And yet after all the actual German is never, like the Frenchman, a
natural and instinctive warrior--any more than he is, like the
Englishman, a natural and instinctive adventurer. The whole business of
Prussian militarism, with the half-witted philosophy by which it is
justified, has to be imposed upon him from without by his masters. He
fights just as he works, just as he tortures, violates, and murders,
because he is told to do so by persons in a superior position, holding
themselves stiffly, dressed in uniform, and able to hit him in the face
with a whip.
Long before the war the absurd Koepenick incident gave us a glimpse of
this astonishing docility on its farcical side. Its tragic side is well
illustrated by the droves of helpless and inarticulate barbarians driven
into the shambles daily (as at Verdun) for the sole purpose of covering
up the blunders of their very "efficient" superiors. One could pity the
wretches if there were not so considerable a leaven of wickedness in
their stupidity.
CECIL CHESTERTON.
[Illustration: A LETTER FROM THE GERMAN TRENCHES
"We have gained a good bit, our cemeteries now extend as far as the
sea."]
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HIS MASTER'S VOICE
The manipulation of the Press is one of the weapons which Bismarck
taught German Imperialism to use. Like others it has been developed by
his successors into an instrument which the master himself would hardly
have recognized.
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