The weekly Alaska citizen., 1918-03-11
GERMAN MASSES
 MUCH ACITATED
 BY PEACE TALK

LONDON, Feb. 14.--Germany's de- clining faith in victory is described by "a well-to-do neutral medical man who lately left Germany after living in Augsburg during the war period" Writing from Berne to the Daily Mail he declared that though still believing that Germany could not be beaten. the German people had long given up hopes of the so-called Ger man peace
 "The masses" he continued, "are in an hysterical state, one minute praying for peace at any price and the next under the influence of some piece of news, some well-organized patriotic concert or kinematograph exhibition got up by the Fatherland (annexationisD party. at which they will be shouting wild applause and singing Deutschland. Deutschland uber Alles.
 The Fatherland party is justly re- garded by many people as the chief obstacle to peace. In Bavaria its propaganda is unceasing and is ad- vancing by leaps and bounds. The party has unlimited funds and good business men to spend the money jul diciously in cultivating the German will to power On the other hand. this junta of government officials. country squires, ironmasters, admi- rals and big manufacturers exercises an odious tyranny on all the people dependent on it. Woe betide the viii lage constable, and concierge, the factory hand, or agricultural laborer underling who dares refuse his month ly gift to the Fatherand party's funds.
 "As for all the fuss about demo- cratisation, 1 think it is mostly moon shine, manufactured for the benefit of the romantically inclined English radical. There is discontent simmer ing up and down the country, but to quiet it a pound of butter week would go further than any promise of political reform. The riots that take place in the towns from time to time are the work of women whose hus- bands have long been away in the field and who have got out of hand. Mobs of half-grown lads run wild and get into mischief. and worse than mischief
 Tn Bavaria the Emperor and Der lin, never popular, are now less popular than ever Bavarians are un- moved by Williams choice of von Hertling as chief adviser. If von Hertling had been a Bavarian born they say perhaps there might have been something in it, but he is Hessian. In Bavaria, as elsewhere, the emperor has been completely overshadowed by Hindenburg, who to the average German is the war in carnate, and whatever there is great and glorious about him is putting the emperor and the royal princes entire ly in the shade. On the other hand. Hindenburg came with the war and will go with the war. In Bavaria and elsewhere the dynastic senti ment is so strong that nothing can root it out
 "I consider that, however the war ends, whether the German empire continues to hold together officially or not afterwards, the result will be an enormous intensifcation of sepa ratist feeling in the various consti tuent states.
 "As regards the food position, I should say that it is only acute for people of small means. They are the only ones who suffer the bangs of real hunger. especially the small officials, the police. the schoolmasters. the ministers of religion, and people living on small salaries or annuities or savings.
 Tt is generally recognized in Ger many that German prisoners of war in British hands have been well treated, and the impression is now beginning to get abroad that the treatment of British prisoners has
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