KAISER AT THE FRONT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 16751, 5 January 1915, Page 5

KAISER AT THE FRONT.

AMEBICAN CORRESPONDENT'S STORY.

A VISIT TO GERMAN HEAD- • QUARTERS.

A newspaper correspondent "representing tlie entire American Press" secured permission from Berlin to visit the Kaiser's headquarters "within gunshot of Rheims,"' and on November 14 his description of the trip, received in New York by mail, was printed. He saw the Kaiser at close range, also Ministers and generals at work, and claims to be the only correspondent ?o privileged in the present war. He attributes his success to the desire of the German authorities to show Americans that they enjoy the privileges of neutrals which ure not vouchsafed to belligerents. The dispatch, dated October 20, says:— ''The most vulnerable, vital spot of the whole German Empire is, paradoxically, in France—the small city on the Meuse where the Grosses Hauptquartier, the brains of the whole German lighting organism, has been located for the last few weeks. This citv had 20,000 inhabitants before the war, but it is now completely occupied by the Great Headquarters—every building, every little house being requisitioned. Warnings and armed guards and secret police are everywhere." The Kaiser lives in a little red-brick house, such as one would rent in a London suburb for £SO yearly, small but cosy. A JEALOUS SECRET.

I " I could not help wondering.'' 1 j writes the correspondent, " why the Allies' aviators were not on the job. I A dozen backed up by an intelligent j Intelligence Department could so obviously settle the fortunes of. the war by Wowing out the brains of their enemy, j Perhr.ps that is why the whereoboxrts | of the Great Headquarters is guarded as a jealous secret. Soldiers at the. front do not know where it is, nor the man in the street at home, and of course its location is not breathed in j the German Press. Theoretically only i those immediately concerned are in the. know. Visitors are not allowed, and neutral foreign correspondents are told by the authorities in Bsrlin that it is impossible to go to the Grosses Hauptquartier. i "Two aeroplane guns are mounted | on the hills across the river at a point | immediately opposite the Kaiser's residence, while near them a picked squad of sharpshooters are ou the watch night j and day for hostile fliers, so as to j further safeguard not only the person j of the Kaiser but the brains of the righting machine. A spy hunt is kept up here with unrelenting pertinacity.. 'No cranks or anarchists are left here,' said the head detective. 'To-! day an order is going out 1o arrest] all men of military age between ■ eighteen and forty-fire, but. there are : few. if any. left, Our Kaiser is as safe here now as lie would ho any-j where in Germany. We know ev»ry-i one who arrives and leaves the town, i It seems impossible for a soy to s!h> j in, and still more to slip out again i through the lines. But we are always j on the watch for the impossible.' '; | AVAR LORDS APPKABANTE, j As for the Kaiser, lie has clipped ■ his moustache, wears a dirty green-grey | uniform, and has "an intense earnest-! ness of expression that seemed to mirror the sternness of the times." The j Kaiser goes for a, daily drive or ridel about the countryside, usually in tlv j afternoon, but occasionally he is allow-] ed to have a real outing by his solicitous entourage—a day and, more rarely, a night with the troops in the field. ' Finally, the Kaiser placed himself j entirely in the hands of his adjutant, I Major von Plessen, who "watches over i Germany's overmost war lord like a I mother or governess.'' In fact, to i read through the lines, the valiant! Plessen represents wlnt Americans call | "the real Roods.'" and Kaiser Wilhehu occupies strictly a secondary place. !