GERMAN ARMY HOAX.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1669, 8 February 1913, Page 5

GERMAN ARMY HOAX.

WAITING FOR THE KAISER.

18,000 TROOPS MASSED.

IMPUDENT FRAUD.

by TeleflriiDh—Prejc Anioelation—Conyrlshl

Berlin, February G. A telegram was received at Strasburg staling that the Kaiser was arriving' at mid-dny to witness a test alarm for tho garrison. Tlio Commander-in-Chief mustered tho troops in tho drill uround, mid tho offioers wore called out, including Princa Joachim, ono of tho Kaiser's younger sons. Tho town was decorated, and groat crowds waited for four hours, when a teloplionio inquiry revealed that tho message was a hoax. It has since been found that a man named YVolter, fornjeriy in the Paymaster's Department, who was recently court-martiallod and dismissed tho service as not being : responsible for his actions, in order to demonstrate that ho was in full possession of his faculties, disguised himself as a postal official,-and delivered tho telegram. . Ho has boen arrasted on a charge of lese majesto. (Reo. February 7, 10.10 p.m.) Berlin, February 7. All Germany is laughing over tho Writer's hoax. • ( It appears that Wolter Bent a telegram to llimself and then rubbed c-'it tho contents and substituted the following: , "Will arrive twelve. Coming by motor-car and proceeding to Polygon parado ground. Entire garrison to bo alarmed. (Signed) Wilhelm." Tho prisoner also'forged tho . special marks indicating that tho telegram was from the Emperor. The Governor of Strasburg,' General Baron von Egloffstein, oblivious to tho fact that tho Kaiser was a thousand miles away, summoned the. garrison as directed, Tho populaco of the city believed that war was imminent, and tho women were in tears. For two hours eighteen thousand troops efcdod on . the ; parado ground.- A now Zeppelin airship was also hovering overhead. .

The spectaqlo was witnessed ,by thirty thousand spectators, including Wolter, who was overheard to say that ho wished ho, could also set tho fleet in motion.

Finally, the chief of-police motored to Strasburg, 2J miles distant, and telephoned back that he had learned that tho Kaiser was at Kocnigsberg in Eastern Prussia,. .

•'Tho- "Morgan Post" recalls, that the Kaiser, in 1893, unexpectedly stopped his train, and himself alarmed the Strasburg garrison.