INSIDE GERMANY.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 January 1918, Page 2

INSIDE GERMANY.

CAUSE OF NAVAL MUTINY | C.P.IM nOfOMTAT. SCENES DESCRIBED Rudolph Glatfelder, late second nontenant of the German cruiser Magdeboiivg. writing to the San Francisco Chronicle 011 October 2 from Zurich (Switzerland), gave the inside history of the recent uprising in the Orman navy. "(iennan blood has been shed in the cause of revolution. Other nations, cart 110 longer accuse us of not having such' courage as is necessary for the making of rebellion. Tam relating only onq of the early incidents of the general discoiu tent in the ranks of our navy," wrote the officer, "and before this account is printed other grave events may take place. Ves, no fewer than 1'2,000 sailors and marines were involved in this uprising. ] am making this statement from peisonal knowledge. This refers to the last days of duly and early days of August— tiro final suppression havinfr been conclude ed on August fi or 7, of which 1 have learned since leaving VviUiamshaven. Beyond these dales other tragedies' nitty have been enacted; our rulers may'not have kept their agreements with the'bailors and marines. It is to Be expected, [f they found it was to their' advantage to set, aside their agreement, they would do so without a moment's hesitation,- • PLAN,-? OF THE TEIIRORITS. "In conformity with the plans of tKcOentral Terrorist Committee a series of loud demonstrations was held at Berne (Switzerland) for the purpose of deceiving the secret agems of Berlin. ' '•. "In fact, tbi.3 was the original idea, but the Russian revolution had ehimged our basic plans and We bad decided to direct our entire energies yi working out a powerful agitation in the navy. The: immediate carrying out of the new strategy was postponed nearly two months onaccount of a serioiw disagreement' amongst our revolutionary tacticians, . 'i "These serious wranglings between the groups postponed our plan. I THE ORGANISATION STARTED."Finland our navalists won, and in the middle of May, to lie exact, on the 17th of May, 149 heroic comrades, eighty.-, five of whom were women, were started to sixteen centres. Zurich was chosen' a.-: the tentative base, for our aggressive headquarters. Berlin never for a. moment suspected that Zurich would be selected as our base of operations. Our ; heroic revolutionary outposts reached their destination in due time, and 1 have learned since that complete reports of their arrival had reached our Zweicrslrasse headquarters 'by the 28th day of May. We were divided into sixteen groups, and each group recognised one of their number as their director and chairman. ... It hardly took; two weeks before everyone of ou'r women comrades had secured positions as havaH nurses at the Williamshaven Imperial Naval Hospital. The reason we selected the hospital was that it is situated right in the midst of the most intense activities. HOSPITAL SCENES BEYOND DESCRIPTION.

"The original naval hospital at Wil liamshaven was built- to accommodate '2BO patients. This was its capacity before the war. Since the war it has ticeil enlarged to accommodate 12,000 patients, but as many as 20,000 patients are' now l being treated in the enlarged and added hospital. This does nob mean that the patients are only those who are wounded in naval engagements. Out of the 20,000 or more patients and invalids in the_\VU liamshaven Hospital, 11,00{! arc mival men, while the rest are military wounded. These 0000 military wounded ar«' bad eases-, that is, they are repulsive cases. There are men whose feature's have been disfigured out of recognition; or have lost bom legs or both arms, and many of them have only one arm and 110 legs. One of my nurse comrades hold me that in her ward there were five, nreii whose logs and arm? had to be amputated. and one of those bad even lost hiseyesight. Such men always beg to be put to death. The sight is horrible: beyond description in the hospital yards." und the demand for buildmg .space is so serious that there is very little yaTd space that can be spared. The hospital' yards are so crowded that there js hard'iv breathing space. 'Consequently the j death-rate is out of proportion." ( ''The reason those repulsive eases a'i'e hidden and kept at Williamshaven is that, the authorities do not dare to send them home. The parents, wives, sisters aW' brothers of these beyond-the-palo casualties stil] think that they are- somewhere in our Eastern front. Our military' authorities do not dare to give out true 1 casiialtv lists. . -

