January' 
191S 
LAND & WATER 
15 
Leaves from a German Note Book 
IT would seem that the struggle in Germany between the 
militarists and the people is nearing the crisis. The 
howling of the Patriotic Party increases with their growing 
dread of p>opular discontent, and the masses have given 
immistakable signs of their dislike of the military' Patriots. 
In Berlin, in Frankfurt, in Mannheim, in Jena, meetings of the 
Patriotic Party were broken up in disorder during the last ten 
days or so. " Ladies and gentlemen, The GeiTnan Patriotic 
I'artj' . . . " — so, the Chairman began at Frankfurt, 
but he got no further. The audience, which numbered over 
three thousand, shouted, " Down with the Patriotic Party : 
We want peace." That meeting was not held, and on the 
following day the G.O.C. in Frankfiul issued a notice in the 
tone of a schoolmaster chiding naughty pupils. Trusting 
in the political maturity of the populace, tlie authorities had 
allowed public meetings to be held even during the war. 
Never before had that privilege been abused. The pro- 
ceedings on the previous day must have been exceptional. 
" But if I am mistaken, I .sliall be forced in the interests of 
public order to remove all possibility of a repetition of yester- 
day's scenes by prohibiting all public meetings." 
It becomes clearer every day that the military Patriots have 
the support of people in high places. ' The Imperial Chan- 
cellor has informed the German piiblic through the press 
that he is so overwhelmed with work that he has no time to 
receive deputations of bodies which favour and demand a 
j)eace by understanding. Yet, it has been pointed out, he 
found time to confer with the head of the Patriotic Party not 
once but twice, and the Party was able to assure its members 
that in the event of a peace with Russia, the interests of 
Germany would be safeguarded. 
But the Imperial Chancellor does not stand alone. The 
Patriotic Party has the support of royal war-mongers and 
annexationists. The King of Saxony, replying to a telegram 
of the Patriots in Plauen, stated that he was convinced the; 
majority of the German people desired a peace that would bring 
them security, that he was certain the Kaiser, " supported by 
the unbroken strength pf our armies," would give his consent 
only to such a peace.: 
The Crown Prince has assured a Patriotic Working-men's 
Society that they need have no anxiety lest the peace that 
would come should deprive them of their livelihood and force 
them to emigrate. The peace would provide happy conditions 
for the German labouring classes and would allow of their 
dc\eIoping their powers on German soil. The King of Bavaria 
is of the same opinion. " We have fought like lions and 
have been e\-erywhere victorious. . . . We must go on 
fighting until our enemies come and beg for peace. . . . 
Not a foot of German soil shall be given up and everj'where 
we shall improve our frontiers."' 
King Tudwig of Bavaria uttered the new cry of the mili- 
tarists. " Frontier securities " is the watchword, and the 
German people are beginning to realise that it is but a 
euphemism for forcible annexations. Even the Frankfurter 
Zeitiing is alarmed. It writes : 
A Government which can only exist by the permission of the 
high military authorities and can be removed when their 
views take another direction, is only a caricature and a mockery 
in the eyes of its own people and of foreigners. The dangers 
which threaten us are innumerable. To reverse the policy of 
peace by agreement, in which our AHies are in accor<l, would 
endanger the wonderful unity of iM Central Powers whicli 
lias been di.splayed against the foe. One is horrified to 
think that at the moment when \we appear to be nearing 
a victorious end, the ship may again be thrown amongst the 
breakers, and we may be exposed to perils for which a few 
coal-mines or a few .square miles of foreign territory would he 
hopelessly inadequate compensation. 
Rifts in the Lute 
In view of the statement of the Frankfurt journal it is of 
interest to observe the trend of feeling in Vienna and Buda- 
pest. The press in the Austrian capital is restive, fearing 
that if Kiihlmann were to be flung from oflice, he would be 
succeeded by an even fiercer reactionary. The Fremden- 
hlalt, which is the semi-official organ of the Vienna Foreign 
Office, wrote bluntly that Kiihlmann had " the full and un- 
restricted confidence of the Austro-Hungarian Government 
and pieople." The German papers were furious. The com- 
ment (of Count Reventlow's journal may be regarded as 
typical ! " The German nation has only one answer for the 
men behind the. Fremdenhlatl — namely, " Hands off — no 
matter to whom the hands belong." ' 
And what of the people in Au.stria-Hungary. In Vienna 
the working classes are calling aloud for peace by under- 
standing. In Budapest the I'niterl Suffragist Societies 
organised a peace meeting, but the police forbade it on 
the ground that " the Brest-Litovsk proceedings might 
be adversely affected in consequence." But the meeting 
was held after all under another name. The principal 
speaker made it quite plain that peace was uppermost 
in their minds. " If we had something to say at the 
peace deliberations . . . we should not allow certain 
people to talk about frontier rectifications. . . . No 
strategic precautions can secure permanent ])eace. For per- 
manent peace there is onlv one security — tlie reconciliation 
of peoples." 
