THE REVOLUTION IT was in the summer of 1915 that the enemy began dropping leaflets on us from the air.
Their contents were almost always the same, although there were variations in the form of presenta¬ tion : Distress was continually on the increase in Germany ; the War was never going to stop, while the prospect of winning it was growing ever fainter ; the people at home were yearning for peace, but ‘‘militarism” and the Kaiser would not allow it ; the whole world—to whom this was well known—was therefore not waging war against the German nation, but solely against the man who alone was responsible, the Kaiser ; so that the War would not come to an end until that enemy of peaceful humanity was removed. But the liberal and democratic nations, after the War was over, would receive the German nation into the league of perpetual world peace, which was assured once “Prussian militarism” was destroyed.
Most of the men merely laughed at these tempta¬ tions.
One point in this kind of propaganda should be noted. On every part of the front where there were Bavarians it made a dead set at Prussia, declaring not only that Prussia was the real guilty party, but that in the Allied countries there was no enmity at all, par¬ ticularly against Bavaria ; there was, however, no possibility of helping her as long as she joined in serving Prussian militarism and in pulling its chestnuts out of the fire.
Even in 1915 this kind of persuasion really began to achieve a definite effect. Feeling against Prussia amongst the troops grew up quite visibly—and the authorities never once took measures to stem it.
By 1916 the complaining letters from home were having a direct influence, and it was now no longer especially necessary for the enemy to