The Daily News. MONDAY, JUNE 7, 1915. GERMANY'S REVERSION TO TYPE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 308, 7 June 1915, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, JUNE 7, 1915. GERMANY'S REVERSION TO TYPE.

To understand the violent outbreak of insensate hatred which appears to have obsessed all classes in Germany in their 'written and spoken utterances concern.- [ ing England and the English, it is necessary to hark back to the race from which the Teutons liave sprung —a race of barbaric nomads whose only occupations were war and the chase, both productive of blood lust and an insatiable desire for destruction. With that as a starting point it is only needful to follow tlie evolution of the Teutons in order to trace the same traits in their character the primal instincts being gradually veneered as the nation emerged into greatness and made "kultur" a fine art. Still, below the surface of tho skin is the barbarian, receptive of civilising influences only so long as peace exists, but in a time of national warfare, when tlie emotions are stirred to their dentils, tlie inevitable reversion to type occurs. Hence we see to-day a great and proud nation, with a magnificent record of courage, and. devotion, and the highest possible level of research, intelligence and industry giving evidence to a marked extent of the same uncouth, barbaric and childish product that Tacitus found in tlie Teuton two thousand years ago. In terse, graphic phraseology, Dr. Sarolea, the. well-known Belgian publicist, has described the.Germans of to-day as a people who are politically insane, and the country one vast lunatic asylum. This he contends is a medical fact, for it began with vicious pride expressed in the delirium of her own greatness as a people of super-men; 'it was followed by the delirium of persecution against Britain, and then reached the stiige of a delirium of violence in a most horrible form, while the final stage of depression and melancholia, leading to suicidal mania, is not far off. How, otherwise, can we account for Germany's insane acts —some characterised by savage brutality, and others by an amazing absurdity like a child shrieking and stamping in fury of anger? In Ainercia one of the chief newspapers has been discussing the question whether a whole nation can go mad. Dr. ,Sarolea lias answered that question iconclr.sively. Here are some of the evidences on which the statement is based: Tnvs and articles for domestic use in Germany are painted with the legend, •'■' God strike England." Tlie Ger. man newspapers tell of the miners of the North of England cowering in terror before the advent of the Zeppelin, whereas tlie difficulty of the authorities is to prevent the miners and others from rushing into the street to see what a Zeppelin is like. Tlie great newspapers seem determined to keep their readers in illusion, at once grotesque and unbelievable. so England's new armies are •stated to consist of ft few thousand of the unemployed, conscripted by hunger, who will never fight. London is depicted as shivering in darkness, dreading destruction by aircraft; English families as engaged in fashioning dum-dum bullets, and Englishmen generally :l s halfwitted knaves and fools, led to ruin by the Machiavelian diplomacy of Kir Edward Grey, while tlie German caricaturist enters a region of unspeakable bitterness and obscenity. We find the same evil spirit revealed almost every day in fJoveruinent circles, an illustration of which is afforded by the clumsy, sulky and barbaric uncouthness in connection with replies—when they are given -to the enquiries made through lAmerica relative to the treatment of prisoners of war. The communications concerning the sinking of the Falaba and the slaughter of its unarmed pas-

aungers; tlic protest concerning the detention of the Pukiat, the refugee ship from Tsing-tao, are other instances of tlie kind of diplomatic and propagandist futilities into which this great race seems committed when it plunges into war. l r ram highest Minister to humblest peasant there is the same mood observable; it runs through the whole nation. This madness might be accountable if Germany feared destruction, and, like tlie cornered rat, acted with tlie frenzy of despair. Of her inhumanities and gross brutality there is no need to dwell, for they are all too well remembered. A theory lias been advanced that the Germans are ruled from a Prussia which has remained outside the current of European civilisation; that the Prussians are essentially the same as at the dawn of modern history; that though they have acquired much technical knowledge, got rich quickly, and entered the European comity by virtue of their strength and efficiency, yet directly tho testing time came, the super-added veneer of culture vanished, giving place to the purely barbaric virtues of courage and resolution, directed by barbaric intelligence. There is much to be said in favor of such a theory, and though it does not mitigate tlic ill effects of the nation's • reversion to type, it explains the position fairly accurately. Our only consolation is that Dr. Saroloa's forecast of Germany's fin'ale will be verified in the near future—that after turning in impotent rage against civilisation Germany will turn against herself, and tho end will be civil revolution and internecine strife. It "was through the shedding of blood that Germany became a Great Power, and it would only be fitting that by the irony of Fate her decline and fall should be due to the same means. She may then arise, purified and pacific, and enter upon a new career that will redeem her past and glorify lier future.