The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1916. “HINDENBURG IS KING.”

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 1 December 1916, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1916. “HINDENBURG IS KING.”

(With which is incorporated The Taihape Post and Waimarino News).

If any credence can be placed on a cable message received yesterday German feeling must be in a state of ferment. We are told that Hindeuburg has virtually dethroned the Kaiser; that he is now Dictator of Germany; he outshines the Kaiser as the sun does the moon, the Kaiser being a minor planet revolving around Hindenburg. It was the latter who ordered the proclamation of the kingdom of Poland as a means of getting more men; he ordered the levy of every man, woman, child, and thing in Germany useful in war; he dominates every administrative department; he is looked to as a god, and the Kaiser is forgotten as a factor in the country’s government. The story is continued in a message from New York, which says that the Kaiser not merely detests Hindeuburg, but loathes the very mention of his name; that he is .fearful for his throne and for himself, and submits to Hindeuburg. If this is all true, and there is little or no reason to doubt it, the Kaiser has been hoist with his own petard. There is no denying the fact that Hindeuburg is either a genius in warfare or he has had almost miraculous good fortune. When war was declared, and for some ■weeks after, Hindeuburg was not considered good enough for a place, but as Russia invaded Eastern Prussia, he was the only man with that intimate detail knowledge of the country necessary in a general to stop the iiivasion. With a much inferior army numerically, he attacked the Russian left wing and secured what will be known to futurity as one of the greatest victories of this greatest of all wars. The Niemar and Narew armies lost between them some ninety thousand men in killed and wonnded, and still worse for Russia she lost 650 cannon, which are much harder to replace than men. The Kaiser telegraphed;

“With all Germany I am proud of this achievement of the army under your leadership.” It must be remembered that the glory of this victory became tarnished and minimised by Vubsequent disclosures. It was discovered that a traitor had betrayed his country and practically put the two Russian armies into a position that even a less powerful force than that Hindenburg commanded could have effected what he achieved. B'e that as it may, it was all a part of the game of war, and Hindenburg not only knows t-he rules of that game, but, despite what has been written to the contrary, he evidently has the genius to formulate and carry through his plans. No general has been more successful on the battlefield, and none have achieved more brilliant result’s. Hindenburg is the greatest among Germans with whom the Allies have to reckon. His is t-he opportunity to play a role in this great world war which is lifting him to the plane of a hero and a god in the eyes of the German people. Should it be that his ability has been accompanied with much more than ordinary good fortune, his downfall is assured, for the proverbial fickle jade may desert him at any moment.