"These men at Williamsliaven Iwlio; are' known as the 'repulsive' cases, arc still 011 our active army lists leeause they still breathe. As soon as they die they are siven out r.s casualties, but-in realjitv they arc •■usualties as long as twentymonths ago

WORK OP THE DEATH FERRY. 'I relate the .allowing details—although they are ugly .irid heart-piercing —■because I wish to give a. true picture of the atmosphere that cannot fail to breed revolution. As I have already noted, the death rate is greatly out of proportion. The dead are not permitted to be returned to the earth; they are buried at sea. There are four ferry boats which every day make two trins each out to the sea. They carrv all dead, and under the 4 instructions of the Ashing expert, so 1 am reliably informed, dispose of their rvrim loads at, certain places. According (o information given me by one of our comrades who is employed on hoard one of the 'death berries' every twenty-four hours these fours boats Mrry out; to =ea between 700 and So(i dead from the \Villiainalmvcn Imperial Naval Hospital. This comrade related to me an incident which typified'■ the real feejing of our sailors and marines. On hoard each one of the dcalh ferries tlint, carries the dead from tiiP ; Imperial Naval Hospital out to sea-there' is a Lutheran parson. When the deathboat arrives at its destination, just before the wholesale throwing overboard' of the corpses takes place, the parson delivers some sort of funeral oration,' ending with these words:—'Tliev have' ■given their lives for our Kaiser and : Fatherland.' On one. of these occasions the mate, who wru a good comrade. li;,d interrupted the parson several times, and' when the prelate said: 'They have given thoir lives for our Kaiser—' the mate" shouted defiantly: *Not willingly! They would have damned their souls before offering them to the Kaiser!' ' AWAY AVTTIT THE BODIES" "After the function of the throwing overboard of the bodies jijid : been completed the captain ordered

arrest if or, the mute: lint ttm crciv 'liep:tated. Thereupon the captain of tho death-boat himself attempted tlio arrest.Then a serious struggle took place,''during which four out of the sixteen members of the crew took sides wim (lie caplain and every one of the crew who sided witJi him were thrown overboard and drowned. Then Hip mutinous crew shot Iho piirsoii and threw his hod;. - into the sea. This shows how bitter our people are'feeling towards their rulers.

"This incident took place toward the latter part of June. On Tune 2-1 or i">. the entire crew of the mutinous death-bo-ii were cited before a- naval court, and two hours later they were executed. ■'Only two days earlier I had securer! a commission in tin; command's headquarters as chief clerk; my duty being to record the name- of all the new arrival.; and 'departures- (deaths) of the '.■' repulsive' section of the hospital. The news of the. wholesale execution of the entire death-boat cl-ew greatly incensed even these unfortunate victims of the war. . , DEMONSTRATION IN BERLIN. "Oil July 7- a large number of our comrades at Berlin held a big patrioticmeeting, appealing to women to volunteer as nurses at Williamsliavci), Ciixhaven, and Kiel. This patriotic meeting was held under the juispices. of men whoso; .Social-Democratic affiliation was secret. Five hundred' and twenty-five ffomen volunteered, and every ■ one of women were Social-Democrats. It can be easily understood that the patriotic meeting calling for volunteer nurses was only a cover to organise our women: comrades into an efficient revolutionary union. Needless to pay that the (dements in our capital who bad in the early days of the war gone wiid with patriotic enthusiasm did not offer their young sisters and daughters for such a work, flow proud we all were when ue learned that in response to -.jur secret, aj• • pull for volunteers to sacrifice their lives ill (he cause of the revolution women comrades understood our meaning and responded heroically! 'On July.2s nearly lupb comrades were engaged in the anti-militaristic . propaganda at Kiel, SOO at Cuxhaven, and 2000 at ,'"The • Government is now engage;! in sending political orafors to both the ; army and the navv, telling then: why (he fatherland should, continue lighting for a ; peace dictated by Germany. I hurri"d ■to the parade grounds. The Government oj'ator was wearing a brilliant naval -uniform. He was bne of the discarded 'grev-beards' of the navy. 1 . OFFICERS TORN TO PIECES. "Then ensued a horrible scene that. I'will never forget. .Jt wa» gruesome. VI 'was not n battle, neither was it a 'riot. It was like eight thousand hungry lio.-is let loose at their cruel keepeV£. The sailors and marinc.i who until a few minutes ago had been listening to the patriotic orations and then to the cuffing insult* of the ( lovernment oratnV« had suddenly turned wild beast". 1 heard groans and I heard shouts si.ch as 1 have never heard before. Like Jinngry beasts struggling at a piece of meat, thrown at them, the men were practically fighting eaeli other in their attempt to get at the handful of o 1 iie'ers from whom the life had already departed. Never have I imagined such human beastliness. They wen;-practically fearing at the lifeless bodies of some 50 or so men. .

