This cartoon is horribly suggestive of Hun utilitarian methods! I
am told by an eminent chemist that six pounds of glycerine can be
extracted from the corpse of a fairly well nourished Hun, and I can
well believe that such an opportunity for replenishing the diminishing
stocks of a much needed commodity is not neglected by the Great General
Staff.
_Bundles of Four!_
And why not, from the Hun point of view?
They have scrapped sentiment, together with humanity. What is
_gun-fodder_ to the Scourge of God? These unfortunates, when alive,
were driven ruthlessly to inevitable slaughter. They are sent as
ruthlessly to the blast furnaces. One million dead men are resolved
into six million pounds of glycerine. Thus the Happy Fatherland is
served.
One wonders whether the statisticians of the Central Powers have yet
computed what a million of dead Huns represents in cash. A soldier
capable of serving his country in the field must be worth at least
fifty pounds sterling per annum to that country. Let us say that each
dead man represents a capitalisation of one thousand pounds. We have
then, roughly, a loss of one thousand million pounds, leaving out the
totally and partially disabled.
What a handicap when they begin, after the war, the economic struggle
for supremacy!
Time was when the enemy losses sent a shiver down our spinal columns.
That time--thanks to Hun methods--has passed.