Life in Germany.

Taihape Daily Times, 10 April 1918, Page 6

Life in Germany.

■ v —, — DUTCHMAN'S EXPERIENCE, *'**" "ENGLAND IS OUR RUIN/ 'An account of the conditions in Germany; by a Hague motor-driver who i urent to Germany to seek work owing ■tophis failure to obtain it in Holland, has .been furnished to the London Times by its correspondent at The Hague, After a four weeks' stay in Germany he declared that he was unable to. hold out any longer. He was unprovided with funds except for the joii— -..y, but he smuggled three pieces of i..-p across the frontier, which he prc-ipty sold to a soldier for 7s apiece. At the frontier station at Elxen women regularly meet the. trains, hoping to buy from Dutch workmen part of the 2£lb of bacon and 51b of bread which they are allowed to export from Holland.

At Duisburg he obtained work discharging coal, but after discharging 70 tons with four other Dutchmen he found he had only earned 4.50 marks When he had paid for his soup rations at the works canteen and his insurance nothing remained. He left Duisburg and went to Cologne, where he worked in the potteries, earning 10s daily, but stopped after four days from under-nourishment and exhaustion. After this, with occasional spells of work, when he got enough food to work on, he existed chiefly by selling his outfit. He sold his goocr boots for 90s, his second-hand coat for 50s, a pair of ragged shoes for 15s, and his workman's patched blue shirt for 10s.' , - ' i^ <; |J

He described with gusto the journey to Cologne in a fourth-class carriage, where the women guards came and danced whilst the rest of the travellers looked on with apathy. Throughout Rhineland anxiety regarding air Taids is continuous. 'All the windows are completely blued except "for a narrow space at the bottom. The population is very anti-British, but the soldiers are less so, though they constanly exclaim, "England is our xuin."

In all the places where he worked efficiency was enormously reduced. The workmen are accustomed to underfeeding, but they' work apathetically and very slowly, and slight wounds, instead of healing, grow into sores, incapacitating' from use of hand or arm.

The popular idols are Kerensky and j Lenin, who have apparently displaced j Hindenburg and Ludendorff. The popu lace have high expectations of peace with Russia, but the soldiery is much less optimistic, and fears the western front. On December 31 he saw a troop train at a platform coming from the east, and chalked across" the carriages was "Auf nach Verdun." One soldier said: "I would prefer to go for two years to Ypres rather than for two weeks at Verdun." Another soldier offered his whole outfit for sale,' but none dared buy. He explained that if he could get rid of his outfit he would have a better chance to desert. The soldiers are held by the accustomed discipline and fear. "But," he said, "if half a general said it was time to quit, the army would follow." Hatred of England is maintained still "by lavish propaganda, but it is no longer effective in the army. As illustrating the apathy of the population my informant said that in one restaurant where "Gott strafe England" is scrawled across the"wall he explained to some Germans present that they had to pray that because they ' could not "strafe" England themselves. A year ago there wouia lave been an uproar for such a statement, but now they only laughed in Indifference.

He saw many soldiers apparently selling postcards *of the Kaiser along the streets. The majority seemed to "be gunners, and were suffering from severe shock. He asserts also that in one cafe where some soldiers and a corporal were present he made a remark detrimental to the Kaiser, whereupon the corporal replied: "Oh, he's a pig dog; he must he deposed." The soldiers also talked freely about the frequent cases of desertion, even referring to a report that 2000 men liad deserted at one time at a certain place. They were much amused by the story that Germany would send grain to Holland. They scoffed at It and said, "When'Germany is In need, Holland gets no .bread." On the home journey the Dutchman passed through flooded districts where enormous damage had been done, especially on low-lying farms and in Cologne, where the lower part of the city was flooded.