GERMAN'S REMARKABLE STORY.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 June 1919, Page 12

GERMAN'S REMARKABLE STORY.

MILITARISTS AND ARMY REORGANISATION. [The follo\ving message readies us (says the Manchester Guardian) from a source which we have hitherto found reliable, and therefore, although we are unable to take responsibility for tha statements made, we do not think it justifiable to refuse them publication.]

I have an amazing story, not from a wild extremist, but from a well informed person in a responsible official position, who, while inveterately hostile to the old regime, has before now given me proofs of soundness. I would also remark that much of this story tallies completely with my own observations aud impressions. This is what my informant said:

We possess proofs l that this Spartacus rebellion was the work of the military caste working behind the scenes. We know that officers of high and low rank in various disguises incited the Spartaeists to acts of violence in order to engineer a coup de main and rebellion. The headquarters of the whole plot was at Potsdam.

Officers of high rank had an important ehare in concocting and directing Spartacist operations, including the seizure of newspaper offices. The whole thing was, of course, done without the knowledge of the Spartacist leaders' themselves, who were simply the dupes of the monarchist military caste. The plan was from the outset to egg on the Government to the organisation and employment of armed Eorce on a huge scale. i NEW GREAT ARMY.

The essence of the planwas to obtain and concentrate large numbers of fresh troops, and organise them in large formations under the control and strict discipline of Prussian Junker officers. The whole tremendous recruiting campaign which is going on in Berlin and throughout the country, and which may be correctly described as another general mobilisation, is secretly directed by Hindenburg himself. On the double pretext of fighting' Bolshevism at home and defending the Eastern frontier both against the Russian Bolsheviks and the Poles, the German. Monarchist clique and military caste have plotted to create a new huge army without arousing the suspicion of the Entente. The real object is not Eastern defence but Western defence. The troops are to remain in and around Berlin pending the secret reorganisation of the whole army. An important item in the German militarist calculation is the popular movement in Entente countries demanding quick demobilisation. We are in possession of proofs that German soldiers with a knowledge of the French and English languages have been sent out, not by Spartacists, but by the military caste, to the occupied territory in the West to carry on Bolshevik propaganda among the Entente troops of occupation. GOVERNMENT HELPLESS.

The present Socialist Government is the contemptible and helpless tool of the militarist machinations and cannot extricate itself from the meshes which it has itself prepared. Besides, even the present Government favors the resumpton of Western defence if necessary.. Officers have taken over all the demobilised military material and divided it up by divisions. For appearance sake many of these divisions are named after noncommissioned officers, such as Division Oven, but in reality they are commanded by officers and act under orders from generals. Three-fourths of all the officers have placed themselves at the disposal of the movement. There are also' special officers' battalions. The poWer of command is in the hands of- the military without the Government being consulted- Noske was beside himself with impotent rage over the loss of the power of command. i The old Prussian military discipline in all its forma is now enforced among the troops, who are excellent armed and provided with new clothes. As a result of the fact that, to avoid unemployment, the munitions and armaments works were going until quite recently, huge quantities of war material of every kind are available. The real object of the rigorous disarming of civilians and the hunt after ammunition stores is also to get more aims.. Clothes are also being accumulated.

"Including new enlistments there are about 1000 men concentrated in and around Berlin. The men themselves believe they are wanted only to fight in the East, but officers of high rank in confidential conversation ridicule the idea, saying: 'You don't suppose we are going to put up with everything from the Entente Powers.'"

The new and more arrogant totne against the Entente Powers that has been suddenly adopted by the German Foreign Office and the semi-official gress fits in with this story.