THE GERMAN COMEDY

Word has come from Germany of the acquittal, in the series of trials and investigations into German submarine atrocities, of Lieutenant Neumann, commander of the U-boat that sunk the English hospital ship, "Dover Castle". He was adjudged to be not responsible, because he had orders from those "higher up". Marshal von Sanders, who by his own confession encouraged the massacres in Armenia, has also been freed of any stigma, in that he was acting under "instructions from the Government". Furthermore it now seems probable that the man who torpedoed the Listerine, and all the other submarine commanders will escape through the same loop-hole--by putting the blame on anonymous higher powers.

Comparisons are odious but one cannot help think of what would have happened under similar conditions in 1870-71, or what did happen in 1914, when whole villages were razed because of one or two Belgian snipers. Perhaps this difference arises from the fact that the Germans are trying their own offending countrymen--a thing almost unheard of in connection with war, until now--and that the German mind, when it sees itself defeated, invariably turns to self-palliation and vague excuses. Perhaps the difference is one of inborn moral sense; the Germans may never be able to realize that the submarine campaign, as conducted, was wrong. Indeed, Neumann's "prosecutor" himself admitted that while it would be contrary to the Hague Treaty to sink a hospital ship carrying men from a naval engagement, on the other hand an attack upon the same ship loaded with troops wounded in land service, would constitute no violation of international agreements. Or, what is more plausible, the Germans are simply indulging in a little family game of "passing the buck"--for the benefit of the neighbors next door.

The court proceedings may be dignified and reasonable, as observers state, to the outward view. But certainly, sub rosa, all of Germany is smiling at the ease with which the defendants obtain a verdict of not guilty. Dignity and reasonableness are masks as easily assumed as is the guise of poverty. But why assume a disguise at all? Certainly no one is deceived by a trial that does not convict and a court that never condemns. There is no need in raising a hue and cry about punishment, if the punishment is never going to fall. The court and its actions are doubtless very diverting to the Germans, but they are not so to the rest of the world; nations do not like to have farces played directly above the heads of their dead. The Germans, like Sentimental Tommy, may have "found a w'y", but their way is a useless, and not at all pleasant, one.