GERMAN DISCONTENT.

Taihape Daily Times, 15 May 1918, Page 6

GERMAN DISCONTENT.

EXTRAORDINARY DEPRESSION. ARMY LEADERS CRITICISED. LONDON, April 28. I Reuter’s correspondent at Amster. dam says that the extraordinary nervousness and depression in Germany owing to tho losses in the western offensive are revealed remarkably by an article by Captain von Salzmann in the Vosciche Zeitung, in which he endeavours to restore the lost confidence of the Germans by emphasis, ing the importance of the capture of Kemmel Hill. The Kolnische Zeitung says that General von Wrisberg, speaking in Committee of the Reichstag, referred to rumours that the War Ministry admitted at a secret sitting of the Committee that the losses were unusually high in the western offensive. Wrisberg denied that such a statement was ever made. The Socialists thereupon complained of the calling up of Socialist clerks for field service, and said that the threat to send Socialists into the trenches was now general, and the granting of furlough had again been made dependent upon the soldiers subscribing to the war loan.

Despite a close censorship, the report of a discussion of the Main Committee in the Reichstag reveals a remarkable uprising of feeling among the various parties, not only by the Socialists, against the Military Administration, which was sharply criticised, including the German brutalities in Ukraine and Belgium, and the arbitrary conduct of the administration in intervening in the -Finish civil war in favour of a definite party.

Replyng to criticisms, Herr Graefe endeavoured to allay the discontent in regard to the confiscation of the Ukranian peasants’ grain 'and the wholesale massacre of recalcitrant farmers. He said that the action of the military had been in the interest of German consumers.

During the subsequent debate, although the particulars are not specified, the gravest charges were made in regard to German "autocratic measures and shocking excesses” in Ukraine. The presiding deputy said that if the statements which had been made were true it would be necessary to make further inquiries, and he proposed a special sitting for that purpose, with the Chancellor present. According to Vorwaerts, the military authorities have been severely criticised in regard to the policy in east and west.

Herr Ledebour asked if it was true that great numbers of German soldiers had been drowned in Flanders. Shouts from the Right prevented the reply being heard, Herr Scheidemann, in complaining of the severity of the censorship, gave as an instance the suppression of the report of the proceeding of the Alsace Lorraine Landtag.

Herr Muller, a Progressive, sarcastically commented on the conflicting German and British accounts of the Zeebrugge raid. Herr Gotheim. another Progressive, declared that Germany’s policy in the east was a disgrace. Herr Noske, a Socialist, affirmed that the public institutions in Ukraine were openly insulted by the military command, who actually instructed the soldiers in regard to the abolition of democratic institutions as their main task. The soldiers in some cases, revolted against such demands. Herr Ledebour asked why Germany was invading the Crimea. No reply was given.