13 NOVEMBER 1915, Page 16

THIEVING HUNS.

[TO Tall EDITOR OP THE '' SPECTATOR...1 SIR,—We have lately been reading a good deal about the thievish propensities of the German troops. This habit is ingrained in the Huns, and was well known in the seventeenth century. It was proverbial. The following extract which I have translated from a comedy of the great Spanish dramatist Calderon (El Escondido y La Tapada), written about the

year 1640, proves the fact. The scene is a house in Madrid from which everything has been rudely taken

"Mosquito : In my opinion there have been Germans in this house.

Den a'sar : Why do you say so?

Mosquito : Because it has been ransacked from top to bottom l" —I am, Sir, &o., Wm. C. Comm.

Vailima, Bishopatown, Cork.