24 AUGUST 1945, Page 11

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

THE CHURCH IN GERMANY

Sin,—Apropos of the letter of an English chaplain in Berlin, sent to you last week by the Bishop of Chichester, it would be interesting to know if the German people to whom the chaplain refers see the connection between their present miseries and their past iniquity, and if the German clergy are calling their parishioners to repentance and amendment of national life. That they should do so is of the first importance.

After 1918 the Germans vociferously denied their responsibility for the last war, and ascribed its unpleasant results to the Treaty of Versailles. Again, thanks to them, most of the peoples of Europe have been subjected to the miseries of homelessness, wandering, and want which the English chaplain says the inhabitants of Eastern Germany now endure An obtuse and cruel race does not learn from the sufferings of others. Will it, this time, learn from its own? It is most necessary for the world that it should, and that the reviving German churches should emphasise the lesson. Is there any evidence that they do?—Yours, &c.,