WAR NOTES.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 80, 3 December 1914, Page 7

WAR NOTES.

GERMANY'S CASE FOR WAR

Fundamentally, the German case is that, there is too much Euglaad, too much Slav, an& too much t >arßislence on the part of France to remain a great nation. The position became intolerable. In that sense William's adventure is the strangest indictment ui Providence and its arrangements since Xerxes whipped the sea-or was it a Persian cat? ' It is believed that the emperor lost control of the situation tho moment his army completed mobilisation. The demobilisation of an army wh'ch has scented, but not tasted, blood is a most perilous operation, and Wilheltn found himself unequal to the task., even though he had decided against war. The machine, so to speak, ran away with him.

OF WHAT VALUE?

The following story of Sir John French is told by Sir Evelyn Wood: •••When T inspected his regiment, he being a Major, many years ago, I asked his colonel, pointing to him: 'Of what value?' He replied: 'For ever reading military books.' He has been reading ever since! In iSSS, when we were retiring across the Baynda desert, after the failure to save Gordon, I saw Major French coming back the last man of the last section of the rearguard." MAGNITUDE OF KRUPPS. Krupps, the gunmakers, who build the leviathan howitzers, with which Liege and Namur were shelled, employ in normal times of peace 80,000 workpeople, make nearly £2,000,000 profit per annum, and spend about £350,000 a year on their workpeople's pension, holiday, and Christmas funds. THE KAISER'S APPEARANCE. It is not easy to accurately describe William 11., unless one has seen him at close quarters in civilian attire. At first glance your idea of an heroic William falls to the ground. He is distinctly below the average height, and quite typical of the beer-drinking, sausageeating rather than the knightly cavalier. His left arm is ten inches shorter than his right, and is partially paralysed. The deformity ■strikes the eye unpleasantly, though rmo cannot withhold a certain admiration for the energy which has enabled him to become a good shot and a passable rider, in spite of this tremendous handicap. The Kaiser's mental makeup is a mixture of bluff, coarse brutality, lack of real courage, intelligence, and a capacity for quick absorption of superficial fads, religious fanaticism and megalomania. HOW HE IS GUARDED. He has taken ui> his abode in a French chateau fortified against aerial attacks. Whenever he moves his quarters a small army of engineers precede him to carry out defensive measures befor his arrival. Around the chateau are men of his own bodyguard, a detachment outside his bedroom door, another in the hall, two more in the rooms immediately above and beneath his own room, respectively. Three unbroken lines of sentries surround th« house, a whole battalion of infantry and several squadrons of cavalry are camped in the park. The chateau is 20 miles from the front, an<s Is connected by field telegraph, so that any sudden retreat of the German legions should not place the War Lord in jeopardy.-: William rises at daybreak, greets his bodyguard with '' Guten. Morgen, Soldaten!" to which the reply " Guten- Morgen, Majesttett " is instantly .vouchsafed. A swift mot or,takes ; him and the Imperial standards to the trenches/ but it has been noted by.shrewd observers that William is never exposed to a stray British bullet or French shrapnel.- ~