Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1917-12-24

begun to set in. But the symptoms
are beginning to show themselves.
The following is an extract from
private diary belonging TO n Prussian
soldier, captured on the battlefield:
The first battalion Is to supply a
draft of SO men. TO conduct them to
Saarlouis station. three hundred men
are detailed. some with rifles to es-
cort the draft others to act as
pickets."
From hundreds of letterI anl
diaries, found on the tens OF thou
sands Of Germans taken prisoner
during this year by the British ana
French, the allied Intelligence de-
pnrtments have learned Of the dis
content, disbursement and disillus-
ion which has fallen on the German
army in the west. They know rrom
the orders of Marshal Hindenburg
what anxiety the higher command
has felt about tho moral of its men.
An example is this order. captured
after the French victory at Nerdun
last winter
"The operations at Nerdur in Oc-
| tober and December are serious and
| regrettabic reVerses Officers are to
| be under continual supervision ana
| inspection, and incapable ones are
to be ruthlessly removed. The num-
| Der Of prisoners, some nf whom cvi-
! dcntly surrendered without Offering
serious resistance and without SUI
! fering heavy losses, shows that the
! morale of some of the troops en-
gagged was low"
But there has been found this win
! ter an instruction TO company COM
mdnders for improving the moral OF
/ the mon which is more interesting
| and important even than the orders
of Hindenburg. For II is evidence,
| 10th I'm what it SAYS, and still more in
the tone i'm which lt says II, OF gone
thing more than temporary and To-
! cal softness and 1iscouragoment in
the ranks following upon defeat. I.
is evidence rather of a political dis
affection, uneasiness and suspicion
spreading thru the army I'm the iIcld,
and the civilians at home+it is
headed Improvement Of Feeling in
the Army and at Home" something
so serious that II requires treatment
altogether novel TO the German army
tradition. Its vague and guardei i
language. in contrast to the blunt dl-
rectness of the army orders OF Hin
denburg, is highly significant.
Discomfort at lIomC.
So much for the soldiers. What OF
the civilians? How are their nerves
bearing the strain " the fourth win
ter? Here tho evidence is moro
voluminous and more definite. Re-
turning travellers have not mingled
with the armies as with the civilians
the armies have no newspapers in
which their grievances leak out, the
armies are regularly fed and do not
know to the samI extent the food
troubles that are at tho bottom of
much of the discomfort and unrest in
Germany.
Many pitiful letters from mothers
and wives at home to their men at the
front have been captured, complain
ing of hunger and hunger disea SOS.
dysentary. typhus and even cholera,
in many parts Of Germany. Some OF
these letters have been published by
the French. so I will not give here
these furnished by The British. for
they all tell the same tale.
The waves Of depression and on
timism that alternate in Germany no
longer depend In Germany as they
do In other countries upon military
Victories 1t Is n striking fact that
nervousness is conditioned upon tho
food supply, not upon successes or
defeats In the field. The effect OF
the great success in Italy when 900, =
600 prisoners and nearly three thou
sand cannon were captured prove 1
this to the hilt. In England or