GERMANY FROM WITHIN.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 April 1918, Page 7

GERMANY FROM WITHIN.

NEWSPAPER ADMISSIONS OF, DEMORALISATION. Amsterdam Jan. 30. The Leipziger Neueste Nachriehten, in a leading article entitled "The Nation's Soul in Distress," frankly admits the demoralisation of the Gei;man nation since the war, and quotes a Hamburg authority as openly declaring that the position of the honorable merchant no longer exists, because in the present circumstances there can be no sucli tbing The newspaper adds that the nation was formerly as proud of ita officials as of its merchants, because their integrity appeared incomparable. Formerly "we had only a satisfied smile at Russian conditions, and the worst Balkan experiences caused us silent mirth, because we thought of our faithful ineorruplibles at home. Has this humour not meanwhile somewhat diminished?" The journal remarks that Dr. Mehring was able to speak of the Post Office as being a den of thieves "without immediate!; - encountering universal and indignant contradiction." "The insecurity of the postal and railway traffic to-day is really quite unprecedented," it continues. "No parcel and no luggage is protected from disappearance or robbery, and the railway*, authorities repudiate all obligation iio replace stolen property. The confidence,' firm as a rock, which we formerly felt in our Imperial Postal Service, that 'nothing is ever lost in the post,' has given place to an entirely different view."