WHO ARE THE HUNS?

398 Italy's Betrayal of her Allies.
the police to hinder it. The furniture and the archives were
flung into the streets and everything was burnt.
Herr Wahl, a German Consular Agent at Bologna, as well
as the Chief Clerk of the Austrian-Hungarian Consulate at the
same place, have described the brutality of Italians in official
positions. The vile calumny that Italians had been murdered
in Germany was supposed to serve as an excuse.
All this madness and depravity was received in Germany
with the most high-minded reserve and magnanimous
serenity. Scarcely a single Italian was molested. On the contrary
hundreds of Italians living in Germany demanded certificates
of naturalization, and cursed the foul betrayal of their
Fatherland. Thousands declared that they would prefer to
remain in Germany, since they did not wish to join in the
criminal war which had been unloosed by their former Fatherland,
and would rather suffer arrest and internment than fight
against that country which had shown constant kindness not
only to them but to their own country.
It is to some degree gratifying to think that even a nation
of base Black-handers still possesses sane and worthy elements
which are capable of shame.
Italy must in the future be utterly despised, and the consequences
of its reptilian conduct forced home and carried out
to the utmost economic degree. Germany's other enemies
acted at least in accordance with their treaties and alliances,
even though in opposition to Germany, and, though criminal
in their aims, may be recognized as open adversaries. But
for Italy, through all the records of time, there can be only
contempt. No German who has the least self-respect will
ever again have anything in common with Italian cowardice
and Italian treachery. 1
1 In the Original work the author discusses in an appendix, the barbarous
treatment to which the German civil prisoners were subjected by
the French in Dahomey and North Africa. The tragic situation of these
poor people, transported to an infernal climate where their health suffered
under the most unbearable conditions, is only one more instance of that
pogromish and sadistic spirit of cruelty which seems to live in the hearts of
Germany's enemies.