IN GERMANY.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 18 June 1917, Page 2

IN GERMANY.

FACTS AND IMPRESSfONS

FROM WITHIN

LONDON

Mr H. B. Swope's m_>w book "Inside the German Empire," is a cautious and invaluable document. Mr. Swope went to Germany last y.nir for the New York World, and his boo]: is based on articles he contributed to his paper. Mr. Gerard, until the last few weeks the American Ambassador ia Berlin, has written a short foreword to the book, in which he vouched for the accuracy of Mr Swope's info.-m-'itio i, and the English public will be well advised to read the book and carefully consider its contents.

Mr_ Swope dec'-uvs that although supplies are very depleted -'Germany is not starving and do-\? not intend to starve." He says: "lust Britain had to prepare militarily after i.h-3 war begpn, so Germany has hid to prepare economically. She did not expect so long a war, and her plain, log was n:! pTcd'Cted upon so sharp a ihclinc JJi lur supplies. But she has passed the danger point, and she is certain tlu-.t sii r cannot starve.

Mr. Swope tells us tn-lt, apart from a i.clsy minority, the Go.-man people now have no hope of achieving great territorial conquests, ani no great degin; for such conquests. He found the soldiers in Belgium and the 'icenpitd parts of France particularly m sistent of the folly of attempting the lit 1c 1 territory after :'iO war. Ar the spire time, the German naion is persuaded that the war is really a war of self-defence, and it is prepared to suffer much worse things than have yet occurred in ordr to starve off defeat. Mr. Swope found the general belief that a separate peace could and would be made with Russia, and he says a conference was held in Stockholm in at September between German dipomats and the pro-Germans in the Russian Government. From this chapter of his book the reader is able to estimate what a bitter blow the Russian revolution must be to the Kaiser and his advisers. Even before the break. America was disliked and suspected, but the value that, her financial assistance could be to the Allies, Their common point o? view was that the American munition factories had already done their worst and that the United States was quire unable to add materially to the military ana naval forces of the Entente. He sees little hope of any sort of peace that would bo acceptable to the Allies being accepted by Geramny unless a decisive battering cm the bottlefield takes away from her the power of refusal. He warns us that the German spirit is dogged, and that the people generally are ready for the last i -'ssible sacrifice. Patriotism is as ram-

pant among women as among the men and he believes that thousands of Gorman women would willingly serve in the trenches if the Government called them.

MORAL DOWNFALL OF GERMANY.

ALL RESTRAINT THROWN TO THE WINDS.' New York. Bankruptcy and famine arc staring Germany in the face, according to Americans from Germany who have arrived with Mr. Gerard, the former United Slates Ambassador at Berlin, at Havana. Mr Gerard's fellow-passengers describe the conditions, misery, and social disintegration throughout the Kaiser *s empire. "The laws regulating divorce are a dead letter," they declare. "Soldiers at the front and -heir wives at home are freed from all martial re-

straints. Illegitimate births aro now 25 per cent, of the whole number in Berlin, have reached a higher percentage in Bavaria, and are steadily in-

creasing. " The New York Times correspondent states that plays, to be sucessful, must have a murder in every act and reek with morbid details. The Gorman tendency to rule women has increased during the war. "Men use women roughly," the passengers declare, "and punish them physically for trifling faults. Women are recognised as social inferiors, and do not resent it."

The next four months will determine whether Germany will be starved into surrender. Many plans aro considered to save food, one being to depart the women , children and old men in the occupied part?, of France, Belgium and Poland to Switerzland vnd Scan din a via.