GERMAN WOMEN.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 January 1917, Page 6

GERMAN WOMEN.

| THEIR BITTER WAR SPIRIT. According to Mr. Thomas Curtin, the American journalist, who, in the columns of The Times, has been giving the world the impressions of Germany he gained during len months' recent residence ihere, tin? venom of the German women in regard to the war is quite in contrast with the feeling expressed by English ladies. German women have read a great deal about English and American women, and they cordially detest them. Their point of view, says Air. Curtin. is very difficult to explain. When I have void German women that in many States in my country women have votes, their reply is, "How vulgar!" Their attitude towards the whole question of women's franchise is that it is a form of American lack of culture and lack of authority. The freedom accorded to English aiul American girls is misunderstood. It is regarded as a form of laxity of morals. Sfany of the older-fashioned German folk forbid their daughters playing lawn tennis because they regard i t as indecent.

A Dutch girl who, in the presence of some German ladies, expressed admiration for certain aspects of English feminine life, was fiercely and venomously attacked by that never-failing weapon, the German woman's tongue. The poor thing, who mildly expressed the view that hockey was a good game for girls, and the fine complexions and elegant walk of English women were due to outdoor sports, was reduced almost to tears. The intolerance of German women is almost impossible to express. I know a case of one young girl, a GermanAmerican, whose parents returned to Hamburg, who declined to repeat the ridiculous German formula. "Gott strafe England,'' and stuck to her point, with the result that she was not invited to that circle again.

There is a notion in England that tlie ''Gott strafe England" crv has ceased in Germany. I found 110 sign of its lessening, and to it has been added ''Gott strafe Ainerika," the latter being even more popular with the German women than the German men. The pastors, professors, and the press hare told the German women that their husbands and sons and lovers are, being killed by American shells. A man wlio ought to know better, like Prince Rupert of Bavaria, made a public statement. that half of the Allies' ammunition is American. At one not far distant moment the feeling against America 011 tlir, part of German women became so intense that the American flag had to be withdrawn from the American hospital at Munich, although that, hospital, supported by German-Anu'Vi-can funds, has <lone wonderful work for the German wounded.

ARGUMEXTS ARK FUTILE. Arguments with Herman women about the war are absolutely futile. The Allies have just scored successes on the Western front and on the Carso. The (levman women, who. after their own method, follow the war vorv eloselv. will blindly believe that these defeats are iac-tical rearrangements of positions, dictated by the wisdom of the (jlener.il Staff, and so long as.no Allied troops are upon German soil, so long will the German populace believe in the invincibility of its army. I am speaking always of the , middle and upper classes, who are. on the whole, but with increasing exceptions, as intensely pro-war as the lower classes are anti-war. The neglect and, in some cases, refusal to attend the English wounded by German nurses are a sign both of their own intensity of feeling in regard to tlie the war and their entirely different mentality. Again and again I have heard German women sav, "In the event of a successful German invasion of England, the women will accompany the men, and teach the women of England that war is war.' Their remarks in regard -to tiie women of my own coun'rv are equally offensive. Indeed, States that Germany fcgards as neutral, and who are treated bv the officially controlled German press with a certain amount of respect, are loathed by German women. Their attitude is that all who arc not on their side are their enemies. American women, who are making shells for the British. French, and Russians, arc just as much the enemies of Germany as tlie .Allied soldiers and sailors. One argument often used is that to be strictly neutral Amercia should make no munilions at all, but it would not be so bad, say the Germans, if half the American ammunition went to Germany anil half to tlie Allies.

I lost my temper once by saying to one elderly, red-faced I'r.iu. ''Since you have beuti'n tlie Kmili-li at don't you f'fiul ymrr ships to fetch it!" "Onr licet." she said. "is too bu-y choking the English licet in its safe hiding-places to allord time to go to America. You will see enough of our fleet one day. young man.''

Summing up this brief and very sketchy analysis of German i'eminitv in the war, I reiterate views expressed on previous visits to Germany, that German women are not standing the anxiety of the war as well as iho.se of Frame and England. They have done noble work for tlie Fatherland, but the grumblings of the lover third of the population are now inch as have not been heard since 184 S. German oflieials in the Press department of the Foreign Ollice try and explain the unrest away to neutral correspondents like myself, but many thinking Germans are surprised and troubled by ibis unexpected manifestation on tlie part of those who for gcenrations have been almost as docile and easily managed a- children.