Though far from that watery theatre of war the North Sea, the landlocked editor of the Goulburn Evening Penny Post had strong opinions, 100 years ago this week, about what "the modern Hun" (nothing better than a pirate) was doing there.
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"The German declaration of war upon all vessels approaching or departing from British ports, irrespective of nationality, and callously indifferent as to the sacrifice of life of non combatants, is fully in keeping with the whole military policy of Germany. The sinking of the S.S. Falaba by a submarine, with the drowning of over 100 unoffending men, women, and children while the enemy circled round and made merry at the expense of the dying, is on a par with the violation of Luxembourg and Belgium, the shelling of cathedrals and hospitals, and all the abominable, unthinkable Hun atrocities.
"Truly has it been remarked that the German considers himself in a category apart from all others; subject to no moral restrictions; a law unto himself, however repugnant his actions are to all humane sentiment and international law.
"Germany has reintroduced the methods of the Jolly Roger and the skull and cross bones of undisguised piracy and murder. Outrages of this description, like the aerial raids on undefended coastal towns, with their toll of the lives of hundreds of civilians, including babies in arms, will certainly not frighten the Britisher. It will only prove to him the more convincingly that the success of the modern Hun is incompatible with any real conception whatever of civilisation."
