Page:Secrets of Crewe House.djvu/163

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TRIBUTES FROM THE ENEMY
113

dipped in printers' ink when he throws down the utterances of German men and German newspapers. The utterances of German newspapers are torn from their context. Regarding the utterances of Germans which are reproduced, remember that at every time there have been conscious and unconscious traitors to the Fatherland. Most of them reside abroad in neutral countries, in order not to be obliged to share our struggle and our privations, or to be condemned by our Judges as guilty of high treason. Nor have champions of extreme party tendencies any right to claim to speak for the generality of the German people.

It is our strength, but also our weakness that even in war we allow unrestricted utterance to every opinion. We still tolerate the reproduction in our newspapers of enemy Army reports and the speeches of enemy statesmen which are weapons of attack directed against the spirit of the German Army and people. This is a sign of strength, because it proves a consciousness of might. But it is a weakness because it allows the enemy's poison to find an entrance among us.