"Consider," my correspondent had written, "how they behave towards each
other." I admit that I have frequently been struck by the lack of generosity shown by one German towards another. We must remember that there is no word in the English language for the German word " Schaden- freude," even as there is no word in the German language for "fair play." I can recall an occasion when I was pro- foundly shocked by the virulence of German rancour. It was the occasion of Gustav Stresemann's last appearance in the Reichstag. The man who, but a few months before, had been the hero of the German people, the man who by the confidence he had inspired had been able to free German soil from foreign occupation, had become the object of a fierce attack by the newspapers of the Right. Even his own party, the People's Party, were muttering against him. They openly rejoiced that their leader was afflicted by a mortal disease. Stresemann left his sanatorium at Biihlerhiihe and travelled to Berlin. The hand of death was already upon him. With heavy beads of perspiration standing out upon his parchment face he climbed slowly into the tribune. He was greeted with a howl of execration. "That," I reflected, "is something which would never happen in any other country."
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