DRAGGED INTO WAR BY LYING.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 July 1915, Page 7

DRAGGED INTO WAR BY LYING.

REMARKABLE ADMISSION" OF GERIMAN SOLDIER. The lying tactics of tlie Kaiser and his military lords to induce their countrymen to enter the war—much, in thousands of instances, against their will —are beginning to have a boomcrangev

fVct. One may fool a nation some of the time, but it cannot bo fooled all the time, as the mad militarists of the Fatherland will yet learn to their bitter cost. Some indication of the way in which many peace-loving Germans were led into the war on false pretences is to he gleaned from a letter which was found on the body of a young Teuton soldier as he lay dead on the battlefield "somewhere in France." The finder was Private Richard Daly, of the Army Service Corps, who forwarded a. copy of it to his mother, residing at 07, Wliitevale street, Denuistowii, Glasgow. Tna German soldier's letter is as follows: —

"My dear mother, —For three months we have been in battle. Heavens! what has it all been about—the greatness of the Fatherland, the glory of the Kaiser, or some -motive of that kind! Tf so. it is a small thing after, all. and neither Germany nor our respceted Kaiser had need of all this bloodshed. I cannot tell you. my dearly beloved mother, what pictures of hell pass unceasingly before my eye*. "T seem to be living in a red dream and many flames. Of what use to me will .have been my years of study and my hopes of making you happy in your old age die miserably for a, mysterious cause. Thousands of ns—some good and faithful comrades of mine wlio, like me, asked only to be allowed to live and enjoy work—T have seen fall in the bail of lead or perish of cold and sometimes hunger. "It is no longer possible for us to win this war we have been dragged into by lying. The Allied countries were better prepared for winning, and every day lessens our strength. I cannot send you this letter by the ordinam- way, for it tells the truth. I should be punished if it were read by our chiefs. It will be sent to you. I hope, by him who will pick me. .up dean" on the soil ot France, which I would I had never set foot on. "My last thoughts will be for you. Good-bye till eternity, my sweet darling i mother. —Otto Kvengstcin."