lO 
Land & Water 
February 2 1 , 1 9 1 8 
Leaves from a German Note-book 
THE strikes in Germany could not have taken the 
Government by surprise. As early as January 26 
the Imperial Secretary of the Intenor notified the 
Main Committee of the Reichstag that a handbill 
had been circulated calling on the workers to ccme 
out on strike. About the same time an appeal was handed 
to all men and non-commissioned officers released from the 
army to work in munition factories, and the tone shows per- 
fectly well that the suppression of Ebert's speech was anything 
but an accident. The officiil homily runs : 
To you who are released or discharged to enter the munitions 
industry an urgent warning is given always to bear in mind 
that by ceaseless labour you can contribute to the speedy 
and victorious ending of the war. The more arms you deliver 
for our troops the better will they be equipped with all that 
they require, the greater will the enemy losses be, the more 
useless his efiorts, and the sooner will he be incKned for peace. 
Any cessation of work, any strike, on the other hand, prolongs 
the war, for it weakens our defence and gives the enemy new 
confidence. Every strike means a diminution in the output 
of weajxyns of defence, and must therefore be paid for in 
German blood. He who strikes now is sacrificing the blood 
of his comrades to his own selfish aims ; he is increasing our 
casualty lists, increasing the number of dead, widows and 
orphans, depriving so many families of their bread-winner, 
and increasing the misery of war. The munition-worker who 
refuses arms to our defenders at a time when from all sides 
enemies are endeavouring to carry spoliation and devastation 
into our country commits not only a crime but also an in- 
credible folly. 
The ultimate cause of the world-war was the success of the 
lal)our of the German workman. " Made in Germany " has 
conquered the world and more and more driven English goods 
into the background. This is the real reason why England 
years before the war began the policy of encircling Germany and 
inciting the whole world against us. Anyone who stops work 
and thus endangers our victory is furthering the English 
object of destroying the German workman. Therefore avoid 
those who wish to incite you to strike. They are doing the 
enemy's work. They are to be con.siderea enemy agents. 
Peace will not be brought nearer by strikes, but defeat and 
overthrow. Always remember that England only won over 
her labouring classes for the war by saying to them " You will 
be richer by the wages which will be taken from the German 
.workman." 
Endure privations, such as scarcity of food, coals, etc., in 
the consciousness that if you hold out a favourable peace is 
certain, which will secure your economic future and that of 
our whole people. But if we were to collapse now in face of 
certain victory, in future we should have to suffer not only 
privations but famine, for our enemies would force upon us a 
peace which would mean a future full of unemployment, 
misery, and despair. Therefore, comrades, work and endure ; 
this IS what honour and common-sense impose upon you, 
for it is the only safe way to a quick and successful peace. 
Authority and the StriTcers 
.\11 this goes to show that the authorities in Germany were 
fully aware of the gathering storm, and when Cabinet Ministers 
lent their support to the legend that English agents had stirred 
up the strikes, they must have been guilty of deliberate 
falsehood. The only evi"aence that was forthcoming was a 
cock-and-bull story published by the Hamburger Nachrichten 
which all through the war has made a special feature of printing 
lying libels about England in particular and the Allies in 
general. This newspaper alleged that in a certain street in 
Hamburg a well-dressed gentleman was seen dropping out of 
his overcoat pocket handbills which were of so violent a • 
character that he must have been an enemy agent. He was 
not caught, however. That is all the evidence, and one cannot 
help wondering upon whom the paper desired to impose 
this fairy tale. 
The German workers were certainly not moved by the 
story, for they came out on strike in practically every industrial 
centre in Germany. The strike was most extensive in Berlin 
but reports from Munich, Breslau, Duisburg, Cassel, Halle 
and Leipzig show that in all these towns the strikers were not 
merely a few irresponsible youths. Their numbers ran 'into 
many thousands and their demands were specific enough. 
As in Austria, so in Germany, the men asked for peace, food 
and democratic institutions. , ■ ' ' 
But the authorities were adamant. The G.O.C. in the Berlin 
district, General von "Kessel, who is an old man accustomed to 
the traditions of 1870 and out of all sympathy with modern 
movements, began by abolishing the ordinary courts and 
replacmg them, under a law of 1851, by extraordinary military 
tribunals ; and then he put seven of the largest munition 
works in Berlin under military control. He made it quite 
clear that he would not shrink from machine guns in order 
to crush the uprising. An . uncompromising attitude was 
also adopted by the Imperial Chancellor. This strike incident 
shows conclusively that the Militarists are firmly in the 
saddle, and Count Hertling cannot call his soul his own. 