"Thi. ; ; only lasted half an hour. The rioters, a big portion of.them, proceeded towards ihe Naval Home; which was being utilised as one of the administration buildings. This is about half a mile west of the centre of the parade grounds. Another group of perhaps 2u!)0 marines and sailors bonded towards the ' Zeppelin sheds. This group, on reaching •the Zeppelin sheds, separated into two •parts, and while one portion attacked the sheds and set fire to the hangars, •which contained four Zeppelins, the other "portion headed towards the observatory on the north of the naval arsenal. On ' flie naval observatory there were two powerful v, ireloss stations. i heard afterwards that the infuriated marines and sailors put one of the wireless stations out" of use, and damaged the other one ■slightly. ZF.PPFXTN SHEDS FIRED. "Meanwhile the main body of the rioters had returned to the barracks, and " lifter having destroyed everything in sight aimlessly proceeded to the parade : grounds. On learning that the two forts fin the western side of the railroad had hponed fire into the rebel ranks of the group that had set firs t" Zeppelin | sheds, they destroyed the railroad junction that connects the warehouses.in the eiitreme east, and south, and the dockyards and the building harbor in the «;est: After (bus cutting the communication between the forts and the ware'bouser and the arsenals,- along the railVoad, 1 hey proceeded in smart battle formation towards the two arsenal forts. The rioters then charged, up the Hank of the southern tort, and had. nearly succeeded in reaching it when the third-line land coastal iort; opened their fire on the attackers. They suddenly turned 'from the arsenal fort, and attacked the third 'me land torts. They had succeeded in jetting between the first and socQrnl i'ort from the south when the second line land batteries, which lie across the path Oi the third line forts, opened lire Then, :<■ if by magic, the northern arsenal battery suddenly opened a terrific and indiscriminate fire 011 all the lorls, excepting the southern third line land torts. For nearly half an hour tlie forts bombarded each other. And, although the rebel fort in the arsenal was engaged against eleven torts of all lines, they wtre getting the best of the battle.' SEA TRHY.DEKS WJTII BATTLE. ''lhe Jade Sea was echoing' and reechoing with the ihuuder of guns. I heard ,i terrific gunfire from the north and from batteries across the Jade Bay. 1 lie aut luirities had ordered the firing of all the heavy am! light naval and land guns to stifle the thunder ot the suns that wore actually firing at each other.

, ''At about the; forts ceased firing. I think because (ho aggressive rebel fort leul run out of ammunition. I'iitil o eluek in the afternoon a solemn silent* reisncd. Although the rebels had f oiii-!n. veil.-the lime had come for a leader. Although about .5001) of thorn 'hid already Mied out the railroad em.hankmcnt in the south as a defensive line, the remaining 7000 of them were •Scattered, doing damage to the harbor buildingf,. which, although a serious loss •to the Government, was no advantage to the rebels.

' The crews who belonged to the ships in the fitting-out harbor. succeeded in renting their shins, which numbered nearly p. But when othi-rs approached the third entrance a terriflo machinegun lire suddenly opened upon "them. Notwithstanding, the rebels charged, md succeeded in capturing a number of nin-chiiw-guns. j REBELS SURRENDER. '■On reaching (hp station I learned (hat 'Outside of a few desperate sador- the •entire rebel force had -n 'c,vd ,uid 'out themselves at the mercy of the Oo-

vprmnMit. T Mii'voil it must, lie so. as two lvsjhiu'iits wlio had reached tlio ?tation yards only a few liom-s earlier bad already receive 1 orders to return Lo their depoU.' 1