Trenches leading to the Swiss border.
The following revelations on the German situation are from a former Luton resident. His name is Jacques Stussi, a native of Glarus, Canton Glarus, Switzerland. Before the war he was employed at Messrs Kents Ltd, in the instrument department, and returned to Switzerland when that country mobilised.
In March 1915 his division was released from duty, so he again came to England until the latter end of last year, when he rejoined his division. On arriving in Switzerland he made arrangements to visit his parents, who kept a photographic apparatus and supply stores in Mulhouse, Alsace.
The letter gives some idea of the state of Germany, and coming from a neutral and one-time resident, will be readily accepted as an impartial account of Germany's struggle.
"There is one thing that strikes you most when you cross the Swiss border - the food question, mainly because the stomach is the most important part of our earthly life. Well, one had to abstain from many things which one thought essential to live, and the remaining things are scanty. There are bread tickets for about 4lb of bread per head per week; two meatless days each week; meat ticket, milk ticket, butter ticket and so on - tickets for nearly all provisions.
"Really, I do not think Germany can hold out longer than a year. Still, nobody has starved them, and I don't think anyone will, because if the daily rations get smaller the day will come when the German ruling class must accept the conditions of the Allied Powers, or there will be a revolution.
At Mulhouse the daily life is "since a long time usual and quiet" as people call it, because it seems at first a marvel how the population is accustomed, or rather "blunted," to the continuous cannonade, the movement of troops or the passage of prisoners. But if you see the transport of wounded from the firing line, and those poor crippled or fragments of human beings, you will never forget the sight.
"Apart from this, people perform the usual daily work, even in the fields pretty near the trenches. Some of the trades and businesses are rather dull, others fairly well. It is quite easy to understand that my father has much to do as he is a dealer in ----- apparatus and accessories.
"Only if aviators are over the town people get excited and have to take shelter, but still on bombardment there are some victims. But not always the town enjoyed such quietness. In the first two weeks of the war the town and its suburbs were the scene of bitter fighting. The part where my father is has not suffered much. Only a few traces of bullets in the back buildings are witness of the street fighting, but outside whole streets were destroyed, and one little suburb has been burnt out entirely.
"And then there are the common graves of the killed, for about 10,000 lost their lives in the battle of August 14th round Mulhouse. Really, I assure you, those who have been in the trenches or seen all this, I mean those who live quiet and near the fire-grate in the plain country, they do not know what war means, what a catastrophe has come over our so-called civilised world.
"I am here at Berne since released (from military service), and we are making machines. There are now some English wounded and sick soldiers here in Switzerland, and I am glad that they have the opportunity to study the Swiss nature and mind, and hope their impressions may be only good."
[Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph: June 24th, 1916]