10 
Land & Water 
February 14, 191 8 
Leaves from a German Note Book 
THE Prussian Minister of Finance and his colleague 
at the War Office have recently expressed views 
which sufficiently illustrate the prevailing opinion 
in Government circles in Germany. The 
Minister of Finance, Herr Hergt, is one of the 
new men introduced into the Prussian Cabinet to make the 
world think that Prussia was democratising herself. 
The speech of Herr Hergt in introducing the Prussian 
Budget for 1918 showed that the men may be new, but the 
system remains unchanged. He began on an optimistic 
note, and on an optimistic note he ended — with what justi- 
fication will be seen. He told the House that the total deficits 
on the working of the three years of war amounted to nearly 
thirteen million pounds sterling. Prussia in the past had had a 
^ large reserve fund. That fund was now exhausted. Before the 
war the railways in Prussia had invariably provided the 
Exchequer with a few millions annually ; in 1917 there was 
an enormous deficit on the railway accounts, and for 1918 it 
was expected that the deficit would be some eight millions 
sterling. All this was bad. But Prussia was also faced with 
a shortage of fodder, which was becoming serious. One 
effect of the war had been to loosen morality among the 
people to a frightful extent ; honesty was a rare quality — 
so this Minister of State informed the " High House " — 
and many public departments had become dens of thieves. 
Germany's Victories 
But what was there on the other side ? Germany's great 
victories, which in the mind of Herr Hergt apparently covered 
a multitude of sins and deficiencies. There was, moreover, 
the peace prospect with Russia. " Peace is on the march, 
and will remain on the march." The Germans need not fear 
America. " The great army over the water cannot swim and 
cannot fly. It will not come." That was one prophecy 
in which the Minister indulged. The longer the Western 
Powers refused to make peace, the better for Germany. 
" Proud Albion, which boasted that she was the merchant 
and the banker of the whole worid, sees her ships, her money, 
and her prestige irredeemably lost." When the enemy does 
come and beg for peace, Germany's terms will be very different 
from what they are now. The war will not unduly have hurt 
Prussia, which will continue to be what she has been— the seat 
of productive effort and the centre of sound finance. " Thus 
we shall surmount all our difficulties." 
The Leipziger Volkszeitung, which is not a Prussian but a 
Saxon journal, makes bold to assert that the tone of this 
speech showed neither political sagacity nor financial ability 
As It was, the Prussian Minister admitted the growing deficits. 
But everybody knows, writes the Socialist journal that the 
Prussian, like the Imperial, budgets are wholly fictitious. 
Dr. Mehnng, one of the newest members of the Prussian 
Diet, and an Independent Socialist, warned the Minister that 
the people were tired of having events placed before them 
through rose-coloured spectacles ; that their patience was 
b^inning to be exhausted, and if need be, they would " dear 
the decks for action." Dr. Mehring, it should be noted, is 
no demagogu^, but one of the most respected thinkers in 
Germany. The same tone was adopted by another Indepen- 
dent Socialist Deputy, Herr Hofer, who appears to be closely 
m touch with German working-class opinion : 
Labour is enraged at the mismanagement of affairs. You 
(addressing the parties of the Right) have no idea how the 
masses are seethmg with discontent. It is you who are 
paving the road for a revolution. ^ 
'^L^T'a^'^T^a ^o^^^f ' appears to be unmoved by the 
of War r™!"^""!*"^ conquest. The Prussian Minister 
^nS.^f^K u"""" ^*^'"' '" ^" interview with the repre- 
StVon in f h". w"^^'" P^P"' ^''i^^- ^*^t^^ «'^t Germany's 
Kh^I I^^\ ^^^ '" 8°°^^ *at all eventualities, 
mdudmg even the Americans, were provided for. Peace ' 
Yes, he too wanted peace But " as a soldier I see only one 
possibility of ending the war, which is victory " ^ 
.. ^I^^ people were talking of peace by renunciation. But 
renunciation is a sign of weakness, a recognition of defeat " 
Other people suggested peace by understanding What is 
™th"t of'Tl'hV'^" conceive ^of some such frrai^emen 
as that of two bdligerents united to fight a third • if for 
example, the Contmental Powers joined forces against England 
and America. But of that there is no sign^ Indeed the 
fiSn^'Thor^'r °' T^e-^-ding- w'e must therefor^ 
f,r -fK ^^^^ ^^^ ^''^^'■* ^^^t military victory is impossible 
for either side are wrong. Militaiy victory has alreadv 
been achieved— bv Germanv nnH \... aii;„. . ^ "^ already 
We and our Allies hold Belgium, the coast, and valuable 
provinces of France ; we hold, too, Serbia, Montenegro, parts 
of Roumania and Italy. The moment- our enemies realise 
that they cannot drive us out, they admit their defeat. But I 
can think of final victory in another way — I mean on the 
battlefield. I am not at liberty to state the details. But I 
am bound to say that, in the midst of the present circum- 
stances, the will to final victory and the certainty that it will 
be ours should not be lost sight of among us and among our 
allies. This will and this certainty shall give us all the power 
to hold out until victory is ours. 
