GERMAN PLOT.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 February 1916, Page 6

GERMAN PLOT.

- TO INVADE SOUTH AFRICA. j TWENTY THOUSAND TROOPS FROM UNITED STATES, RUINED BY STURDEE'S BRILLIANT BLUFF. An astonishing German plot to invade South Africa in the early part of the war—a plot which was neatly foiled by Vice-Admiral Sturdee'.s great naval victory—is exposed by Mr. John R. Balderston in a remarkable article which appeared in the Pittsburg Despatch. Mr. Balderston, who has travelled extensively in the war zone, is the writer of many striking war articles (says the Daily Express), and he possesses unusual facilities for gleaning information of German activities. FORCED ABANDONMENT. During the first five months of the war (writes Mr. Balderston). the Germans planned to expel the British from South Africa, aided by disaffected Boers, with an army composed of 20,000 Germans and Austro-Hnngarians, all unnaturalised and liable for military service, carried in thirteen German and Austrian liners. The Vaterland, the biggest ship afloat, was to 'have taken part in the expedition. The scheme was abandoned when, on December 8. Count von Spce's squadron was destroyed by Vice-Admiral Sir Frederic Sturdee off the Falkland Islands—an action coincident with the collapse of the German-engineered revolt in the. former Boer republics.

SECRET STORIES OF MUNITIONS. Since absolute secrecy was necessary for its success, the grandiose scheme for the invasion of Africa must have been unknown in all its detail outside the very highest German circles, and complete details are not likely to be available until after the war, if ever. But the British authorities, from three sources of evidence, have put together enough facts to make possible an outline of the Teutonic plot. Long before the war, rifles and munitions sufficient to maintain a eampaaign for a year, were sent to South-West Africa. General Botha's army captured some of these last summer, and the rest were destroyed before he could get them.

MEST FROM THE STATES. Including natives, the strength of the nient from the States, Dr. Sietz, the German Governor, was able to put in the. field GOOO. The reinforcements from America never arrived —but their equipment, ''down to tl'.e last gaiter button," vras t'hpre waiting for them, another instance of the marvellous foresight of the German war lords. When hostilities began. Herman and Anstro-Htmgarian reservists were summoned to Kew York, and they poured in by thousands from Interior cities. Meanwhile the German ships on the Jersey side of the Hudson all coaled, guards were posted about the docks, and precautions were taken to prevent outsiders from investigating the contents of boxes taken on board.

ELABORATE SCHEME. The German plan, as t'ho British claim to have learned it afterwards, was for von Spec's fleet to round the Horn, and make for a rendezvous in the wastes of the South Atlantic, while the thirteen liners, laden witi'h men, burst out of Xew York harbor. The liners were to scatter up and down the coast, keeping within the three-mile limit, where they could not be attacked. Then, at a given signal, t'hey were all to put to sea at top speed. The presence among the German flotilla of the Vaterland, the richest prize that sails the sea, or once /.lid so, would have been a trump for the Germans. Coming out with the rest, she would not start to sea with her little sifters. The British cruiser would either give chase to some of the oilier twelve ships, enabling the Vaterland to get away without risk over a clear field, or. if the English captain manoeuvred to make sure of nabbing the big fish, the other twelve would escape. STCRDEE'S TRAP. All the world knows what happened after Vice-Admiral Sturdee was sent to avenge C'radock with the two battlecruisers of the Mediterranean squadron, the Inflexible and the Invincible, and five light cruisers. He. triple-crossed the Germans by sending out a wireless message, meant to he intercepting, ordering flip old battleship Canopus. which did not reach C'radock in time to share his fate, to put in at Port Stanley, in the Falkland?, where, the message said, new coast guns would protect her. Von Spec suspected that the massage was intended to be caug'ht bv him, as it was, and he regarded the talk of guns at Port Stanley as a blnlT. as it was. It was not only a bluff, but Sturdee wanted von "ipp to think it a bluff, and he did.

VOX SPUE'S SIDE-SHOW,

So von Spec, as a little side-show before carrying out the raid on Africa, sailed to the Falklands to bag the Canopua, found the hattle-ernisers waiting on him, and fought his hopeless fight bravely, as Cradock had done. In consequence of that, fatal wirelss message ihe thirteen liners never left Xew York, and a few days after the destruction of von Spee's squadron British, agents in America reported that Austi'o-fierman reservists in Xew York and Hoboken were permitted to return to their homes. There remains for explanation the great game of empire those 20,001) reservists were to have played when they landed in Africa. As for von Spec, his orders took him as far as a subsequent attack on Capetown.

A DREAM DISPELLED.

In landing that army, ho would have won imperishable glory at the expense of British sea power. Some of the thirteen liners, after the landing, probably would have accompanied the German warships; other?, armed with guns taken from the secondary batteries of the cruisers, would have scattered as commerce raiders. Sad, indeed, adds Mr. Balderston. has been the fate of the German dreams dealt with in this article. Yon Spec's sliins are at the bottom of the ocean; the 20,000 reservists are back at work; the thirteen liners are still tied to their docks in the Hudson and at South Brooklyn; and all the great German colony whence the conquering army was to set forth is in the hands of the enemy.