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Show PUKSIG 10 JMS6E5GHL0SSEH I "During the firs! four months of the war two words dominated the German mind The first was planmaessig, and the second was ausgeschlossen. Let me show you their meaning by a con crete example. You might say to vonr nest German tnencJ. "What n pity that you crossed through Belgium. You havo the whole world against ynii You lost two weeks of good time in your march against France. Why did you do it9' The answer would be the inevitable planmaessig or 'according 'accord-ing to program.' The Germans would have liked to go any other way, but for forty years the German general staff has decided upon this particular route According to program, there fore, the Germans must violate the territory of their Belgian neighbors It Is regrettable, most regrettable, that the Belgians defended themselves and lost so terribly in men and cities, but it was all planmaessig, and that is anendto further discussion. "When you heard of this according to program' conqueBt of the world, you might say. 'My dear friend, remember that seven or eight nutinns are against you Germany might lose, you know.' In such case would come the Invari-able Invari-able answer. 'Ausgeschlossen,' follow-by follow-by a long dissertation upon German statistics of import;-, wealth, banking resources, army reserves, gun superiority, super-iority, and ending with the emphatic statement that a German defeat was absolutely impossible, and that any person who was half-way intelligent and one third fair-minded must see it Therefore please keep planmaessig and ausgeschlossen in your mind; they will prove the key to much that Is otherwise difficult to understand " Hendrik Van Loon In the June Century. Cen-tury. oo |