STALKING THE KAISER

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2449, 30 April 1915, Page 6

STALKING THE KAISER

- HUSSAR OFFICER'S STORY. Tho Johannesburg newspapers publish the following :— In a letter -to ,a friend on the Rand .a',i officer of the 10th Hussars, tells of the Kaiser's narrow escape from capture by- ilie regiment. Ho states that after tho British troops occupied Eoiselle, on Christmas Eve, the Germans fell back to Bertincourt, where the Kaiser arrived the same evening. At' 10 o'clock that night, says the officer, we learned that the Kaiser and his Staff intended, to proceed at 7 o'clock next morning to the headquarters of General Von Mauben,-afew miles south .of Cambrai, and would take a road which would bring him to a point six miles east of Boiselle. At this point the road lay below a long grass ridge. If we rode out and concealed ourselves behind the ridge there was, if our information was .correct, a good chance of our being able to capture the Emperor. We determined to make the attempt. Major Blackwood, two 'other officers and myself,--with 500 men, left Boiselle at 5 o'clock, and reached the ridge an hour later, and stationed three men to signal on tho approach of the Kaiser. Half an hour later a troop of Uhlans came along the road, and then one of our men on the ridge saw signs being iinade from a cottago near tho rcadway occupied by a- French peasant. We knew what that meant. Our presence behind the ridge had been communicated to tie German cavalry, and our look-out on the ridge saw two' of them gallop back, while the others went on. There was still-a chance that we might y capture the Kaiser at a point two miles further south, where the road to Cainbrai forks east and west. We had only fifteen minutes in which to cover the two miles, and the going was very rough, but we' tried it. When we were within about 400 yards of the fork, in the grey of the morning light we say -a motor-car rushing along the road from Bertincourt, and with our • glasses we cbiild easily recognise the Kaiser in it with threo other officers. The car. disappeared along the eastern >road in an instant. We were just a minute too late. We were in time to cut off the two cars following the Kaiser's, and made three of his Staff and two} servants prisoners,. and captured a pile of the Royal luggage, including two dispatch boxes_ containing valuable papers. By this time'the German artillery had sighted us, and we had to retire under fire, when we lost two men.