EUROPE AFTER THE STORM.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 January 1920, Page 6

EUROPE AFTER THE STORM.

THE BRITISH ON THE RHINE.

(By Philip G'ibbs.)

It is easy now for a man with a British passport to get to Cologne. There is 110 trouble about it whatever, beyond buying a railway ticket from Brussels, and going, through the formalities of the Customs at the frontier station at Herbesthal, where German officials look into one's bags with casual eyes and scribble a, mark with white chalk, and say politely "Bitte scon/' which we should translate "Thank vou kindly." The last time I came this way it was not so easy. I went most of the way with British cavalry and field guns', •halting at appointed places for the rest of the Army to come up; and before then the way to the Rhine was more than a four years' journey, in which nearly a million of our men fell dead by the wayside, and among Frenchmen, who made the Rhine their goal, a million and a half. I shall never forget my first sight of the Rhine last year, nor the moment when, with a few others, I walked half way across the Hohenzollern Bridge, where on one side of a chalk line stood an English trooper, and on the other side a German sentry. It was the journey's end, and all one's soul was overwhelmed by the memories of what that way had meant in human strife, and by the thought of the crash of empire and dynasties and philosophies which had happened because among other things that English trooper stood on the bridge across the Rhine. Even now, coming back again, one is astounded by the presence of so many British troops in Cologne; by the way they have settled down into this German mode of life, and by a thousand different signs of our occupation and tiuthftrity in this city of the Rhine. At home one thinks only dimly of the Army of Occupation. It does not seem very real or important in the scheme of ideas that has followed the signin o " of Peace. One forgets the armed force that is behind the Treaty. Here one sees it again, visible and strong—battalions of British soldiers swinging along with their old steel hats strapped to their heavy packs, just as in the old days of though without the mud of Flanders or the Somrne; great guns along the Rhine bank; a Royal Naval flotilla on the river; military police, mounted and unmounted, controlling the traffic of streets, en. foicing British discipline upon German people, according to the orders and proclamation issued by Sir Charles Fergusson, t lie Military Governor (now succeeded by General Clive) as posted 011 the walls. In England when one sees 1 it again it strikes one with a sense of surprise, as an old dream materialised into reality. It is nine months since I left the Army of the Rhine. Then we were astonished at the docility of the German people, at their apparent friendliness; and it was a strange experience to sit in cafes and restaurants surrounded by [men in civilian clothes (or military uni- ■ forms from which shoulder-straps and j buttons had been taken O JT), who a few months before, or even a few weeks, had been fighting against us. They were polite, and lifted their hats when one spoke to them to ask one's way, and many answered in English, and said, ''lt. is good the war is finished." Strange! Before those few weeks or few months we should have killed them or they would have killed us, if we had met face to face. Xow one did not want to kill them, and they did not want to kill us—and that was the hardest thing to understand.

In the railway train on the way to Cologne, this time I asked a .young'man , " r ~ ? "Suti and. then inquired, for the sake-trr anrrefS&tor, Whether he were Belgian or French. It was" difficult to know, beeause the train was cosniopolitan in its company. He answered: "I am German," and afterwards told me that he had fought in Flanders, at Ypres and elsewhere. '

'•Do you think there will ever be. another war between us?" I asked in bad German, and in bad English lie said, A ever, I think. The ■German people are healed of war fever.

'lt was the capitalists who made the war. In Rhineland we like the English. There is no,more hate, on our side"

It was on a Sunday night that I came into Cologne, and although rain was falling the lighted streets were all wet and shiny with golden puddles, they were crowded with German people, and [English soldiers, intermingling; and, walking amongst them, I could see that there was no hostility on the part of the Germans for these boys of ours who pushed their way among them. Xo scowl followed them. There were friendly greetings with "Tommies" who j had been billeted, perhaps, at these .people s houses.

All the restaurants and cafes were thronged with German folk, our soldiers spending an evening in Cologne, from outlying villages, and here and there some French and Belgian officers Music came loudly through ail the awing doors.

Along the Hohe Strasse there .seemed an endless line of these musical cafes on each side of the. "Germania" and the 'Bauer Cafe," which are the largest of I them all On the steps of one such place, called a "Kunstler Koneert," a young English gunner smoked a cigarette and breathed fresh air. "The heat upstairs," he said "is enough to knock you down. But otherwise it's very 'chic,' as we used to say in France. Good wine, good music, and sehr gemuthlich.'" So the British soldier had learned a bit of German. A good bit, as I found, whep listening to a sergeant-major and a lance-corporal in the Germania between bursts of music from a big orchestra.

It was the lance-corporal who was the better linguist, and he. bandied words with the waiter, whom lie called old "funf und zwanzig," and with some Herman friends at the same table with him.

