that any of these difficulties have been more acute amongst the Germans
than with the British and Australians--in some ways our men have faced
and overcome greater hardships than the Germans. But there is this chief
difference--the German is now getting back the shells which for two
years he rained upon the British. And he is talking--like a
German--about the unfairness of it.

The German Staff claims that German infantry is the best in the world.
Certainly it is tough, and thoroughly convinced that it is better than
any of its friends. "The Turk is a pretty good fighter," said a German
to me a few days ago, "and the Bulgars fight well. The Austrians are
worth little. Every time the Russians drive the Austrians back they have
to call us in to repulse the Russians again for them."

The German infantryman is tough, but not tougher than ours, and without
the dash; his outstanding virtue is his great power of work. But I do
not believe from what I have seen that he works one scrap harder than
the Australian. He might be supposed to have his heart more in the war
than the soldier of any other nation, but he certainly has not. Many
German soldiers have told me that there was a universal longing for the
war to end--but they seem to wonder at your asking them what they
think, or what their people in Germany think--as though it mattered one
straw. They tell you, in a detached sort of way, that a great many of
their people in Germany are tired of the war. "But they have no
influence on these matters," they say, "nor have the soldiers. We do not
meet together--we have nothing to say with it. They would go on with the
war all next year even if a million more men are killed--they will bring
back all the wounded, and the sick, if necessary."

The German who used those words seemed to have no quarrel with those who