The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1917-12-23
German Nerves Weaken;
Troops Grow Suspicious
Remarkable Captured Document Proves the
Anxiety of Autocrats to Check Spread of
: Discomfort Among Soldiers.

In another and often more effective
Manner. e. during informal inter
course, when conversing with the men.
either In rest bIllets or in the trenches.
Starting with the events Of the day
or general topics Of conversation, he
should unobtrusively lead Up TO GER
tain subjects. hear the mems views
aud. while discussing them, impart
suitable Information.
Must he Sure Of Men.
The company commander can Sc
cure assistance in this kind Of work
by selecting men who have proved
Trustworthy and inducing them TO talk
with their comrades in the same strain.
He must, however, be quite sure of
these men; they must be discreet. a.
otherwise they will do more harm than
good. in view Of the well-knovn sus-
picious nature of our troops.
The company commander can easily
gauge his success by careful question
ing Of N. c. O.'s and men, and, II
eecessary take further action on the
same lines"
II Is not hard to guess what are
the "misapprehensions'' and the Ger
tain subjects of which the instruc-
ton so guardedly speaks. But neither
this nor the highly Instructive refer
ence to the "well-known Suspicious "a
ture Of our troops is the most sig
nificant thing in this document II ID
! rather the elaborate care with which
the company commander IL Instructed
to approach his men. This Is an ut
teriy new and strange tone in Prussian
discipline. There "a to be no bullying
and driving. We have q glimpse IN
stead OF German officers meeting to-
gether as secret conspirators to elab-
borate the most tactful and discreet
way Of influencing their men
NuRerous Examples.
There are numerous examples that
could be given Of the suffering OF
German soldiers under the brutal be-
haviour OF their oficers. An Essen
paper last Arpil bitterly complained
that the patience and forbearance Of
troops are tried by the outrageous
manner in which they are addressed
by their officers"
But now in discussing certain sub
Jects" this In to be entirely changed.
onicers are to get into informal IN
tercourse" with their men. Starting
with the events Of the day" they are
to lead unobtrusively up to certain
subjects" they are actually ito hear
the mems views."
II they are to do this II 10 because
something has got into the minds Of
the soldiers, too deeply inbedded to be
reached by bullying. The men are be-
ginning to think-and to distrust- There
Is fear in these cautious instructions.
The Higher Command must be ind
ing in its men something never be-
fore dreamed Of in the iron discipline
of the German army.
So much for the soldiers. What OF
the ctvilians7 How are their nerves
bearing the strain OF the fourth win
ter! Here the evidence is more volu-
minous and more definite. Returning
travellers have not mingled with the
armies a. 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 same extent the food troubles
that are at the bottom Of much of
the discomfort and unrest in Germany.
Many PitIfuI Letters.
Many pitiful letters from mothers
and wives at home to their men at the
front have been captured, complain
ing OF hunger and hunger diseases,
dysentery, typhus and even cholera, in
many parts OF Germany. Some OF
these letters have been published by
the French. SO will not give here
these furnished by the British. for
they all teh the same tale.
In a previous dispatch gave figures
showing the food shortage in Germany.
In dealing with the problem OF nerv-
BUSINESS, ''nervositat" the Germans
call II, the question Of food looms
again to the fore. The meaning of
those figures concerning so many
ounces of bread and potatoes less
than last year. in terms of their e.
feet upon German chances OF victory.
! becomes evident in studying German
nerves.
The waves OF depression and opti-
mism that alternate In Germany no
longer depend, in Germany AZ they
do in other countries. upon military
victories. 1t 10 a striking fact that
| nervousness is conditioned upon the
food supply. not upon successes OF
defeats in the field. The effect OF
the great success in Italy when 800 .oot
prisoners and nearly 5000 cannon
| were captured proved this to the hilt
In England or France. such a victory
would have set the country wild with
Joy. But Germany Is past caring
much about victories. Her nerves dc
not react to such stimuli any longer
In proof of this I will give some
things said by Germans themselves
during the past few weeks. most OF
them since the beginning Of the Ital'
ian successes:
Are FsIathearted.
Gen. Won Stein. minister Of war. n
telegram to the German National
Union. said: IAN excessive anxiety
and faint-heartedness are still troub.
ling many people" Admiral vor
| Scheer, in a telegram to the Marburr
branch OF the Pan-German League
begged the German people not Il
collapse ignominiously on the thresh
old OF victory"
Gen. Won Blume wrote in tn,
Schlesische Zeitung: The people a.
home are becoming faInt-hearted." Tn,
Kreuszeitung had a leader on the ne
cessity Of strong nerves. The semi
official Strassburg Post said that sign
were multiplying that the nerves o.
the German people were enabling tn,
end Of the war to be forecasted will
certainty; and said that an import
ant factor was the perception Of tn,
fact that the submarine campaign hsG
not yet brought England to her knees
| Krupps' paper. the Rheinish-west
falische Zeitung. after praising tn,
1 a folkAl 80 - a.