SIDELIGHTS FROM GERMANY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 224, 1 March 1915, Page 3

SIDELIGHTS FROM GERMANY.

SALADIN THE KAISER'S KNIGHT OF TIII-: CRESCENT. FAIRY TALKS ABOUT RUSSIA. Wonderful tilings an; narrated in the Gorman press regarding the losses already incurred by tlie Russians. Tiic Tsar is greatly disturbed, we are.toid, about tlie fearful havoc wrought anion" his best soldiers. Tlie Berliner Tageblatt states that in Moscow alone over oik! million wounded are being treated. Its correspondent learns this gruesome "fact"' from the "most reliable source.'' The total Russian casualties already exceed two millions. We are further told that serious differences of opinion have arisen between the Grand Duke Nicholas and the Tsar, and that the Tsar expressed his belief that the sooner peace is arranged the better, The Grand Duke replied—the intimate knowledge of things displayed by this correspondent is extraordinary —that if the Tsar decided oil peace it would cost him his throne and the Grand Duke his head. Further, we are informed that the Grand Duke is very angry at the existence of an alleged camarilla of German Princesses at the Ttussian Court, of whom the T aritza is chief, and the Tsar wa- p'an'y told that if he (tlie Tsar) would only defeat the German ladies, he (the Grand Duke) would take care to defeat the German armies. The absolute nonsense written and apparently believed about the condition of things in Russia is appalling. The Grand Duke, who is one of the mildest-man-nered of men, is described as truculent and veruel, and the absurdest details are eagerly read of acts of severity practised by him, or at his command, on inoffensive and stupid subordinates. We are told that the Russ : an armies have no money at their disposal, that they are in want of rifles, ammunition, boots, etc. No invention about the Russians is silly enough for the readers of the German Press. and it is amazing that Germans who five months ago were supplied with stories p'-'-.ut the efficiency, bravery .and reliability of the Russian troops, and believed them, should now as readily believe the contrary.

THE KAISER'S MODEL. The German newspapers report from Constantinople that the Kaiser has presented the Sultan with a magnificent and costly lamp j to he hung in the famous mosque of Sultan Selalieddin at Damascus. The lamp is the work of Turkish and Arab artificers and is made of brbnze and gold after the .best Arab models. Sultan Selaheddin is the famous Saladin of history, a ruler for whom the Kaiser has always professed unbounded admiration. His ferocious cruelties towards the Crusaders have been apparently ignored by Wilhelm IT-, for on his visit to Damascus he informed the Mohammedan notables of that city that their great Selaheddin was an Oriental I3a.vard, a knight without fear and without reproach. Scoffing spirits at the time, whisered that-the Emperor was firmly convinced th:vt between him and the "Oriental Bayard" there were many points of resemblance.

LANGUAGE PURISTS. The Reichstag has been unable to resist the clamant voices of the language reformers. These patriots have abolished French and English shop signs, they have purified bills of fare, they have even invented German sporting terms to replace the English terms hitherto in use. It is now the turn of the Imperial Diet. The following words are to disappear:—Commission, diet, mandate, petition, debatte, interpellation, legls-latur-period, plenar, resolution,- and a number of others. Some of the German equivalents are exceedingly amusing. Budget commission is now "Reichshaushaltaussc-Pruss." Some of the German equivalent has not yet been found for President and one or two other terms, but a small committee of members is working at the subject and may be relied on to discover something acceptable.

DEFECTIVE RAILWAY GUIDES. The Imperial Railway Guide of tlie German Empire—tile German Bradshaw —lias just appeared, but shorn of much of its bulkincss, There is not a word about the railways of Belgium, France, Great Britain, Russia, Spain, and Portugal. And with regard to the Balkan States the information is incomplete. With regard to other countries an attempt is made to link up their systems with the. German lines, but the information given is unreliable, and passengers are warned not to trust it. The tables and lists of steamboat sailings are conspicuous by their absence, and a few lines cover all that the Imperial Railway Guide has to say about sailings in other parts of the world.

NO OXE LOVES IT. The Vossische Zeitung lias a leading article on the want of affection displayed towards Germany by the rest of the world. But the Berlin Radical journal comforts itself with Bismarck's remark: "We have won respect everywhere, but love nowhere." The Vossische questions very much whether any country is loved by any other country .and can quite understand why Germany has not succeeded in attracting the affectionate regard of others. In the first place. Germany is so successful and so rich, so able and efficient that other countries are filled with envy, hatred and malice at the slight. Then there is Germany's immense power by land and sea. which cause-', endless heartburning to her rivals.

