BAVARIAN PRINCE AND WAR.

Taihape Daily Times, 8 February 1919, Page 5

BAVARIAN PRINCE AND WAR.

QUARREL WITH LUDENDORFF. Some revelations regarding the attitude during the war of Prince Rupprecht, ex-Crown Prince of Bavaria, have been published in the Bayern Courier. Rupprecht was iu command of the northern group of the German armies on the west front, 1

The newspaper declares that after the second battle of the Somme in 1916 the Crown Prince gave expression to a wish for peace, but without result. At the opening of 1918 he again thought the moment was favourable for peace. When Germany was still strong,. and the troops on the Eastern front were free, he sent a letter to the Chancellor giving expression to his views, and another letter to the Kaiser, declaring, “We must make peace now/' After considerable delay a reply was received by Prince Rupprecht via General Headquarters. In March the Crown Prince came into sharp conflict with Ludendorff, Prince Rupprecht was just advancing on Amiens “with favourable prospects of a break through” on the enemy front, when Ludendorff suddenly ordered the offensive to stop. Ludendorff thereupon ordered rhe army of German Crown Prince to attack. The reason why he did so is not known, and the result was conflict of a marked degree between Prince Rupprecht and Ludendorff. and the relationship between them since then was completely severed.

During the last days of the war Prince Rupprecht learned that a striking invention had been made by a German engineer. A new type of bomb had been made, and the plan was that German airmen should drop several thousands of these on Paris, and that a quarter of the French capital should be set on fir A and destroyed. Prihs© Rupprecht at once prote ted> vigorously to the Chancellor, with the result that Herr von Hintze. the Minister for Foreign Affairs, went to LudenCffrff and prevented the use of the new typo of bomb. -