| Show old oi id 11 regime fi buies TT H germana ger man assembly J many old faces remain and many new ones are not unlike old REICHSTAG SPIRIT PREVAILS only one member has admitted ger arany had part in starting the war hun understand why he should suffer the german national nation nl assembly has demonstrated two things clearly it Is unable to do business much more than the old reichstag chiefly because there Is little unity and much dissension between the parties and the old order ot of things has changed very little despite t the be new in ces aces the latter Is perhaps the most important point because the assembly was wag palled called by german papers and particularly by atiq h agencies that supply the outside world with news as the birth of the new republic the beginning of a new regime the living emblem of the he passing of the old it Is 18 new in a sense and the old regime has passed perhaps but there are enough of the old people left and so many of the new people are not much unlike the old that the effect in the weimar theater is not much different from the reichstag one hears bears precisely the same arguments from the floor watches precious time fly by over the same and similar arguments as used to make one despair of constructive legislation one admits germanys germanas Germ anys guilt perhaps the most striking thing la Is the tone of the great majority of the party speeches just one delegate hv hw had tn the courage to attack the con and the moral strength to go on record as ag admitting that germany had something to do with starting the war man alan after man regardless of party jias in spec speeches elies proved to his own and the houses satisfaction that russia france or england not germany started the war one lone man has had the courage to tell the house that the german treatment of belgium forever forbids german complaints from being effective fec tive the great bulk at least of northern germany seems to have adopted the attitude well its all 0 over ver now we the people start the thing at any rate so lets start out even and square with no hard feelings on any side the assembly Is the principal outlet for every known kind of propaganda dudul indulged ed in nearly as vehement ly and excitedly by the social democrats as by the conservatives first there Is the alsace lorraine question it II comes up three four a dozen times a session and always rouses the same enthusiasm every old and shopworn orn argument Is trotted out and cheered it has never occurred to the germans that on the other side of the fence there are fairly good arguments to support frances retention of these provinces the junction with austria provokes an almost equal enthusiasm and it would seem as if half the speakers insert it in their spree speeches clies for that purpose alone the achl edwi 9 1101 stein question has come to the front lately and germany Is filled with propaganda to show that Sch schleswig leswig should and roust must remain german no speech Is 13 complete without at least a reference to poland and czechoslovakia czecho slovakia and yet not one of the speakers but knows that these questions will be settled for good or ill by the peace conference Is same old hun the failure of the german to change materially Is in no way better to be observed than in his attitude to the question of the conduct of the war it Is only rarely that it a criticism of it la Is heard in n the house and the general feeling seems to be that if anything Is wrong with it that Is till all in the past and should be forgotten or overlooked by germanys germanas Germ anys enemies the prisoner of war inar question Is 19 as puzzling to the student of german psychology just nov as anything else elle virtually every speaker touches upon the prisoner question before he leaves the tribune tell a german first that the armistice made no no provision tor for the return of german prisoners and second that while germany begs dally daily for food she attempts itt at the same time to saddle herself with more mouths to feed and it has no effect on him it cannot be sheer pity for the welfare of the prisoners because plenty of germans know only too well how bow slim food Is listening to delegates to the assembly and talking to germans outside of it the correspondent finds that the old german viewpoint he learned to know so w m ell during the war until the breach with america Is still abroad in the land though in less les truculent form the german does not linder understand stand why lie he now should suffer why everything cannot be placed on a basis of status quo ante why anyone should hold against him the conduct ot of the war with wilh which he cla claims trag he had nothing to do |
