The girls, in like fashion, often spend their school interval in marching in columns of four, singing the same horrible chants.

Up to the time of the scarcity of woollen materials, the millions of little German schoolgirls produced their full output of comforts for the troops.

The practical result, from a military point of view, of training children to venerate the All-Highest War Lord and his family, together with his ancestors, was shown at the beginning of the war, when there came a great rush of volunteers (Freiwillige), many of them beneath the military age, many of them beyond it.  In most of the calculations of German man-power, some ally and neutral military writers seem to have forgotten these volunteers, estimated at two millions.

A significant change in Germany is the cessation of the volunteer movement.  Parents who gladly sent forth their boys as volunteers, are now endeavouring by every means in their power to postpone the evil day in the firm belief that peace will come before the age of military service has been reached.  It is a change at least as significant as that which, lies between the German’s “We have won—­the more enemies the better” of two years back, and the “We must hold out” of to-day.

Of the school structures in modern Germany it would be idle to pretend that they are not excellent in every respect—­perfect ventilation, sanitation, plenty of space, large numbers of class-rooms, and halls for the choral singing, which is part of the German system of education, and by which the “hate” songs have been so readily spread.  The same halls are used for evening lectures for adults and night improvement schools.

It is significant that all the schools built between 1911 and 1914 were so arranged, not only in Germany, but throughout Austria, that they could be turned into hospitals with hardly any alteration.  For this purpose, temporary partitions divided portions of the buildings, and an unusually large supply of water was laid on.  Special entrances for ambulances were already in existence, baths had already been fitted in the wounded reception rooms, and in many cases sterilising sheds were already installed.  The walls were made of a material that could he quickly whitewashed for the extermination of germs.  If this obvious preparation for war is named to the average German, his reply is, “The growing jealousy of German culture and commerce throughout the world rendered necessary protective measures.”

A total lack of sense of humour and sense of proportion among the Germans can be gathered from the fact that Mr. Haselden’s famous cartoons of Big and Little Willie, which have a vogue among Americana and other neutrals in Germany, and are by no means unkind, are regarded by Germans as a sort of sacrilege.  These same people do not hesitate to circulate the most horrible and indecent pictures of President Wilson, King George, President Poincare, and especially of