CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 246, 26 March 1915, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

THE GERMAN SPIRIT. An American writer, who claims to know Germany well and whose sympathies are thoroughly British, deals with the question, "Can Germany Win?" He does not believe she can, but he considers that danger lies in under-esti-mating the German spirit. He says:— "Do not, therefore, for your own sakes, misunderstand or mistake the spirit of tiie German people at tliis time, Germany is not an unwilling nation being flogged to war. She has sot out with the spirit of the conqueror, and sin; is confident that she will win. And she will pursue this object unflinchingly with ruthlcssncss and cruelty, and with methods of scientifically-prepared and logical-ly-cultivated barbarism, of which there is already ample evidence. That she will win in the long run, even by these means, I do not believe. But the struggle will be longer and more bitter than you think. The great factor, which in England is strangely overlooked—most ignorantly and negligently under-rated, is the present spirit of the German people. To me it is amazing that a race, commonly so well informed as the English, should be so hopelessly without knowledge on this most essential point. J lus may be a harsh thing to say, but it my manner is blunt, my intent is friendly. The English will have to Jearn the tmth on this point sooner or later, and they may learn it more unpleasantly than from a few strait words of mine. The spirit of the. German people is a mighty force which must be faced.'