The New York Times Current History of the European War, Vol 1, Issue 4, January 23, 1915Various
History
The New York Times Current History of the European War, Vol 1, Issue 4, January 23, 1915
Various
World War, 1914-1918
"Why, in the last analysis, is the whole world against Germany? Because
of her insufferable insolence. It is an insolence which has been fairly
bred in the bone of every German soldier. I can give you a little
concrete instance. My daughter-in-law had been serving in one of the
Paris hospitals ever since the war broke out. She was finally placed on
a committee which was to meet the trainloads of wounded soldiers when
they first arrived.
"In one of the cars one day there was a wounded officer, a German. He
spoke no French, and a young French Lieutenant, very courteous, was
trying to make him understand something. My daughter, too, had no
success. Finally a young German, a common soldier who was in the same
car, said to this German officer: 'I am an Alsatian; I can interpret for
you.'
"'How dare you!' And the German officer turned to him in perfect fury.
'How do you, a common soldier, dare to speak to me, an officer!' And
with that he struck the Alsatian full in the face with what little
strength he had left.
"Now there is an example of the attitude to which the German military
has been trained.
"On another occasion, when a French officer, after one of the battles,
came courteously to the commanding German officer of the division and
said, 'Sir, you are my prisoner,' the German spat in his face. That is
all very dramatic and you may say that he showed much spirit, but you
could hardly call it a sporting spirit, surely not a civilized spirit.
"It is this domineering spirit that the whole world is resenting.
Nothing that Germany can do through her well-organized press agents can
conceal that insolence which has been a continuous policy for many
years. American opinion is almost unanimous in its opposition to Germany
for this one reason.
"Sir Gilbert Parker recently sent me a whole bundle of papers asking me
to judge England's case fairly and ask my friends in America to do the
same. I wrote back and asked him: 'Why do you waste stamps sending
evidence to America? America has the evidence, and if there has been any
anti-English feeling in America, von Bernstorff and Dernburg long since
demolished it.'
"The world has never witnessed anything so far-reaching as this policy
of insolence. Men who in daily life are cultured and fine, whose ideals
are high and noble, who have achieved names for themselves in
literature, art, and science--we all have many friends among them--have
become unconsciously tinctured with this policy. They are intelligent
men, but, by the gods, when they get on this subject of Germany's place
in the sun, they become paranoiacs! This idea of their pre-eminence has
become a disease with Germany. Germany is actually sick with it, and the
medicine that will cure her will be pretty bitter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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