purporting to be addressed by English
people to German friends have begun to be printed in the Berlin papers.
Here follows an illustration of this type of composition:--

My dear friend,--I am sure you will like to hear from me, especially as
I am in a position to enlighten you as to the deplorable condition of
things in England under the fear of the Mailed Fist and forebodings of
the worst. For it is only too true that all the best and most
knowledgable people here have thrown up the sponge and are prepared for
the inevitable.

A private letter is probably the only means of communicating the real
situation to you, for the English papers of course do not tell the
truth. In fact you must believe nothing they say, for there is a great
conspiracy here to maintain the fiction that we are high-spirited, eager
and confident. Everything is done to foster that illusion.

BERNHARDI'S great book has been translated and is being largely sold,
and it is awful to watch the faces of the people reading it--how they
blanch and quiver. It is curious, you might think, that they read it at
all; but you know the dread fascination of the snake for the
humming-bird. The bird sees its doom, but cannot escape, and in fact
draws nearer.

Would you believe it of this nation, so famous for its phlegm, that at
the outset of the war there was such a panic among our intellectuals
that they could not write prose at all, but all the papers were full of
rhyme? As you know, there is no sign of hysteria more trustworthy than
this.

You may have heard that recruiting has been brisk and keen, but do not
believe this. Only by huge bribes have men been induced to join at all.
The finances of the country are being taxed to the utmost to find the
extra "palm-oil" which these mercenaries demand.

The Birmingham factories are feverishly busy making dum-dum and
explosive bullets.

You may have gathered from the papers that football goes on as usual.
This is so, outwardly, but as a matter of fact the games are played with
no spirit and are kept going wholly by force applied by the Government,
whose aim is thus to suggest a feeling of security in the country. A few
misguided people, who completely misunderstand the situation, hold that
footballers should go to the Front and fight; but the Government take a
more prudent view and will not allow this, holding that their agility
on the field in League Matches and so forth is of high service as an
anodyne and