LIFE IN BERLIN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 255, 7 April 1915, Page 5

LIFE IN BERLIN.

A NEUTRAL VISITOR'S IM-

PRESSIONS.

GERMANY WILL -T!K IWATEN.

The London Times Ims received the following article from a we,ll-kno\f>l South American writer, who has justieturned from ft visit to 'Berlin. It was written for th" South American Pr-ss, in which it will also appear, but ha-* a general interest as the "latest impression of iili'airs in the German capital and the views of a competent and neutral obwvi r 011 the outcome of the war.

Life in Berlin is not very agreeable, chiefly on account of the absence of news and the great difficulty which exists of communicating with the rest of the world. The foreign elemcjit has almost disappeared from Berlin hotels. '11.3 traffic of motor-en rs in the streets hn« diminished, and the aristocratic Unter den Linden is little frequented; the avenues of the Tiergarten arc simila\y *

abandoned. At everv turn one runs against people in mourning or else «.■!• diers who are wounded, isolated or in groups of eight or ten accompanied by Red Cross nurses, who take them 'v walks in the, parks, etc. People in the city meanwhile frequent the cafes, theatres, etc., more or less as usual, bat the dancing saloons have been closed, dancing being prohibited. Anything French is taboo, and really Berlin deprived of the "chic Parisien" and tie "English correct cut" is not an enchant--ing spectacle. Nowadays the .foreiflr.er in Berlin hardly experiences a sense of absolute security; to talk a, foreign tongue is to attract immediate attention.

GERMANY BEING BLED TO DEATH.

But if superficially life in Berlin goes on as usual 011 c should not look only as far as this to judge of the effect of t'i<> war on Berlin; to do so would be to judge of ft corpse by its apparent tranquility without taking into account tile decomposition taking place below the Surface. In the origin and source of all her power, Germany is being slowly bled to dentil! Banking transactions with the outside world are paralysed, and it is only on talking with business men that one can realise what Germany is losi'i.t', or judge of the enormous labor which the British Navy lias accomplished lor the benefit of the Allied cause. , Garmany is beginning to run short of.many rinicli-needed articles, among them copper, rubber, nitrate, etc., for which high prices are offered; all motor tyres, for example, are now commandeered for Government use.

BRITISH HATED, BUT FEARED. 411 this explains the great and e/ergrowing hatred for perfidious Albion, which lias reached sueh a pitch that the hatred against France tends t(/ diminish and one now hears occasionally friendly allusions to a time in the not far distant future when France will form ft . quadruple alliance with Germany, Austria, and Turkey. Nevertheless, the hatred for things English does not extend •as far as the pound sterling, sovereigns being in much demand at -Marks ''l.S.'i, with a rising tendency. But with all the hatred there is uo one in Germany that doubts the incomparable and even heroic valor with which the French and English have fought, ■u;d the "contemptible little English Army" has been converted into a black nightmare to torment the dreams of the Kaiser and his Btaff. Every returned soldier, be he officer or man, brings with v him unbounded admiration for the elau of the French and the coolness and iron resistance of the British.

A German officer confessed to me that to capture a' French or English trencli " was most difficult. The construction of these trenches is such that they offer practically no mark for the great German guns; often, said this officer, "we > would reach the first line of trenches only to find the enemy had retired to a ■ second line, from . which he poured a w withering fire upon our men, who oflV.vrt a splendid tar/ret; if England at the start; of hostilities had been able to put a million men in the field we should before this have been fighting on. Ger-" man soil."

INVASION' 01" ENGLAND. One sees little by little the wane of their belief in the infallibility of their army. To-day nil their fury is directed across the North ,Sea, towards the country they are sure of Invading. I have listened to many plans for this invasion l , but none worthy of serious mnctition. No, unless the waters of Mf Channtl behave like those of the Red Sea, England is as safe from German menaces as she is from the dog (hat bays at the moon. It's a long way to Tippcrary, but longer still to London!

It is not from one of the papers wliHi translate the publications of the Gorman War Bulletin, nor from the newspapers themselves} that one can gl<;:in the true march of war. The Berlin public is deprived of all news of German defeats, except such as it is impossible to hide, but the greater pari of the adversities—the failures and the horrible sufferings of the soldiers—are kept from the public.

THE END OF IvAISERDOM. During my stay in Germany I had many opportunities of Seeing soldiers cn the march, and to note the difference between them and the Allied troops; thn German soldier lacks the ardent spirifc which inflames the 'English or French troops, who go to war cheerfully in defence of all they hold most dear; but in the German soldier is the frigid and calculating soul of the Germanic raee, and it pushes this mass of men towards something which they have been taught to believe since infancy as a biological necessity, fatal and inevitable. Soon, no doubt, they will have occasion to convince themselves of the error of thrnr unhealthy doctrines. I return convinced that in spite of all her efforts, great though these be beyond all ponderation; Germany will be beaten, and if the war goes to a finish the military power of Kaiserdom will be buried for the remainder of the century.