SWITZERLAND AND THE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 March 1916, Page 7

SWITZERLAND AND THE WAR.

AX INTERESTING LETTER. This very interesting letter is from a \ Swiss la,dy who married a New Zealand gentleman out here. He is dead and she is back in Switzerland. Writing to one. of the family (who has permitted the News to make these extracts), she gives some intimate glimpses of the war as seen by a Swiss-New Ztalauder:— We have all been so deeply aft'ecUd by the cruel iiiuu'.ei' ifor it is nothing less) of the lieroie Miss Cavell. Such a good, brave woman! But such and Bimiiar acts are only filling up the measure of Germany's misdeeds. Their day ot retribution is coming upon them, and those who follow events carefully can see many signs, that the people of Germany are beginning to realise it, too. A German soldier in Belgium was heard to say lately—he belenged to the Landsturm men—"The first of us who came ir.to Belgium were murderers, the second lot thieves, and now we are co»e and are heartily ashamed." There are many German refugees in Lugano, people who were in business and other employment in Italy, and had to leave at the outbreak «f war with Italy.There is a family of five living in this house quite at the top, who havehardly enough to eat and seem in very reduced circumstances. One poor German who came to Lugano witli an Italian wife and two little children took his own life because he had n» more means to keep himself and faaiily. Also, food is getting very dear in Germany, and the working classes seem to be in great distress. My old Basel neighbor up in Massagno had her sister from Basel t» visit her, and she told us that Basel was full of German deserters, who crossed the Rhine in shirt and trousers only so that they might escape. Many 0 f these Germans were married ta Swiss wives and had small businesses in or near Basel. Of course they may never go across the frontiers again; they wsuld be shot. This lady told «f one man especially who in peace tiwes had been a prosperous baker in' a small town near Basel, Ahlerheim, where we have several times been per tram; it is such a, pretty place. On the outbreak of war lie had to join the army, leaving his wife and children, The wife carried on the bakery. This man has lately escaped and crossed the Rhine almost naked and now tolls of the horror* lie has gone through. He was in the fights against the Russians, where the Germans advanced, and took one fortified place after another. He tells how the officers try to encourage the men to advanco and to force them, saying that if they wit! only make one more effort and take this place, the Russians will be conquered, and they will have peace. He tells of having to advance and charge over mountains of their own dead comrades, of the bad food. He was in seven battles, then was wounded and sent back to his base, which is a little town of Lorrach. iust across the Rhine from Basel. • In. peace times the Basel tram's ran to the place all day every ten minutes; now, of course, not. When this poor man recovered from his wound and . was able to move about seeing his home so near, he risked everything to try to escape and join big family. He managed to evade the guards and is safe in sanctuary now. Switzerland is the sanctuary, and pray God it may remain so for all the different persons of many nationalities who have sought and found a safe resting place. Two weeks ago my nephew Paul came all the way from Berne to spend a Sunday with me. He is on active service for the next three months, and 'has a military pass for the railway, so he thought he would like to see me and cross the Gotthard and see Lugano. It v.as a pleasure. He left Berne on Saturday evening and arrived for breakfast Sunday morning. He had to leave again in the evening to be in Berne for ■his work 011 Monday. Xot being.very •strong, lie'is employed in the military offices, instead of in the field, like his brother Carl, who has the severe service of guarding the frontier in the Yura mountains, where it is bitterly cold now. Paul (old me that in the restaurant where he has dinner they have a Bavarian waitress. S/e had paid a visit to her home in Bavaria during the summer holidays., and she told Paul ((iiitc openly that the people, tlie Bavarian working and country folk, just hate the Kaiser. It is only the rich who still keep with him. There are many signs that things in Germany are not at all as their newspapers would make believe. To prevent • the . wholesale desertion across the Rhine, the Guards have erected :i "ft high barbed-wire fence charged with an electric wire, to keep their own men in, all along the frontier where it is possible to get across.