KAISER'S INFLUENCE HAS DISAPPEARED.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 May 1918, Page 8

KAISER'S INFLUENCE HAS DISAPPEARED.

WAR PARTY NOW RUEES. In his second article to the American Press, William Siniins, the well-known New York war correspondent, caoling from Zurich on February 14, said:— Indicating Germany's thoroughness, she will no longer permit corpses to he buried with their clothes. They must he placed in pasteboard caskets and clothed in paper shrouds or wrapped in paper sheets. No linen, cotton, or woollen material must be wasted in graves, while copper, zinc, lead, and other metal caskets are generally forbidden. An American woman, just leaving Germany, declares all ordinary articles are so scarce that sale of her wom-out kitchen utensils brought unheard-of prices. This woman says the coal shortage i s far more acute than outsiders imagine. FREIGHT CARS ARE SCARCE. This is not due to lack of coal, but to labor shortage plus transportation difficulties. Scarcity of cars has caused the military officials to reduce trains to little more than sufficient for the army's needs. Rolling-stock is in frightful disrepair. Silver and nickel has been demonetised. All gold, including jewellery, formerly requested "in the name of patriotism," is now demanded by the Government to keep up gold coinage and prevent too rapid decline in the value of paper money. The people no longer expect victory, this woman declares. The best they hope for is the exhaustion of the Allies before Germany is compelled to sue for peace. The masses have been told so often that the next offensive would bring immediate peace that they are beginning to feel duped and angry. KAISER HAS NO INFLUENCE. I I understand President Wilsons Bpeesb.

made a deep impression in Germany, anil probably it will bear future fruit. On moat reliable authority I learn the Kaiser openly declared President Wilson's terms were reasonable enough to form the basis for negotiations. VViihelm, however, is without influence. I am told that while openly opposed to the extremes to which tile operations of the war party aro leading, lie does not murmur, a s Hindenburg and Ludendorff are his aboslute masters. An American girl recently arrived from Germany, says many children and even grown-ups are now going barefooted, being unalble to buy shoes. A proud professor of the University of Leipzig asked as a favor to be allowed to buy the discarded shoeij of this girl's brother. GREAT WAVE OP CIUME. A crime wave is sweeping the country from one end to the other. Thugs often rob pedestrians of their clothes; children are robbed of their shoes while on the. way from school. The weather is bitterly cold and the children arrive with their feet almost frozen and bleeding. This girl says the newspapers are most active ii> sneering at America. Every effort is made to diminish before the masses the value of United States participation in the war. They are constantly saying America is all bluff and noiso worthy of the country which produced Barnum. This girl had the i utmost difficulty in leaving Germany. She was about to receive a degree at the University of Leipzig when America entered the war. The degree was withheld-