Secrert Preparations for War.

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 3, 11 December 1914, Page 2

Secrert Preparations for War.

GERMAN CRUISERS WARNED LAST JUNE. The following messages from our Cape Town correspondent shows that Germany was preparing for war as early as June 14. The murder of the Archduke Frances Ferdinand did not occur till June 28, while the AustroHungarian Note to Serbia was not presented until July 23. Thus, a fortnight before there was any conceivable pertext for . a European quarrel, we find GerI’many issuing secret instructions to be observed in case of a war which she pretends has been thrust upon her: — A striking illustration of the completeness of the German plans for mobilization has come to my knowledge. A German cruiser, the Eber, was in dock at Cape Town a few days before the outbreak of war and got away just in time. An intercepted letter addressed to the commander contained certain instiuctions from Berlin, which were dated June 14. These instructions revealed a complete system for coaling the German Navy on the outbreak of war through secret service agents in Cape Town, New York and Chicago. The commander of the Eter was given the names of shippers and bankers with whom he could deal confidentially, the essence of the plan being that a collier would leave table Bay, ostensibly bound for England, but really to meet a German war ship at an agreed rendezvous. Naturally, so far as Cape Town is concrned, the arrangements have been upsetowingto the discovery, and this perhaps, explains why German cruisers have been more in evidence in North Atlantic waters than in- the southern ocean. Evidence has also come to light within the last few days which points to a system of communication from an arranged base in Cape town by means of carrier pigeons with German SouthWest Africa. It is prrJiably in this way that arrangements have been for the- su jtply of petrol (wo WinaWick aroplancs, wflfch have be^^fc^B v -cfT severa^^^a^