3 NOVEMBER 1923, Page 15

THE BREAK-UP OF GERMANY.

[To the Editor of the SpEcrAron.1 SIR,—Your impressive article under the above heading moves me to send you the following extract from the letter of a friend, who has been travelling for some months in Germany :—

"I've had a stirring time in stricken Germany ; never before have I seen tragedy: naked and ashamed stalking forth among conven- tional people in conventional surroundings, showing herself in all her many aspects—starvation, disease, nakedness, cold and privation. I think even Moloch should be satisfied with the offering of little children provided for him by serene, gallant, resolute, confident France. But they won't pass through the fire to Moloch for most of the hearths are cold ! In some of the great cities between twenty and thirty per cent. of the school children arc tuberculous, and I have seen, off the beaten tracks of the tourist, countless boys and girls with no more than two garments apiece, the girls a blouse affair (I don't know what the top half of a dress is called) and a petticoat ; the boys with a coat or a pair of trousers, nothing else. No shirt for the lads, no underclothing for the girls, no boots for either."

I enclose the name of my correspondent, which you will know well, as. evidence of good faith.—I am, Sir, &c.,