The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-09-08
GERMAN BRIDES
CORRUPT SWISS.
OFFICIAL HEADS
Baneful Record of Hoffman
Regime Has Caused Min
iSterS' Fall.

Regime Has GauSeu Will
isterS' Fall.
copyright, 1917, by the international
News Bureau)
written by Adolph Kinast)
Berne, Switzerland-No one unjust
Judge Switzerland by the attitude OF
the Gerrnan-Swiss press during the
internal crisis through which she has
,1ust passed, and indeed is still pass
ing. Before the war there were three
Switzerlands - German Switzerland,
French Switzerland and Italian Swift
zerland. Since the war, however, the
Emergencies between these three have
been immensely more marked than
before and as 1t proceeds they be-
come generally speaking more mark
ed still. German Switzerland, as
whole, supports Germany and Aus
tria, occasionally positively crawling
to them. French Switzerland and
Italian Switzerland agree in opposing
the alarming growth of German IN
fluence in their country, and in, de-
testing all things German. This diff
ference which, for a time, was I'M
doubtedly less manifest and which
some Swiss fondly hoped had been
smoothed away, has now, with the
resignation of Federal Councillor
Hoffman,, virtually Foreign Secre-
tary, caught red handed plotting for
Germany. widened almost into rift,
not to say a breach between the two
parts of the country. ~German-speak-
ing ana French and italian speaking.
Undoubtedly also the Emergencies of
feeling and opinion have become far
more accumulated than need have
been the case had the German-Swtss
been less violently pro-German, less
slavighly under German influence;
and above all had they not been 80
lamentably under German mental
domination.
Almost everything the German
Swiss read, in fact, Is more or less,
and more rather than less, colored by
German ideas and mentality. in some
cases SO much SO as to have lost all
senblance not merely to impartiality
but even to accuracy. For instance.
in Berne there are four leading pa
pers, each one with German or nat
uraIized German in an important po-
sition on the staff, while the publish
er of one paper is a German not even
naturalized. If a large number of
German-Swiss, particularly the less
educated classes cordially dislike the
Germans, they do so not from any
broad considerations Of Germany'a
menace to their land but from COM
paratively petty reasons, such as the
frequent overbearing manners of Ger
mans and the way in which they conf
pete with Swiss apd are favored by
the many hotel-keepers, shopowners,
and other tradespeop1e in Switzerland
at the expense of Swiss subjects
AS for the upper classes in German
Switzerland, the so-called patricians
and others, their often extreme pro-
Germanisrn is largely the result of
their having so many investments. in
Germany. Not only are there an as
tonishing number OF Germans, natur-
alized and non-naturalized, in Ger
man-Swiss editorial offices, but. these
paper Swiss" as they are called, have
penetrahed even into the most impor-
tant government departments and
even into the General Staff. Ex-
President Hoffman,, who, as I have
said, has just been obliged to resign
fronw hat was virtually the position
of Minister Of Foreign Affairs (nead
of the Political Department. was the
son OF one Of these paper SWISS
while another Federal Councillor still
X IN office is also the son Of natural
lied German. Consequently when
Herr Hoffman, wrote, in his letter
OF resignation, that he had "endeat-
ored solely to promote peace and con-
sequently to act in the interest of my
own Fatherland," he wrote truly, fol
as member. of the Swiss Parliamen,
said. his real Fatherland was Ger
many. ~
Herr Hoffman, SO dominated the
other six Federal Councillors (corres.
ponding to Ministers) that his period
of office was known as the "Hoff,
mann system" or the Hoffman re.
gine.' He 1t was unquestionably
who prevented Switzerland from
making any protest against the VIC.
lation of Belgian neutrality. 1t wal
notorious that he seldom or never
consulted mis- colleagues or the heads
OF divisions under him 1t was his
influence which saved the two Ger.
man spies, members Of the Swiss Gen.
eral Staff, Colonel Egli and Colone
Wattenwyl, from anything approach.
ing the punishment and exposure
which they deserved, and in the in.
terests of the country, ought to have
had. 1t was again this Swiss, witt
his veins full of German blood. who
found the former British Minister ir
Berne, Sir Evelyn Grant-Duff. 6
stumbling block In the way of his
German intrigues, and plotted agains-
him necessarily, hoping that il hi
wore recalled he might be succeeded
by some less discerning minister. Art
when another Minister did come here
Herr Hoffman, found that, as the
"Munchener Neuiste Nachrichten,
said, he was worse than the first.
Nothing could show more plainl,
how powerful German influence still
is In German Switzerland and on ths
Gerran-Swiss press than the fac
that even such papers as the .Neus
Zuercher Zeitung'' and the Basic,
Npehriehaen slaouid have attempte6