It is obvious from this what the German military leaders think, 
and what is the attitude of the Prussian Government, which is 
the most influential in the German Confederation. 
The Patriotic Party 
The Patriotic Party, it need hardly be added, fully shares 
the views expressed by General von Stein, and in a handbill 
of the Hamburg branch, which has received wide publicity 
in Germany, an anonymous Hamburg merchant sets forth 
the results of a peace by renunciation. If Germany were 
to agree to renounce her victories that would mean that she 
would be dominated economically by England. " That 
England has in the main achieved her war aims cannot be 
denied, and our splendid military position in Europe will not 
alter the fact." What is the real situation ? Gerrpany's 
position in the world was founded on her commerce, which was 
carried by her shipping over all the oceans to all the five 
continents of the globe. England's aim was to destroy 
Germany's world position, and she has succeeded : 
Our shipping and world trade are so thoroughly. ruined that 
we shall literally have to start again at the very beginning, 
and even decades of hard work will scarcely suffice to make 
good what has been destroyed in these three years. 
The Hamburg merchant's disappointment is easy to under- 
stand. Hamburg, once the proudest trading centre in 
Germany, now lies desolate, and her merchant princes, who 
hoped to get rich quickly out of a war which, as many people 
hold, they were among the foremost to provoke, have been 
deeply disappointed of their easy prey. 
The anonymous author goes on to say that it will be im- 
possible for German commerce after the war to take up the 
old threads, seeing that many of them have been completely 
destroyed. " The German trader who, when peace has been 
signed, goes out into the world will find ruins almost every- 
where, and when he sets about to raise them he will come up 
against a solid wall of enmity which will prevent him from so 
doing." The writer then recalls the resolutions of the Paris 
Economic Conference, and asks, who can believe that England 
will ever agree to cease from her economic warfare ? 
If our enemies succeed in permanently throttling our overseas 
trade so that we are limited to Central Europe, our industry 
will decline and the whole of our economic life dry up. Our 
workers would, owing to the lack of opportunities for labour, 
be forced to emigrate. The German Empire would sink into 
a second-rate Power. 
What is to rescue Germany from this awful fate? Only 
one thing— she must force England to agree to a German 
peace. " Only the defeat of England, with the assistance of 
the U-boats, will be able to ward off this evil from us." What 
follows ? That every German must hold out until the " in- 
comparable " submarines have done their work. 
been achieved— by Germany and her Allies ; 
Belgian Art 
• ^^^1 ^^"^^"^ authorities in Belgium, moved by their interest 
m Belgium s art treasures, have appointed a spedal com- 
mittee of experts and representatives of the Government to 
make an inventory of all the Belgian works of art they can 
collect, and to have some six to eight thousand photographs 
taken so that the valuable treasures may bec6me available 
to all and sundry. 
The communication lays stress on two facts. In the first 
place, the Belgian Government was too incapable or too 
Kile to undertake this necessary work, which has been left for 
German thoroughness and German scholarship to accomplish. 
In the second place, the Kaiser himsdf is so interested in the 
project that he has made a grant out of his privy purse of 
£1.750. This sum, together with £1,000 provided by Hen- 
Louis Laiblen, a wealthy Wiirtemberg merchant and art 
lover, will make it possible to begin work at once. German 
science thus proves— so the obviously inspired commtmique 
insists— that even in war time it is ready to undertake a work 
of peace, and by its care for the Belgian art treasures it 
frf 1 *^ *° *^^*^ foolish accusation levelled against Germans 
that they are capable of destroying works of art. 
