23 MARCH 1918, Page 11

THE FRENCH IN BERLIN.

[To TER EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."]

Sia,—The following quotation may be of interest as affording rather striking comment upon present conditions. It is taken from a letter by Rahel Varnhagen, " the first great modern German women." She writes of the departure of the French troops from Berlin in 1808, after an occupation of two years : " The papers are full of the approval and gratitude of the French towards our town and our nation; it is mutual—in short, we take leave of one another like two cultured nations." (The italics are mine. Gebildet, the adjective used, has, needless to say, nothing to do with present-day German Ku/turn It was possible for Rahel, a fervid patriot, to write thus after having had the enemy billeted in her own house. Surely this is a proud tradition for our Allies. the French, and an inspiration to us all as we steel our wills to crush for ever the spirit which has created modern Germany out of such a past, and which has sought to establish the falsehood that hatred is an element in true patriotism and the hall-mark of