THE NORTH-CHINA HERALD AND

SUPREME COURT & CONSULAR GAZETTE

Shanghai, China

27 March 1915

(page 927)

OUR LONDON LETTER:

AMUSING PUBLICATION FROM NEW YORK

London Feb. 26.

Numbers of the "Fatherland," the special New York publication by German-Americans for Americans, are now appearing in this country. They will secure a wide popularity. Nothing quite so funny has been seen for a long time. Take, for instance, the following gems from one number only—January 20.

The star writer of the paper is the “famous English poet” who “exposes with remarkable forcibleness the inherent hypocrisy of his countrymen.” Guess who the famous poet is? Only “Mr. Aleister Crowley,” who has just finished his ninth article on our shortcomings. The only possible criticism is in that this country we do not call Crowley a poet and we have no wish to claim him as pure English.

There are plenty of other gems. We are asked to denounce the "paid agents of the British Government in the United States”—there isn’t one—while on the back page there are glowing advertisements of patriotic publications—at 5d. a piece—of Dr. Bernard Dernburg, “late Colonial Secretary of the German Empire.” We gather that “Hartlepool was well defended by the British patrol ships ‘Doon and Patrol,’ ” that “Scarborough was full of troops and artillery,” and Whitby “a military station.” Mr. Frank Koester explains how real “liberty, equality and fraternity” are to be found rather in Germany than in America. Dr. Hanns Heinz Ewers tells us that “England can only bring 1,000,000 men into the field,” and that up to January 1 “she has lost 120,000 men.” “England is decadent,” we read—“because writers in the ‘New Age,’ the “labour Leader,’ and ‘Forward,’ ” the “only papers in England not lost to a sense of shame’ tells us so.

Then the “Fatherland” quotes Jerome K. Jerome as “demanding ‘Fair Play,’ ” and the “Rev. Dixon.” an Englishman, in support of “Germany’s just cause.” Then there is an article remarking “that the two Mid-European Empires are determined to carry on the war until results are reached which gave Germany and Austria-Hungary sufficient strength and authority to create a condition in Europe that will make disturbances of the peace by envious neighbours impossible.”

The American public is told that “the advance of the Turks has caused the stoppage of British transports in the Suez Canal, compelling them to return to Bombay,” that “no further reinforcements can in consequence be sent to France and Flanders,” that “The Portuguese Army and the Canadians have been despatched to Egypt” where “the troops have little military value,” that “the Turks—who, it is known, are under German leadership—have shown their efficiency in an unmistakable manner,” and that “English supremacy on the Nile will soon have come to an end.”

There are yards more of these stories, and an announcement of a great pending ovation. It is for the Drury Lane artiste, Miss Ferne Rogers, who was asked to terminate her work by reason of her offensively expressed pro-German sympathies. Headed by Dr. Dernburg, all the Fatherland are waiting on the quayside to greet her with “Die Wacht am Rhein.”