SWITZERLAND DURING THE GREAT WAR. ITo THE Emma or vas
"Sesames.") Sza,—I spent the Last three years of the war in Switaerland after being classed as totally unfit, and my Impressions of the German-Swiss attitude differ radically from those expressed by your contributor in the issue of March 8th. I think he greatly exaggerates the number and. influence of the pro-Germans. Before the war the Germans were unpopular in Switzerland with the mass of the people, and their slow but steady peaceful penetration was actively resented. The pro-German faction was represented by Professors whose happiest memories centred round student days at Heidelberg, and by a small but prominent clique of Swiss officers who had perhaps passed a year with a German regiment. But the average Swiss had no use for Prussian methods in or out of the Army. Nothing could have been more complete than the failure of the pro- German Colonels to introduce the methods of Potsdam into the Swiss Army, a failure which formed the theme of a powerful and brilliant novel by Paul 11g. Der Starke Mann can be bought in a French translation, and I recommend it to the reader who wishes to understand something of the sturdy spirit of the Swiss Republican, and of his successful vindication of demo- erotic military methods as against those imported from across the Rhine.
Your contributor is not fair to the Swiss Press. He lumps the Berne Band with two or three of the notorious pro-German papers, and he does not mention the Zurcher Zeitung of Zfirich, which was not only a very able and brilliant journal, but was quite obviously biassed against the Germane. He might also have mentioned the National Zcitung of Basle, which became more and more aggressively anti-German as the Germans advanced nearer and nearer to Paris last spring. As for the Baud, I have the best of reasons for knowing that it was anxious to give both sides a hearing. At the beginning of the war I was asked to write a weekly article for the Band by our own Propaganda Bureau. My articles appeared un- edited and unaltered. Whereas the French-Swiss Press closed their columns to any articles from a German source, the best and most representative of the German-Swiss. papers held that the true function of the Neutral Press was to give both sides a fair hearing. This they certainly did. The elite of the German- Swiss intellectuals was preponderatingly anti-German. Your contributor might have mentioned Zurlinden'a brilliant study of the was which provoked such fury in Germany, or Carl Spittler's historic pamphlet, or Hodler's protest against the violation of Belgian neutrality. Spittler had been regarded by the Germans as one of their greatest poets, and his courage in attacking the country which had given him fame was matched by the beauty and dignity of his appeal to his own countrymen. Hodler, again, had first made his name in Germany, and after his protest the Germans removed his lamella pictures from their museums. The Germans at least are under no illusions as to the German-Swiss. They dislike the German-Swiss, and more than once during the war com- plained bitterly of their lack of sympathy. I wonder, by the way, whether your contributor was in Switzerland when an interned German officer proposed the Kaiser's health at RutH, the birthplace of the Swiss Confederation. The burst of indignation from all cornere of Switzerland that followed this desecration of a sacred spot was a true index of national sentiment.
Englishmen are apt to believe that a Neutral who is not pro- English is necessarily pro-German. This is a little naive. The Englishman as an individual is more popular on the Continent than anybody else. There were no interned who were more welcome in all parts of Switzerland than the British. But though individually we are liked, politically we are often dis- trusted, and it must be admitted that especially since the Armistice the Neutrals regard no in the main as the professors of very fine sentiments which we have no intention of carrying into practice. This unworthy suspicion will doubtless disappear when the terms of peace are known. The average German-Swiss slid not believe that either Russia or Prussia was fighting the battle of democracy or small nations, and so when the war began he made up his mind that Switzerland was not called upon to interfere. Your contributor, who complains that the Swiss Goverument did not protest at the invasion of Belgium, should remember that America also failed to protest, and that Switzerland was not separated by the Atlantic from Germany. Ile might, however, have recalled that the Swiss Government did protest against the wholesale deportations of Belgian civilians, and that the Swiss Red Cross sent a most indignant protest against the sinking of hospital ships. The Swiss Govern- ment did not feel called upon to take sides. They felt that the fates hod allotted them another rile. "Switzerland," wrote the Times, " was happy in having a history surpassing that of any other neutral country, a record of noble and disinterested work for the sick, the wounded, and the distressed whom the fortunes of war brought within her reach."—I am, Sir, Ac.,
ARNOLD LUNN.
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