Evening star., 1925-03-05
BY FRANK H. sIMoNDs.

Ry Gable to The Star.
BERLIN, March 5.-What final, i'm
preston have you Of Germany? This
question has been asked so many
times at the close of little less
than a month In Berlin. My final
impression is OF a country out or
which nothing very striking or in
teresting in the larger sense. poiitl-
cally or economically. is likely TO
come for an indefinite period of time.
Germany is not on the edge of
new revolution resulting from re-
turn of bolshevism. nor is she con-
fronting the possibility of a counter
revolution coming from Monarchists
seeking to restore a king. on lne
one side bolshevism have been scotch
ed in the domestic area. The utter
coIlapse of the Soviet experiment in
Moscow has left the German prole-
tariat with few Illusions.
Base Hope on Loans.
To restore the monarchy would
mean, Enthusiastically, new foreign IN
terNcntion, fresh occupation OF Ger
man territory, indefinite postpone
ment of the clearing of the Rhine
land and Ruhr; 1t would mean an
crd of all prospects of foreign loans,
and the Germans are basing most or
their hope of recovery economically
upon this element. Thus the infu-
ance of the industrialists, when
would be decisive. would inevitably
be aga inst any new monarchist pulsch
To return to the old days of brief
revolution, to undertake to set up
some Soviet machine. would mean for
the workingmen, who are just be-
ginning to zigzag back to still sub
normal amount of food and work, TO
invite all the miseries of past still
too recent to be forgotten. Thus
labor is not only quiescent, but meas
urably convinced.
Dictatorship. a Mussolini and Fa
cisti movement, with. say, Gen. Won
Seckt as dictator. has been frequently
discussed in a now becoming remote
past but there is a common agree
ment that it would not be under
taken save in the face of Bolshevist
peril, which has disappeared.
Seckt is regarded as safe, committed
to maintain order against revolution
or counter revolution, likely to attend
TO his knitting, which is preserving
order, organizing his little Yer
Sailles-permitted army.
Reasonable Men at Helm.
Germany is at the moment governed
by essentially reasonable men, sup
ported by more or less unreasonable
party The impression of all foreign
observers here. official and unofficial,
seems to be that the Luther govern
ment is honestly striving to obtain
understanding with her enemies of
rh- war, Is working for solution. of
frs que stions or security for both
France ana Germany, for the Ger
mans g, EN- quite as apprehensive of
French aggression now the French
of evcntfui German attack.
Instead OF being "A place filled with
sensational possibilities, Berlin, like
Germany, is a rather dull, sober
place with every evidence of recent
suffering. of great lassitude and men
tai WEAKNESS in many directions.
There is, too, precisely that excess OF
dancing, drinking, of lavish expendi-
ture in the relatively restricted
classes which has been the case in
practically all the war countries.
Hard to Talk War.
do not believe the average Ger
man is thinking about the war or
that it would be possible under any
conceivab BILE circumstances to rouse
him to any sort of violence, civil or
domestic, at the present time. He is
in a markedly depressed, sensitive
state of mind. given over, l think in
not a few cases, to self-pity, rather
generally expecting that some sort of
sure, easy salvation will come to, him
by some action of Great Britain or
even OF the United States.
Speaking broadly, German hatred of
France is quite as general, il not by
any means as publicly explosive, as
German hatred of England during the
war. The conviction that France
means to stay on the Rhine, even to
cross the Rhine, remains pretty wide
spread. Fear of France, l should say,
was the dominating emotion. So far
as the German has any feelings as to
Americans and Englishmen, he is
quite ready to regard war as a thing
of the past.
AS to the crucial question of arma
ment, of evasion of the terms of the
treaty of Versailles, all Germans, l
believe. without exception. feel dis
armed, feel that 1t how will be i'm
possible. for an indefinite period, for
Germany to acquire the means to
make war. They argue that they are
a military nation which has recently
made great war, has learned the
value of machinery in modern strug-
giles; they point out the fact that, al
though there may be more men main