As for Brtisli hatred, tlie causes art ton well known to need repetition. Hitherto Kngland lias ]i;id everything lier own way all over tlie world. Slie regarded lierself as tlie mistress of tlie world, and now she is painfully aware that another nation lias begun to question her superiority and her right to the title of arbiter niundi. The Yosslsche Xeitiing asks its readers not to worry at the unpopularity of Germany and the fJernians. Popularity will rome in time. Tt. will come when she has vanquished all her enemies and lias se uri'd an honorable and lasting peace. The nations \\ ill then ask for her friendship. Anil ill the meantime 'We have won re-pect everywhere, but love nowhere. SMITIXt; TIIK I'ItOFICSSITRP. Following the example of the I'erliner Tagcblatt the \'orwaerls says some unpleasant things to the professors whose glowing ]iatrio(ism took such flamboyant shape in repeated manifestos to neutral countries. The Tagcblatt spoke of them as suffering from "intellectual war neurasthenia." Yorwaerts says it would like to employ stronger utterances. tiermany, says the leading Socialist organ. would do better, in the interests of the country, to leave all this nonsense to her enemies.

Speaking of the innumerable "Hymns of Hate - ' and similar lyrics of "Kultur" which are scattered over the entire Press. Vorwaerts contrasts these with the dignified and serious writings of literary and scientific Germans who are at the fjont and have come into actual contract with the realities of war. For their work there can be nothing but respect. They are replete of a profou:r» humanity; they express no hatred; tl e ■ display decision, confidence, earnestne and a strange, gentle longing for pea : they show sympathy for the people, suffering the stress of invasion. The Vorwaerts writer remarks in conclusion that the further the professors and poets arc awav from the line of (ire, the more incendiary is their hate, the more do they belabor the enemv with their deadly pen.

This is the conclusion of this remarkable article: "It must be asserted that the opinions of the German people are not identical with the utterances from our intellectuals which have found their way into foreign countries. The feelingof the people is serious and dignified, far from every arrogance or vainglory, far from this artificial hato

INVULNERABLE COLONIES.

The action taken by England against the German colonics in Africa naturally attracts wide attention in the Press. Professor Jfirbt, of Goettingen, who has had considerable experience in South K Africa, has published a pamphlet in which lie seeks to prove that South ■West Africa and East Africa are for a reasonable time immune from invasion, and that there are no grounds for supposing that the British Government will be able for a long time to come to organise a force sufficiently strong to overpower the German garrison. The railway from Luedcritz Bay to Keetmanshoop has been practically destroyed, and is certainly not available for the passage of troops; and in East Africa the lines from Dar-es-Salaam to Lake Tanganyika, and from Tanga to the Kilima-Xjaro region have also been rendered, useless. That the British, under these circumstances, can penetrate into the interior of either colnnv is for Professor Mirbt an impossibility. Ho can conceive a laboriously organised expedition on a large scale, and got together at an incredible expense, undertaking to annex these protectorates, but he does not think that at present we shall make any attempt to disturb the present possessors. German families on the frontier, says the professor, will be subjected to the hostile attention of the British, but those in the interior need feel no alarm. But what Professor Mirbt does fear is the possible action of the natives. When they get to understand the extreme gravity of the war in Europe they may be induced to revolt.

TEACHING THE AMERICAN'S. ■ It is interesting to watch tlie zeal shown by tlip German Press in ransacking the newspapers of the United States fnr nassacres in which fear is expressed of British "Marinismns." We are treated to copious extracts from the most insignificant journals in the most remote States and territories, proving that it is not German militarism which America lias to fear, Imt British naval supremacy. The Panama Canal and all other American undertakings which make for sea power are supposed to he immediately threatened by England's Navy. "Should England win, she will then, true to her history, line up against United States as. the country threatening most her supremacy on the ocean, against .Tapan, Russia, possibly Cliina, and Mexico, r-.nd, with the thorn in her side of not beine able to control the Panama Canal, will try to put the United States where, in England's opinion, she ought to be."

PENNIES FOR FINDERS. Tlie Prussian AVar "Ministry has published a list of rewards which it promises to pay to those persons who have found on the field or elsewhere raw material which can he used up again. For sorted brass, copper, bronze, aluminium. zinc, and load, also for infantry ammunition, 3d for 211) weight, is promised, for iron and pieces of burst shell y.d for '2lb.

For valuable articles, such as fieldglasses. works of art, cars, machineguns, horses, and cattle, from 5 to 7 per cent, of the the value.

For shells wliicli have not burst <1(1 each will lie paid, but flic finder is recommended not to touch tiieni himself, lint to notify the nearest military officer, who will pend an expert to handle tli em. The finders of old clothes and other articles of miltarv equipment 2d for every 211>. AXTI-SKMITTSM A.N' OFFKXC'E. The military authorities in Jlcrlin have forbidden the publication of the Staatsbnrger Zeitung for the duration of (.lie war. This journal was well known as violently and unscrupulously anti-Semitic, and as advocating drastic measures against the civic freedom of German Jews. It even went so far as to support a revival of the old sumptuary huv of the Middle Aires, and the segregation of Jews in ghettos. The offence for which it has now been suppressed is the publication of an article reflecting on the patriotism of fleriiian Jews, and thereby ignoring the admonition of the authorities to suppress ill! political controversy as long as the war lasts, and to remember tii.'.t there are no longer hostile parties, but only Hermans, united in love for the Fatherland.