but solely the triumph, of our just cause. Germans have the right to hope for victory, because the decision rests on objectivity, on seriousness of purpose, and on truth, and not, as in the case with our enemies on bragging on lies and on exaggerations.

America may threaten and even attack ns. German sailors are burning to give battle, and that a decisive battle. Theirs is the great mission to reopen to the German nation the road to her colonies, to force the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal. Then they shall strike England in her most vulnerable part.” THAT FLAMING SWORD, The Saarbrucker Zeitung i: another journal that might offer at I st a few probationers. Its qualificat n is a; follows: “Our enemies will shake v. ith terror 0n th a day when they behold :he peace able German Michael transformed bj t= Ar crimes into another Archangel fmhael, brandishing aloft his flaming .Word, ? The battles which we are giving

are battles 'Of ineffable glory. All the good genii of Germany and of humanity at large hover around our standards, and above them there rise in letters to light the words: ‘ln hocsigno vinces. ’ “It is in this spirit that we are advancing inch by inch towards victory, and through victory to the German peace that passeth all understanding.”