New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-08-08
English and German "Hate."

Of Teutonic "Kultur," broke a silence
which has been more or less complete since
the Lusitania time, TO inform his Ameri-
can audience that he foresaw an Anglo
German-American alliance as one of the
logical and necessary consequences Of the
present deplorable conflict. AS if TO give
point to this profundity the Germans
executed Captain Fryatt, and there was an
interesting expression of British opinion
thereafter.
Now, oddly enough, there is no reason to
doubt this particular statement of Profess
sor Munsterberg; that is, to doubt that he
believes he is accurately forecasting the
future. No one who has not been in Eng
land in recent months could be expected to
understand what the British actually feel
on the German subject, and as Professor
Mdnsterberg. even if he went to Britain,
would be restricted TO an internment camp,
his field for experiment is necessarily lin
tied.
But Mr.. Mcclure, who has only recently
been in Berlin, and has since sent dispatches
from London. tells us that all things con-
sidered he finds the British hatred Of the
German a far more impressive and fear
some thing than the German hatred Of
Britain. and his belief is that it will prove
more lastingly so. And this is about the
conclusion that must be reached by any
visitor to England who takes the trouble
To look about him.
As a Halter the Briton is totally unlike
the German. He is incapable of produc-
ing HYMN of hate, such as delighted Ger
man hearts in the early days of the war.
He doesn't hate as a race or as a group, he
doesn't hate to order, and he is very slow
in hestowing his hate upon any one out
side his own immediate vision. Above all
he is hopeessly inarticulate, and his pro-
fessors have failed to supply him with any
inspiration.
Thus when the war began the Briton
had only the most confused notion about
"Fritz." as he then named his foe. He
certainly did not hate Fritz, and taken
in the mass he was a good deal puzzled
about the whole affair. He had no emo
lions about 'place in the sum-" he was
not highly impressed with the ideal of a
British "Kultur" to be imposed on the out
side world Being at war he went some
what blindly and slowly toward the job
in hand; his opinions, so far as ne had
opinions, were wholly tentative.
AS for the British soldier, he went to
war in a frankly sporting spirit. There is
something enduringly pathetic about the
fashion in which that slender expedition
airy force sailed away TO stop the ava
lanche, the "Tommies" singing "Tippe-
rary" and promising TO be back by Christ
mas.
Even when the first British troops had
been wellnigh exterminated, when the re-
ports of German atrocities, murders, burn
ings and unspeakable abuse of women and
children were general, the average Eng
lishman held his peace. He did not believe
what he heard, and his characteristic ex-
PLANTATION was "such things are not done
anv more" He did not easily come to
hatred.
But there came a time when all through
ENGLAND the truth had TO be accepted. Toe
many Englishmen had seen with their OWL
ewes. had beheld the actual German fact at
first hand TO admit Of further doubt. If
YOU should settle on the date of the Ger
man gas attack, the first one at Ipres, you
would not be far from the date when the
Englishman actually made up his mind
about the German, and about that time
TOO. the Englishman-taking him by the
million-went TO war.
After that there came the deluge. The
execution of Miss Cavell, the sinking of the
Lusitania, the Zeppelin raids, these ac-
centuated, but did not greatly accentuate
the feeling. The British soldier had made
ND his mind on full and sufficient evidence
that the German soldier did not fight
"clean." Some hundreds of thousands of
these soldiers, each TO his own class and
circle, recounted by letter or while on
leave, what he knew about the Hun for
there was no more talk of Fritz" The
odd thing is that little later, when the
Rriton met the Turk, he bestowed his COM
plete admiration upon the Osmanl. After
Gallipoli England was simply filled with
praise of the Turk by the troops ne mao
defeated; the Turk as contrasted with "the
Hun" fought clean.
Slowly, amazingly slowly, this process
of education went forward in England, this
education in hate. 1t was not matter of
governmental activity, it was not fed by
PROFESSIONAL eloquence, it did not come
from the classes TO the masses or from the
educated TO the ignorant. 1t marched
straight through the nation, and it was at
all times traceable TO individual decision
it grew out of the experience of the mass
of Englishpss, either direct experience at
the front, or through authentic chronicle