German Pretentiousness 
The Patriots rage on, and a quasi-scientific journal like 
the Year Bonk for the Theory and Practice of Transport prints 
an article pleading passionately for the defeat of England : 
We must defeat P^ngland in order to remove a weight from 
the whole world. 
We must defeat England in order to be relieved of the great 
anxiety as to how after the war we shall obtain our fond and 
raw materials. 
The hate which is preached against Germany, even by mer- 
chants, will disappear sooner than is imagined., 
If we arrive at a temporary peace by understanding with 
l%ngland, she would make out that she'had been victorioiis. 
Let us not forget one thing — that even after the war England 
will have a powerful army. 
It must be part of our victory over England to nip in the bud 
the growth of her military strength. 
Terrible as is the prospect for England, there is worse to come. 
A writer in the Kolnische Zeitung has discovered yet another ^ 
war aim. Annexations and indemnities ought not to satisfy 
Germany ; she must insist on the restoration of her reputa- 
tion and her honour in the world ! The greatest crime of the 
Allies has been to sully the fair fame of Germany. So success- 
ful has their campaign been that the Germans are detested 
all over the world. And the German people are too kind- 
hearted to realise this great fact, despite the efforts of their 
newspapers to instruct them. It thus becomes one of the 
first and most serious demands of the German leaders at any 
peace negotiations that the Cierman reputation in the world 
shall be restored to its pristine purity ! 
It is somewhat puzzling that the Kolnische Zeitung shmdd 
lend itself to the publication of screeds of this kind. Either 
the writer is a finished hypocrite or he is an ass of the first 
order. The world will only laugh at him, and students of 
national psychology will find in his proposal yet another 
proof that the Germans possess no sense of humour. At any 
rate, they are beginning to realise the result of their conduct 
during the war. Perhaps before long they will wake up to its 
causes. Certainly they are groping about for the reason why 
they cut such a poor figure in the worid. \ writer in the 
Vossische Zeitung lays down eighteen propositions to account 
for the fact- that the German is disliked. Herr Knatz, the 
writer in question, has discovered that 
The respect enjoyed by any nation in the world does not 
depend on its power or greatness, but on its unpretentiously 
being what it is, with its excellencies, its failings and its faults, 
all of which it acknowledges as a matter of course. 
Herr Knatz instances the Dutch and' their dignified bearing 
throughout the vicissitudes of their history, and the English 
who take for granted their virtues and their vices, who are 
what they are. The Germans, on the other hand, have 
always pretended to be what they are not : 
The <rennans wanted to be, men of the world, although they 
might have been much more. They spoke out threateningly 
when they ought to have expressed their will quietly. They 
flattered instead of cidti\'atmg friendship. They gave the 
impression of being humbly .satisfied when instead they ought 
to nave been rude. They have been unjust when they .shoidd 
have been just, and more than just where they loiild liave 
been unjust with a good conscience. They hurt other people's 
feelings by well-meaning zeal where dignified submission 
would have been gratefully accepted. In fine, the German 
people believed that they must appear different from what 
they really were. 
Tf this Ix; a true diagnosis of the German character, it is easy 
to understand the Kaiser's assurance to the Polish delegation, 
which came to pay him their respects, that throughout the 
whole of his reign, a period of nearly thirty years, he had been 
" a pioneer and protector of the principles that made for 
human welfare and the peaceful co-operation of peoples ! " 
.Xiul yet it stands on record that when war broke out the 
AUdeutsche Bldller, the organ of the Pan-Germans, wrote 
" The lioiu we hmged for has now arrived. It is holy ! " 
