GERMANY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 182, 11 January 1915, Page 5

GERMANY

THE POSITION IN BERLIN. THE I'UIVLATION BETRAYS ANXIETY. BKPORTS Of VICTORIES XOT BELIEVED. Received 10, 5 p.m. i.omlon, January !). An Anicrieau returned from Berlin says the anxiety on the faces of the people to-day is in marked contrast to the confidence expressed at the beginning of the war. The impression is growing tlnit all is not well, that reported victories are not victories, and actual victories are secured at immense cost. The Socialists are ''doing their utmost to foster unrest. Criticism of the Kaiser's advisers is far more open than is tolerate in most places. Refugees from East Prussia total three, hundred thousand. LONSDALE'S SENTENCE. Received 10, 3 p.m. Copenhagen, January 0. Lonsdale's application for appeal to the Military High Court has been granted, [Lonsdale, a British prisoner in Germanv, was sentenced to death for insubordination.]

GERMAN PRISONERS. WEIi, TREATED IX RUSSIA.' A THREAT FROM AUSTRIA. Received 10, 3 p.m. lierlin, January !). Tlic Vorwaerts publishes a German surgeon's statement that prisoners at Lodz were extremely well treated, ami id] were praising the Russians. A Marconi wireless was received from Austria, requesting information of tin; fate of imprisoned Austrian*. If unsatisfactory, Austria threatened to alter her treatment in the case of future prisoners. TO REGULATE BREAD SUPPLY. Times and Sydney Sun Services. Received 10, 5.5 p.m. London, January 9. The bakeries in Germany are prohibited from working at night, to prevent j fresh bread being supplied in the morning, expecting thus to reduce consumption. |

KAISER'S BIRTHDAY FESTIVITIES. OP A RELIGIOUS NATURE. ALLEGED SUCCESSES IN' THE EAST. Received 10, 5.5 p.m. Amsterdam, January 10. The Prussian Government lias forbidden festivities on the Kaiser's birthday, and recommends religioun observances. The Ministry for war has cancelled the usual parades and substituted a cliurch parade. A German communique states: We. took twelve hundred prisoners in the eastern theatre. We captured two thousand Russians and seven machine-guns on the 7th inst.

THE CULT OF BRUTALITY. TJIE essential spirit op -MODERN GERMANY. m tho October number of tlic English Review Mr. Austin Harrison, ellitor, discusses at length the development of the brutal spirit in Germany. During ten years' residence in that country he noted frequent manifestations of that spirit in times of peace. It is only natural, ther»fore, that it should find extreme expression in war, since the idea of "striking terror' into the non-combatants of an invaded country is an article of the German milita-ry regulations, emphasised by the Kaiser when He exhorted his soldiers to "deport themselves Eke the Huns" in China, and to "gain the reputation of Attila." This brutality is the essential spirit of German militarism, ?nd through the army has, Mr. Harrison ir.eists, permeated into all grades of German civil life The individual German ia not cruel for the sake of cruelty. His brutality is rather a method. He would refuse to attend a bulLfiglit or a cockii"ht, or any spectacle of deliberate cruelty, but he would think nothing of cutting his horse's back into bleeding weals if animal jibbed, or shied, or threw him. Mr Harrison has heard Germans who complained bitterly of pigeon-shooting at Monte Carlo emphatically justify the right of soldiers to shoot at sight all suspected of Franctirage, and to destroy any village or town where, civilian acts of aggression had been established. Prompted largely by the Kaiser's persistent preaching, the Germans have educated tnemselves up to the army standard of "ruthless attainment of the end in object"—a principle which finds expression throughout Germany in iiic phrase, ''JSich imponieren"—to assert oneself regardless jf the means or cost. This attitude has a terminology of its own. To fix a man v ith the eyes is a recognised practice, and has' been the sole cause of many a fatl duel. Another practice which has come down from the army to the workshop is what drill sergeants term "rolling the eyes." "Absurd af't may appear, the foiling of the eyes is," ays Mr. Harrison, "a recognised German sign of temper, a prelude to tho disciplinary chastisement. The sergeant lit >s it to awe and hold in the men. Thus, If n private struck on the face by a corporal Izx !>avii)g a button off his coat shows

icscntmesii by rolling his eyes, he ig liable to further correction, as the COM [.oral would be if lie rolled his eyes at a sergeant, and the sergeant would bd it bo rolled hi.3 eyes at a lieutenant, or, a workman would be for rolling hi* eyes at a foreman, or a waiter for rolling hjs eyes at a bead waiter." 'lJicn, again, there is tho forefinger sign, the •emmon gesture of modem (Irnniiny. Symbol of punitive discipline used as Qj menace and a warning, it is the scr j gcant's first admonition, "Petty as such a detail may appear," obwr.s Mr. Uarv rison, "in reality it is interpretative of tne modern (ierman attitude, and of nuicli that is now astonishing and re-, volting the world. Tt is the national gesture, like the Frenchman's shrug of the shoulders, and means just tho opposite. It represents the civil cowiwpfff of t ie military doctrine, of 'striking teix ror' whence it derives." Trivial and droJJ as these idioayneracies may seem, thcyj are none the less characteristic of the German spirit of life, which "in its mod-* ern military garb has led to a social system of formality, lickspittle, bully-i ing, and brutality, inconceivable to any* one who has not lived in Germany anil studied the system at work." i