IMPRESSIONS OF AN OFFICER OF GERMAN GENERAL STAFF OF HIS TRAVELS IN INDIA 110 YEARS AGO (5)

THE INDO GERMAN COLONY

 (Thusnelda)

(The trusted German gas)

 The Malabar Hill

"A German tailor desires to pay his respects," was the announcement Paul made to me when he brought me my breakfast on the following morning.The poor tailor Sahb was in sore straits,and was hoping for some assistance from the German Count.

Well,how can a tailor expect to do good business in a country whose inhabitants for the most part wear no clothes at all ?

So I receive Herr Arnim Muller-his card had already shed the two dots over the "u".To my astonishment he greets me in the vernacular of home.What a miracle ! A German in a foreign land who talks German ! I should have been better prepared for Sanskrit.I recompense his fealty to his father-land by a small order.The worthy German complaints of bad trade and the want of solidarity of his compatriots.

His wife,too had deserted him.

Faithless Thusnelda!

Muller frequently garnished his speech with tags of English misapplied.How fond Germans are of investing themselves with a foreign veneer !

Strange ! we have indeed invented gunpowder,but not national pride: the prophet is without honour in his own country.A thoroughly German proverb !

Poor knight of the needle,compatriot of mine,thy craft does not avail thee even in a foreign land !

The decay of empire of the Moghuls beginning about 1717,served to promote England's policy in India.

But so far as the peaceful competition of trade and commerce in the Peninsula is concerned,German enterprise and German industry have of late achieved unexpected triumphs.What Austria and Prussia failed to effect in the past centuries,German merchants have,thanks to the initiative of Emperor William II., brought about today.

To-day the German name is of good repute all over India.

We find " Made in Germany" on the Indian market,in the west and the east,from tropical Ceylon to the snow clad Himalayas.

"Made in Germany" everywhere; and,what is more,not only on the cheaper class of goods.

(To be Continued)