Notes

New Zealand Tablet, 11 March 1915, Page 34

Notes

Held Over Owing to extreme pressure on our space, a quantity of late correspondence is unavoidably held over. Some Hindenburg Stories On the German side. Von Hindenburg is, beyond doubt, the greatest general developed by the war. They are beginning to tell stories about him, which is generally the sign that a man is achieving some sort of greatness. Here is one: He was to have a new general as second in command, and was told to select whatever man he wanted. ‘l’ll take Joffre,’ he is said to have replied, thus indicating his high appreciation of the French commander’s ability. Hindenburg is described as the sort of commander that goes to bed with a checker board and dreams strategy all night. They tell of him that during the manoeuvres in Posen, two years ago, he violated precedent and beat the forces commanded by the Kaiser. Then he wrote the Kaiser a letter, telling him that if he had been opposed to Russians in that particular campaign, the German Army would have been annihilated. Not long ago a German cabinet officer wanted to interview him, but Hindenburg was too busy to wait, and asked him to come along in his military automobile. ' They soon came into the zone of fire, and when a bullet struck the side of the car, the cabinet officer wanted to get out, but Hindenburg told him he was too busy to stop. After the cabinet officer got back to Berlin, he suggested that his daring exploit entitled him to the Iron Cross, and they wrote Hindenburg for his approval. He replied; ‘ I do not recommend the Iron Cross for a man who is courageous under compulsion.’ The Press and the Pastoral Most of our dailies have quoted extensively, and with eulogistic comments, from the great Pastoral of Cardinal Mercier, published in our last week’s issue; and at least one city —the Dominion — found . apace to publish the deliverance in full. Our judgment upon the documentthat it was the most moving and inspiring utterance yet published on the subject of the war —has been fully endorsed by the secular press. Under the heading * A Wonderful Pastoral Letter,’ a'Wellington Evening Post editorial begins: ThePastoral Letter which was issued by Cardinal Mercier from his palace at Malines is one of the moist moving documents that we ever read. The full text occupies

' . - * ' • ' * ’ , , " ' •** • b no less than eleven columns of the London Tablet , but , nobody who once begins to read it will find it a line too I long. i Nor will anybody who has read it wonder that the German authorities imprisoned the writer and did . their best to suppress his letter. The only wonder is that, with his beloved country in the grip of the most ruthless of invaders, the Cardinal should have had the courage to publish such an exposure of their misdeeds, such an appeal to their victims for patience and courage and hope, such a confident assurance that a mightier power than any earthly potentate would rout the, armies of the Kaiser, heal the wounds of stricken Belgium, and restore her to peace, freedom, and prosperity.’ * In concluding its eulogy of the Pastoral, the Post makes a suggestion which we heartily endorse, and which is well worth the attention of the various committees organised for the purpose of raising funds for the distressed Belgians. Patriotism', and endurance,’ says our contemporary, 1 are the keynotes of the Cardinal’s discourse, and magnificently docs he work out both themes. . . What the Cardinal means by the need of a lesson in patriotism is “ that there were Belgians, and many such, who wasted their time and their talents in futile quarrels of class with class, of race with race, of passion with personal passion.”- Yet when the call came on 2nd August, and ‘‘a mighty foreign Power, confident in its own strength and defiant of the faith of treaties, dared to threaten us in. our independence, then did all Belgians, without difference of party or of condition or of origin, rise up as one man, close-ranged about their own King and their own Government, and cried to the invader, ‘ Thou shaft not go through ” The ailment of little Belgium was also the ailment of the great British Empire, and let us be thankful that we have learnt our lesson in patriotism at a much lower price, and that it is largely through her heroism that our own efforts are likely to succeed. But whatever the outcome of the war, Belgium has provided the world with an object-lesson in patriotism which must last as long as human history. We can say nothing better for Cardinal Mercier’s Pastoral than that the very spirit of Belgium seems to breathe from its pages. The trustees of the various Belgian funds, or of any other patriotic movement, could hardly do our benevolence or our patriotism better service than by printing Cardinal Mercier’s letter and scattering it far and wide.’