| 'lou seem to have picked up a bit, 5 ' II remarked, and he grinned, and said: You can t help it when it's going on round you all day. 'Guten inorgen? says the alte mutter, bringing me a cup of tea in bed. 'Schlafen sic wohl,' says the madehen when she gives me my candle at night. Oh, they are very friendly folk, and as tame as lambs. Fed up with the war, they say. It was the capitalists who made it', that's their point of view. No more war for them, as far as (lie Ehineland goes. Can't speak for Berlin, of course. The men say peace should have been made in 'l(i. and blame old William and his gait" We have a good time in Cologne, but all the same I'd give all its pleasures in be back 011 dear old dirty Tvneside." I spoke to the young lady next, to him. an intelligent girl, of the respectable middle class, and she gave me the ponnlar point, of view of the Herman people in Cologne. I fancy what she

ing, for other people with whom I have ■spoken say much the same. "We are glad to hatfe the English' here," she said. '"They are quiet and good. They do not keep hatred against us like the French and Belgians, because England was not ruined like France and Belgium. That is natural, is it not? Here in Cologne we feel that the Army of Occupation saves us from the bad people who would make revolution, and rob the shops, and perhaps kill the good people. Now the Khinelanders want a republic of their own. That may come. It would he a good thing, for we do not like Prussia- It was Prussia that was wicked. Our men will never go to war again for Prussia. I speak as a girl, but that is what people say." It is very much what people with more authority say now in Cologne, from what I hear, and I was interested to hear such words from a girl of the people in a cafe where British soldiers were surrounded by Germans who, every mail of them, was a soldier in the great war.

A young friend of mine, new to this scene, sat watching the cosmopolitar crowd, these Germans whom he saw foi the first time, this politeness betweei thoSe who had been enemies. "It is astounding!" he said. "I he it isn't real." "It is real," I said, " and it is' humar nature. "'The Germans, whatever their faults are a practical people. They arc male, ing the best of a bad business, and tin English Tommy is the best luck that has come to them. They will learn a lot from him. He is the finest propaganda we can have." There is no doubt to me that Tommj Atkins kills enmity. His "utter gooc nature, his humane kindliness, given c "fair deal," his lack of venom aftei a straight fight, is a real chivalry whicl must win over the most hostile adver sary, and in the Rhineland, owing tc history, and difference of race from those others in Prussia, there is no essential hostility among the masses, ant they find it easy to accept the temporary rule of our British occupation which sits lightly on them. It is an easy rule, though stem enougli to those who would revolt or. stii up strife. On the walls there is a placard announcing that two Germans have been sentenced to imprisonment—two years and five years—for endeavoring to incite British troops to mutiny and sedition, and the populace is warned that all such cases will be sternly dealt with, Strikes are not allowed in our zone of occupation. They are regarded a? against discipline and public order, and in one district where a strike was threatened the leaders were deported aiul the workers placed under martial Uy.-, until tkeyfdecided to work again. But there is a velvet glove 011 the iron hand of the Jlilitaiy Governor-, and I see, beyond any doubt, a change in the aspect of the people since I was here last. Then the children in the poorer quarters were waxen-faced, hollow-eyed, ill with more than semi-starvation. Babies were dying for lack of milk. Girls were fainting for Jack of meat. That prriod has passed. We brought them milk ancl food, and now that the system of transport is normal again the people of the Rhine are better able to feed themselves. Factories are getting to work, though lack of coal is a serious problem which may lead to grave trouble this winterThere is Free Trade, by which all the Manufactures and produce of the Rhiuelan 1 may now pass, with the exception of a. few restricted article™, like dyes, into (ho interior of Germany, or across the frontiers. The downfall of the mark, which is now 2Ad. is alarming to German traders abroad, but in the country itself there seems sufficient paper money to meet the enormously high prices, and the middle-classes at least do not seem to have become, poverty-stricken. That is my first impression, which I must confirm by going deeper into such questions; but apart from, economic facts, I, am sure that these people are happier, better in health and spirit, 'than when I saw them last, and that, after nearly a year under, military rnle by the British Army of the itlnne, they arc no longer haunted by fear, or so much weakened by ill-nourishment, or deprived of the pleasures of life. Whatever the hurt to their pride—and Ido not think it is great—the British Army has brought back life and gaiety to Cologne, and the people have made friends with their conquerors as far as they may. For the British officer and soldier in Cologne there are plenty of amusements to prevent- their early death by boredom. To-night tihe Rhine Army Theatrical Company is playing "Damaged Goods," to lie followed by "Man and Superman." The German theatres, mnsic-lialls and cinemas are in full swing, with the exception of the opera, which has gone on strike.

From every 'Vein stnwe" and "cafe koniert," in the High-street and the side-streets—there must, be hundreds in the city—music blared forth as played bv high-class orchestras or lo\v-cl'as« machine, and according to his taste and purse the British soldier on the Rhine was enjoying the strainers over lager beer or white wine, as I saw by glimpses through the swing doors on my way Jiome.

My German home is not luxurious. I was billeted thprc by an organisation which controls all hotels aiid lodgings, and the young German, ignoring my demand for a good bedroom and a bath, and taking stock of me as a low-down character, marked me down for the slum quarter.

The taxi-driver charged mo twelve mark? to net tliere by way of the Rheingnasse, which is Poverty-avenue, and late at mailt, after a stroll round the city, I had a difficulty in getting back through dark purlieus. On the wav I outflanked, a group of our men and. women fighting vigorously and screaming hideously, but the noise they made was nothing compared with the shrieks which came out of a. dark entry near ray own lodgings. P>et\veen the shrieks there was the sound of blows hut the tumult quietened when a German ]iolicpman pushed open the door and went in.

J found my lodging clean and respectable, with a glass window to the bedroom of my fellow-traveller, so that all the inmates may behold his slumber, and a thin partition to mine, through which comes the noise of Herman snores.

The sky over the housetops is illuminated by a white light passing with a regular return, and silvering-the spires of the cathedral. Tt is the searchlight of the Royal Navv Rhine Flotilla playing over the eily of Cologne, which sleeps safely, with British police in its streets. British sentries on its bridges, and British troops ready to rally to any bugle call.