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UK ULTIMATE Lit
(By Lieutenant C. Yince.)
The German Army has done a good
deal of lying during four . years of war.
It has lied to the German people about
its own condition, and to itself about the
condition of the people. It has lied to
the enemy (and all the world) about its
defeats, and lied to itself—it most dangerous
lie, and the lie with which it began
the war—about the enemy.
But so far as we know there had not
been told, up to a little time ago, the final
and fatal lie—the lie which, once told,
goes like a dry rot through an army, or
through any other ordered gathering of
men, eating all the heart and body out
of it uutil one day when it is struck it
cracks, shows for a moment as an empty
shell, and then crumbles and goes down!
in dust. That final and fatal lie is when I
it starts to lie to itself about itself. I
We know from such captured docu-1
nients, as General Sixt Von Armin's re-
P° rt after the battles of the Somme, thai
t!,
! e German Army did then frankly face;
|' is failures and conscientiously examine;
' i lie mistakes that it had made. But what
Joes it do now; is ^ still as frank about:
its failures? We know that it is not
frank with the people—but then it was
not expected to be frank; it will not confess
until it must; it will persuade them,
as long as it can, that the surest way to
u-in a war is not by attacking, but by
defending; but is it frank with itself
{about its growing weakness? If it is
not then — we 1 know that " it * is an army already
doomed.
We cannot tell yet, but there are significant
signs. A Bavarian officer commanding
a machine gun company has
written in these words of Ills machine
juns. "Arms are delivered in sufficient
quantities, but their quality is very poor,
for all the rarer metals have been replaced
by iron worked in different wavs.
The new machine guns are very bad and
very fragile."
It is interesting to compare that passage
with what General Von Arm in had
ivritten about weapons two years before.
•'The reports on the experience in- the
iiattle of the Somme unanimously agree
is to the necessity for an increased allotment
of weapons."
The "increased allotment" has bean
made. At any cost the number of guns
is kept up. Like the defender of a famous
fortress, who made his walls bristle
with guns that were really only painted
wood, the Germans make a display of
the strength they have not. But while
he did it to deceive the enemy, tiiey do
it to deceive themselves. "Officers are
expressly forbidden," so that Bavarian
officer adds, "by an order of the Commander-in-Chief,
to speak about the bad
quality of the arms in the presence of
our men or when talking among themselves."
So the German Army is officially .instructed
to lie to itself about the weaKaess
of its guns.
Here is another example of the sa'iit
thing. After speaking of the "war wearl-
| ness" of the troops, forgotten in the days
of victory, but now returning all the
_ fnr +hH(.
7
n d ^ ^ L ^ ^ L J ? ^ ^ ^ "
the same writer says, "Commanders
of companies and battalions make
the truth (about war weariness) known
In their. reports. to their. superiors, but
before they are sent up to divisional and
other headquarters- these reports are
dressed out in rose colors, and more oftsn
^The're are two pictures, small, but Intensely
Interesting. In tbe first «e set:
the higher command attemptiag to deceive
the troops about their, weapons,
with a mere painted pretence of strength,
and when it feels that the pretence must
be seen, actually instructing ^ the lower
command to shut their eyes to lt, and ln
tlieir turn to pretend. that they have been
deceived. • "
__
In the second we see the 'ower command
deceiving tbe hfghei command, in
fear of a truth too bitter to be tola. be-,
cause nothing can alter it.
So"the German Artny lies to itself
nbout itself. "Once' tilat lie has istarted
it wDl .grow and gcow, like a. disease
gaining .strength with all It feeds on, xint'.l
like dried, and icotten wood that army;
suddenly crumbles intb dnst. ' 'i'-. " ;
youUi'
was arrested on Thursday *t>n
charge at havlng tojxed .^^
cheque. \ He was presented at tbrOg
r&ra,rftoari;.. -onV'-iSaturaiy,",'
charge -was rednced to ^eSw ijl
ander 'false pretMees fS/i/ie, ,
and feoods. valned at 8/5. He was entered
by the Court to come up^ for sentence
ivhen called upon.
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