Translations:CP 02844/16/en
In any case all these men of importance are as ignorant as children. I don’t know if you read an article by General Zurlinden about the origin of the word Boche, which, according to him, only goes back to last September when our soldiers etc[1]. He too must never have talked with anybody who wasn’t of “good family”. Otherwise he would have known as well as me that servants, the common people, have always said: “a head like a Boche”, “he’s a dirty Boche”. I must say that coming from them it is often quite droll (as in the wonderful story about Paulhan’s flight engineer[2]). But when the academicians say “Boche” with a false heartiness as they address the people, like grown ups who lisp when they are talking to children (Donnay, Capus, Hanotaux[3] etc.[4]) it is excruciating.