GERMANY OF TO-DAY.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 December 1919, Page 3

GERMANY OF TO-DAY.

NO SIGNS OF DESPONDENCY. GAMBLING AND DANCING. The Germans have at least learned (or perhaps it is part of their nature) to be patient under adversity and to bear hard knocks with serenity, writes a correspondent from Berlin. At the present, moment they are compelled to remain in their homes because all railway travelling is suspended, and for the same reason their mails and telegrams will be delayed for an unknown number of days; they are faced with the possibility of a general strike and a prospect of risings in favor of Bolshevism; gas, electricity, and warmth are scarce and costly, and they have received a severe reprimand from the Entente with a threat of condign punishment for delinquencies. There are, however, no signs of despondency. The theatres, cinemas and expensive restaurants are filled daily to their utmost capacity; dancing is indulged in vigorously; gambling clubs are in the heyday of their prosperity, and thieving and burglary yield handsome profits. The people are beginning to feel that things cannot he much worse than they arefand that if the Allies intend to ruin Germany utterly the Germans themselves can offer no resistance. Even the disastrous effects of the unusually early frosts do not disturb the prevailing equanimity. Reports that immense quantities of potatoes and other roots are frozen in the ground are hardly heeded, and it is noteworthy that, although about 100,000 persons in Berlin are in receipt of out-of-work pay, no one offers to shovel the snow from the public streets. One result of this is that there is a difficulty in using even light carts, for the few horses available are so weak, owing to the poverty and insufficiency of the fodder, that they simply stand still,

In one sense the German workmen show somti spirit. They are setting themselves against Bolshevism. The Bolshevik danger is not so acute as it was, but it becomes critical with the approach of the anniversary of the outbreak of the Russian revolution. It is realised that Bolshevism in Russia is on the defensive, but also it is fully realised that the Russian Bolsheviks hold their own well, and it is considered possible that Lenin and, Trotsky may keep their feet until Germany, too, is ripe for Bolshevism, for the prospect held out by the Moscow emissary, Karl Radek, that the Russian Red battalions will one day fight with the Germans on the Rhine is not forgotten. If, on the other hand, Germany can get through this winter without collapsing it is generally believed that the Bolshevik regime in Russia will disappear.