Page:Punch Vol 148.djvu/352

[The Viennese journal, Die Zeit, has been inviting the opinions of people of importance on the cause of Germany's unpopularity. Among others who attribute it to envy, Field-Marshal Rieger replies: "Germany has so many enemies because she is the nation which excels the others. The world, as Schiller said, loves to darken that which shines, and drags in the dust that which is on high. Socrates had to drink hemlock..."

The views of this veteran warrior are developed below.]

Let me tell you first of all that I'm a Dutch Afrikander and could prove my descent; and, secondly, let me assure you that I have never gone into a piece of work with a more willing heart than into this of destroying so far as may be your power in South-West Africa. I daresay you thought that in the Transvaal and the Free State the memories of our fights with the British would be strong enough to dispose us to range ourselves on your side in this conflict. Well, we have not always loved the British Government, nor have we always abstained from quarrelling with our British neighbours. Some of our folk, too, have nursed old grievances and recent slights until they thought there was no other business in life, and they persuaded a few hot-heads to join with them and sputtered out into what was called a rebellion. We soon settled that, and we settled it ourselves without help from outside, a feat which should have earned for us at the very least a telegram of congratulations from you. However, there was no message—probably you were too much occupied in trampling on the Belgians, and in any case I can't honestly say that we missed it or worried our heads about its non-appearance. The incident opened our eyes, and we saw where our danger lay. Did you really think that we, Dutchmen though we are and stubbornly though we have fought against the British, were going to haul down the Union Jack in order to hoist the black, white and red of the German Empire in its place; that we were going to try and chase the British out of our country in order to let in a host of German soldiers and officials; that, in fact, we meant to abandon our own free institutions in order to live under the heel of the most coercive tyranny that the world has ever seen? No, thank you. We Dutchmen may have our moments of folly, but we're not such fools as all that. We may lack imagination, but then it doesn't require much imagination to realise what your men have done to the Belgians, whom you were solemnly pledged to protect. The stain on your nation is indelible. Years and years hence, when a German wishes to speak of honour and mercy, he will stammer and grow pale, for the blood of the murdered Belgians will choke him as the blood of Danton choked Robespierre.

There's another point which I want to make clear to you. You rail against the British and (until you meet them in the field of battle) make light of their contemptible little army, and all over Germany stout plethoric Germans and their broad comfortable wives, when they meet one another in the street, are begging the Almighty in a set formula to punish England. The sausage tastes sweeter, the black bread becomes almost white and the beer slips down more easily when seasoned with this ceremonial declaration of impotent hate. And in that temper you forget what England did for us. She stood by her scrap of paper and gave us free institutions. Then, when we were ripe for union, she helped to bring us together and left us to build up with our own hands the edifice of our united Government. It isn't perfect, but it's ours, and we can improve it as experience may suggest. We don't boast about it, but we sometimes wonder what sort of institutions we should have had in South Africa if the Master of Potsdam, with his patent Prussian system for giving free expression to the will of the people, had had power here instead of the English, whom he begs God to punish for daring to throw themselves across his path of conquest and domination.

So, you see, we're fighting now for our own, and we mean to see the thing through. We are not unmindful of the seriousness of our task, but we have confidence in Botha both as general and as statesman. We realise that in this part of the continent our manner of government could not long continue if it had to exist under the black shadow of your autocracy. No doubt you promised mountains and marvels to the poor dupes whom you lured into rebellion and then left to their own devices. Even they have begun to see that they have been made your catspaws and that the chestnuts were not to be for them. I wish you could hear the language which they now use about you and your endeavours. You Germans are now known by us for what you really are. When you talk of liberty we think of Alsace; when you praise your culture we counter you with Louvain; and here in South Africa we are determined to rid ourselves of your incubus.

Yours, on commando, Piet Maris.

Mr. Punch is obliged to the countless correspondents who have forwarded their comments upon the following passage in The Evening News' account of the Primsrose wedding:—

"Officiating were the Bishop of Liverpool and a curate of St. Margaret's, the latter in green corduroy velvet."

The prize has been awarded to the first sender of the solution that "the Curate wore green, of course, to match the Bishop's lawn."