Austria and Germany 
That was made abundantly clear by the contrast between 
Hertling's and Czemin's speeches. Czernin was mercilessly 
abused by the Junker Press, which seems to grow more 
impertinent daily. These papers asked Austria who it 
was won her victories for her .' Who protected Lemberg and 
Przemysl ? Who froze in the Carpathians to safeguard the 
integrity of Hungary ? Wlio cleared the Rumanians out of 
Transylvania ? Who withstood the onslaught of the Italians 
on Trieste ? The German army did all these things ; and is 
Austria-Hungary now to be ungrateful ? Will the Dual 
Monarchy carve out a path for itself ? These questions 
must have rankled in Austria and Hungary. 
In view of these somewhat strained relations it is not 
surprising that the Austrian Press puts the blame for the 
strikes on the Junkers and annexationists. And is there not 
justice in their plea ? The ruling party in Germany — the 
crowned heads from the Kaiser downwards, the Ministers, 
the officials, the army — all belong to that reactionary clique. 
At the Conference of the Conservative Party held recently 
at Halle General von Liebert won the applause of the gather ng 
he was addressing when he laid it down that 
for us the watchword must be " might before right." We 
must not listen to sentimentality or humanity. We must 
be inconsiderate. We must retain Belgium and the North 
of France. That is the curse of God which has fallen on the 
French nation. Let us rejoice that we have nothing to do 
with such a criminal people. 
Even their religion is tinged with the gospel of might. 
On a recent Sunday, a clergyman. Dr. Dibelius by name, 
gave a lecture in one of the Berlin churches on " We German 
Christians and the German peace." The reverend gentleman 
explained the meaning of brotherly love in these words : 
Brotherly love in the first place implies love for our own 
suffering people. It is therefore a Christian duty not to reject 
indemnities and annexations for our own people. . . . What 
is the best security ? Germany's power. The demand for 
a German peace based on strength has an ethical justification, 
it is only the recognition of success. Not Letts and Esthonians 
shall determine the fate of the Baltic lands, but the Germans 
only, to whom those lands owe ever)rthing. 
Prussian Brutality 
Brute force alone appeals to these people, and they are 
not ashamed of practising what they preach. A striking 
illustration of the depths to which Prussian Junkerdom can 
sink is furnished by the records of a trial held before a local 
court in Mecklenburg. This federal state is, even in Germany, 
admitted to be the most baclrward country in the world ; 
and if the case in question is typical, it is surely sufficient to 
make decent people shudder. Herr Wilhelm von Oertzen 
is the squire of Raggow, near Neubukow, and he was the 
defendant in the case, the plaintiff being one of his farm 
labourers. 
One day, recently, this labourer was found by the squire's 
principal beater cutting off ears of corn and placing them in a 
bag. The culprit admitted that he intended to grind the com 
for use as a substitute for coffee. For this heinous offence 
the labourer was brought before Herr von Oertzen, who 
declared that he would whip him. The squire accompanied 
the labourer into the park, ordered him to strip, had his arms 
tied to a tree by means of a leather strap, and he himself 
let fly at the poor wretch with a riding whip. As the per- 
secuted labourer attempted in his pain to loosen himself from 
the tree the Prussian Junker tied yet another strap round his 
body and continued the flogging. When the wretched man 
cried out the Junker threatened to stop his mouth if he were 
not quiet. Directly after the flogging the man was sent off 
to work, though his body was covered with blood. The 
Public Prosecutor demanded a punishment of three months' 
imprisonment for von Oertzen, but the Court considered one 
month a sufficient penalty. 
It is remarkable that people should put up with treat- 
ment such as this ; still more remarkable that lords of the 
manor in a so-called civilised country should have the face 
to treat their labourers in this fashion ; and most remarkable 
of all that a court of justice in the twentieth century should 
take so light a view of so heartless a proceeding. So much 
for the Ktdtur and the justice of Germany. It is reminiscent 
of the social state of France in the eighteenth century. 
