The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1918-08-29
TRYING To CHEER
GERMANS At HOME
High Officials Make Desperate
Efforts to Paint Situation
in Rosy Colors."
PEOPLE ARE sKEPTICAL
Conflicting Statements From
Men Who Know the Truth
Fail to Encourage Spirit
of Resistance.

London, Aug est was announced
recently that there was to be an or
ganixed official effort to cheer Ger
many up, The effort appears to be
IN fsKil ewing.
Quite apart from the familiar fic-
tons of the German official commu-
niques-which do not appear TO Se
received with anything like respect
full crofulence in Germany-oeter-
mined efforts are being made by high
officials to persuade the Germans that
they are really a conQuerlng race ano
that they are winning the war rather
faster than any war has ever been
won before.
The German minister for WIT, Gem
erai Won Stein, led of the chorus in
an interview which he granted TO the
German Journalists AT this inter-
view the editor-iri- chief of the Rer-
liner Morgan Post WAS present TO ask
appropriate questions and Won Stein
made suitable famboyant replies. Tho
importance which official Germany at :
tached to this performance can be
judged from the fact that long ex-
tracts from the interview were sent
by telegram to all neutral countries
which Germany can reach and that
the German wireless service sent out
report
Following upon the interview Of
ficers OF the Germany army have been
sent around on lectaring tours and
are now making speeches in the towns
OF Germany explaining the splendid
situation at the front to people who
are not in the least inclined to be-
lieve them, and endeavoring to answ er
some of the awkward questions which
even the Germans cannot refrain from
asking in these days.
In the course of his interview Won
Stein complained about the wrong
ideas spread abroad by people who
were SO far from the war that they
could not possibly know anything
about it. He said;
I'VE soldiers remain. when n diff
ficuit situation arises, much calner
and more confident than those who are
at distance away. and especially
when we are in the midst of it,
Continuing, Won Stein said:
From a distance the picture of the
situation at the front appears much
worse and those people at a distance
recount serious talk of what is tax
ing place when there is an almost i'm
perceptibie break on the whole front,
They are the originators Of the silly
luiiutS WHICH are 10 De Hcafu every
where"
This statement is particularly inter
esting in view of the army order, sign
ed by Ludendorff. which was issued a
little while ago, in which he instruct
ed soldiers returning on leave to paint
the conditions at the front in rosy
colors and complained that some OF
them had so far forgotten themselves
as to give the people at home the i'm
| preston that the Germans were not
exactly marching from victory to vic
tory. 1t appears that there are two
official views in Germany. One de-
clares that the men at the front are
| too close to the war to know any
! thing about it and the other informs
the people at home that they are sc
far away that they cannot have any
but distorted views OF it.
! General Won Stein said:
| ''Our recent operations have not
brought us the success which we hoped
| for from them. We have had re-
verses. We have suffered slap
| That admission was followed by an
other remarkable statement
Il will not speak of the war stu
ation," said the war minister. for the
very reason that 1 know more about
| it than other people"
| The German papers. too, are fail
ing hopelessly in the task of cheering
up Germany. Here is an extract from
the Cologne Gazette:
! Now more than ever we must b<
on the alert. This may be difficult on
IN empty stomach, but II must b
! lC0nktnaed4 .Paxe E1nA