ill be sufficient
to quote here. The writer of it is a German author who enjoys much
esteem in his own country, and was a guest at the German Crown Prince's
headquarters in May, 1915.

"In conversations with numerous French prisoners I have found no traces
of hate and rage either in their looks or words. The most are glad to
have escaped in an honourable manner from the nerve-racking, trench
warfare. In an honourable manner? Yes, for I have heard on all
sides--from the highest officers and the simplest soldiers--that the
French have fought well. For the most part they are well led--and always
filled up with lies."[177]

[Footnote 177: Rudolf Presber: "An die Front zum deutschen Kronprinzen"
("At the Front with the German Crown Prince"), p. 33.]

"Then we dined with the Crown Prince; soup, roast goose, fresh beans and
dessert. The conversation was lively. In our small company--although the
bravery of the enemy and his excellent leadership receives full
recognition--there is not one who does not reckon with absolute
conviction on complete victory on both fronts."[178]

[Footnote 178: Ibid., p. 61.]

Herr Presber's book is free, neither from adulation nor hero-worship. He
is a poet, sentimentalist, and evangelist for Greater Germany. His book
is a collection of incidents, reflections, and conversations, carefully
assorted and arranged, so as to allow the limelight to glare on the
statuesque figure of a mighty Germanic hero, fresh from
Walhalla--incarnated in the Crown Prince.

The Crown Prince's birthday dinner-party affords an excellent
opportunity for the German nation to see the mighty one replying to the
toast of his health. Presber affirms that the moment when his royal host
raised his glass and uttered the words: "Ein stilles Glas den Toten!"
("A glass in silence to the memory of the fallen") will for ever be
"most solemn and sacred" in his memory.

With genuine German inquisitiveness Herr Presber hunted through the
various cupboards and drawers in his room and found a map of France as
it was before the loss of Alsace-Lorraine. "The map is wrong and
useless, and so I use it to line a drawer before placing my linen
therein. This makes me think of the many changes which will be marked in
the atlases which German children are now carrying to school in their
satchels--after the cannon have ceased to roar. How the colouring of the
maps has changed since I went to school, and yet once more a great
'unrest of colou