Perth Amboy evening news., 1921-06-10

10 oIC " " VI AAASANS
written by Milton Bronner, who has
just completed for this newspaper a
first-hand study of Germany in 1921
BY MILTON BRONNER
BERLIN, June 10-The next war!
You might think that Germany,
defeated on the battlefield, burdened
by ~reparations, staggering under tax
alton, would dream of anything but
another armed conflict.
But if 1 can judge by cpnversa-
tons l have had with all sorts and
conditions of people in Germany.
there is a burning hope for revenge
upon France for all the humiliationS
of the armistice, the peace treaty
and the aftermath which we, to-
gether with Great Britain and Italy,
helped bring about by our common
victory.
The Germans don't say much
about us Americans. They have a
feeling that their submarine war
DID force us in. Besides they have
millions Of kin in America who are
once more sending them food and
money.
They don't revile the English, be-
cause they dream of the day when
England will see in France a nation
that is challenging British trade on
the continent.
But France is Thoroughly Hated
But 1 found an almost universal
hatred of France. 1t Is calling to
German pride to see a nation of
thirty-eight millions dominating over
a nation of ove sixty millions.
French occupation of their towns,
the French flag flying over their
fortresses, Alsace-Lorraine once
more a French possession-these
things are eve out of a Germans
mind for an instant. One night in
Essen I. talked to a young officer of
the police. I mentioned france and,
his yes blazed. Said he:
1.-The allies led by France say we
may not have IN army to exceed
100000 men and that we may not
have CONSUMPTION. They limit us in
the matter of schools for military
training. Are they fools enough to
think they can down us that way?
There are hundreds of thou
sands of fathers in Germany who
have had military training. They
can train their boys. They can also
teach their babies to shudder when
the word Frenchman Is pronounced.
We will even up scores some day."
With France it is different"
I talked to a railway porter in
Bremen railway station. He said
he was IAN ardent Socialist. He
didn't believe in wars.
How about France? ?" I asked.
"Oh. that is different. That would
be another kind of war. We were
tricked into a peace that is making
us slaves of France. / would be for
a conflict that would break our
~shackles."
On the dead walls of many Ger
man cities 1 have seen posters with
a hideous caricature of one OF
Frances black soldiers.
During the war these cartoons
were used to keep the fighting spirit
of the people to burning point. II
was represented that most of the
French troops were black. Now it Is
represented that the bulk of the
French army of occupation is black.
They have a name for this French
army of occupation. They call it
die schwartz schmach"-the black
faint or the black shame. The comic
papers are always harping on this
matter. Propaganda about it is used
In every conceivable form.
Propagandists Busy
In the movies l saw flashed on the
Screen a map of the German Rhine
territory occupied by the allies; then
the statement that the French pro-
posed to increase their army of &C.
SupdlloIl HUM OoBoOV W IoOyOOVy |
then that this would cost Germans
$50 million marks more each year.
When I was in Hamburg all the
street cars bore placardS inside In
viting the people to a great meeting
Of protest.
The city government, probably
through fear of international conse-
quences, had forbidden the meeting
and locked the hall. But one of the
leading preachers of the city, who
had been announced as a principal
speaker at the meeting, denounced
before the disappointed crowd the
action of the government.
1t was in Hamburg, too, that I
saw how the vaudeville theatres are
used for anti-French propaganda
purposes. One performer sang songs
of his own composition. The refrain
of M of these was "have patience"
The verse that brought down the
house came when the singer said
Germany would pay the French in
demnity ina thousand years, have
patience"
Look Forward to Reckoning
A poet on the same bill acclaimed
his own poems. The theme of n
was that no nation could be ground
to dust! Germany, too, had a right
to live.
In a shop window in Leipsic, near
the famous university, where thou
sands OF German youths get their
professional education, I saw a book
on the cover of which was a picture
of the cathedral Of Strassburg. The
caption on the v was:
what we have lost!
70 S~trassburg, o Strassburg, won
derfully beautiful city!
"Torn away. but never to be for
gotten German land!"
In another shop window in the
same vicinity was q book with the
title, Der Tag des Gerichts''-"the
day Of Justice" Under this was a
grinning skull crowned with the red
cap of a French soldier. A band on
the book said it was a book OF con-