THE KAISER’S HEADQUARTERS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 113, 15 January 1915, Page 3

THE KAISER’S HEADQUARTERS.

DAILY ROUTINE OF LIFE. Tlie Kaiser is pictured as a soberlyattired officer, gravely attending to his duties, by a correspondent of the New York Times, in. the following graphic description of the genera* Headquarters of the German army in France, at a little town on the River Meuse, as seen towards the end of October: — Secret service men hover in the immediate neighbourhood. You can tell that they are German secret service agents, because they all wear felt Alpine hats, Norfolk jackets, ’waterproof cloth capes, and a bored expression. They have been away from Berlin for nearly three months now. About 50 of them constitute the “ secret field police,” and their station house is half a block away from the Kaiser’s residence. ‘ THE STAFF NEAR BY. Just around the corner from the Kaiser, within a stone’s throw of his back door, is another red brick house, with terra-cotta trimmings —rather larger and more imposing. The names of its new residents —“Hahnke, ” “ Caprivi, ” and “Graf von Moltke” —are scrawled in white chalk on the stone post of the gateway. Farther up the same street another chalk scrawl on a quite imposing mansion informed me “The Imperial Chancellor” and “The Foreign Office” had set up shop there. Near by wore Grand Admiral von Tirpitz’s field quarters. A bank building on another principal street bore the sign, “War Cabinet.”

The Great General Staff occupies the quaint old Hotel de Ville. An unmolested ramble showed that all the best residences and business buildings in the heart of the town were required to house the members of the Great Headquarters, who number, in addition to the Kaiser, and his personal entourage, 36 chiefs or department heads, including the Imperial Chancellor, the War Minister, the Chief of th Great General Staff, the Chief of the Naval Genera 1 Staff, the Chief of the Ammunition Supply, the Chief of the Field Railways, the Chief of the Field Telephone and Telegraph Service, the Chief of the Sanitary Service, the Chief of the Volunteer Automobile Corps, etc., making, with secretaries, clerks, ordinances and necessary garrison a community of 1200 souls. I could not help wondering why the Allies’ aviators wore not “on the job.” A dozen, backed up by an intelligent, intelligence department, could so obviously settle the fortunes of the war by blowing out the brains of their enemy. Perhaps that is why the whereabouts of the Great Headquarters is guarded as a jealous secret. The soldiers at the front do not know where it is, nor the man on the street at home, and, of course, its location is not breathed in the German press. Theoretically, only those immediately concerned are “in the know.” Visitors are not allowed and neutral foreign correspondents are told by the authorities in Berlin that “it is impossible” to go to the Grosser Huptpuarter. GUARD AGAINST AIR RAID, 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 is on the watch night and day for hostile fliers. To further safeguard, not only the person of the Kaiser, but the brains of the fighting machine the spy hunt is kept up here with unrelenting pertinacity. “We went over the town with a finetooth comb and cleaned out all the suspicious characters the very first day we arrived,” said a friendly detective.

“There are no cranks or anarchists ' left here. To-day the order is going out to arrest all men of military age —between iS and 45—but there are few, if any, left. Wo also made a house-to-house search for arms, and collected three waggon loads, mostly old, I “Our Kaiser is as safe here now as he would be anywhere in Germany. We know r everyone who arrives and leaves town. It seems impossible to a spy to slip in, and still more to slip out again, ( through the lines —but we are always on the watch for the impossible. The fear of spies is not a delusion or a form of madness, as you suggest. Here is one case of my personal knowledge. A German boy scout of 16 who had learned to speak French and English perfectly at school, volunteered his services, and was attached to the staff of an army corps. The young chap succeeded iji slipping into Rheims, where he was able to locate the positions of the French batteries and machine guns, and made his way back to our linos with this Invaluable information. For this feat the boy received the Iron Cross. After being in the field for six weeks he got homesick, however, and has been allowed to go homo for a visit.” From a spectacular point of view the Great Headquarters is rather disappointing. A few mixed patrols of Uhlans, Dragoons, and Hussars occasionally ride through the principal streets to exorcise their horses. Occasionally, too, yon see a small squad of strapping Grenadiers who break into the goose step on the slightest provocation, as when they pass a general or other officer of the Great General Staff, whom you recognise by the broad red stripes on their “field grey” trousers. There is no pomp or ceremony even when Royalty is running around at large. Thus, when the King of Saxony arrived in town a few hours, after I did, no fuss was made •whatever. The Saxon King and his staff, three touring- : car loads, all in field grey, drove 'straight to the villa assigned to them, and, after reciprocal formal visits between King and Kaiser, the former left to visit some of the battlefields on which Saxon troops Had fought, and later paid a visit to his troops at the front. For this exploit the Kaiser, promptly bestowed on him the Iron Cross, first and second-class, on his return to town. KAISER AT THE FRONT. Even the Kaiser’s heart is not covered'with medals, nor does he wear the gorgeous white plume parade helmet nowadays when going out for a horse-' back ride or a drive. I saw him come from a motor car run late in the afternoon —four touring cars full of staff officers and personal entourage—and j was struck by the complete absence of j pomp and ceremony. In the second car j .•♦at the Kaiser, wearing the dirty green- ! grey uniform of his soldiers in the j field. At a distance of 15ft, the Over War Lord looked physically fit, but I quite sober —an intense earnestness of j expression that seemed to mirror the ■ sternness of the times. The Kaiser goes for a dally drive or ride about the countryside, usually in the afternoon, but occasionally be is allowed to have a real outing by his solicitous entourage —a day and more rarely a night with his troops in the field. “His Majesty is never so happy as when he is among his troops at the front,” another transplanted Berlin detective told me. “If his Majesty had his way he would be among them all the time, preferably sleeping under canvas, and roughing it like the rest —eating the ‘simple’ food prepared by his private field kitchen. But his life is too valuable to be risked in that way, and his personal adjutant, von Plessen, who watches over his Majesty like a mother or a governess, vron’t let him go to the front often. His Majesty loves

his soldiers and Would be among thorn right up to the firing line, if lie were not constantly watched and kept in check by his devoted von Plosscn. ! However, the Kaiser sleeps within earshot of the not very distant thunder of the German heavy artillery pounding away at Kheirns, plainly heard here at night when the wind blows from the right direction.