The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-09-14
GERMANY IS NOW
CALLING 100000
TOARMY EACH YEAR
Subjects of Kaiser Who Are
in Foreign Lands Are
Exempted From
Service

Berlin, September 1s.-Under the new
military laws Germany is today calling
on over a hundred thousand more Of her
sons each year to serve In the army. The
new regulations. however, create condi-
tions under which German subjects living
abroad may escape military service
entirely and in this regard they are of
Interest to Germans living in the United
States.
The laws provide that German subjects
who have obtained permission to postpone
their military service ON account OF
residence abroad and who have acquired
a permanent position there may, upon
application to the proper authorities, be
excused entirely from active service and
transferred to the "landstrum" or the
militia. which is called upon only in time
OF actual invasion. The exemption 10
granted only on the condition that enter
ing the army would jeopardize either the
position of invested capital of the emil
grant and that there is reason to believe
that the applicant is not trying deliber-
ately to cvade military service.
officers or officials living abroad may
now be granted leave for two years and
military duties, subject only to the obli-
cation of returning in case of general
mobilization. and this leave may be ex-
tended indefinitely upon presentation of
consular certificate that the applicant has
a permanent position as merchant, busi-
ness manager. etc The officer whose life
work is found in America or another
country outside OF Europe and the Med
iterranean lands may even be excused
from returning upon mobilization, though
OF course 1t is almost ineonceivable TO
think of a German officer taking ad-
vantage of this case in war.
Americans Should Take Warning
American statesmen who would like to
manipulate the. new income tax law to
bear harder on the bachelor than the
married man, may take warning from the
experience of the little principality of
Reuss where the first bachelor tax in
Germany was introduced this year.
The tax has been in effect only since
April 1, but the Reuss newspapers declare
that bachelors of property are transfers.
ing themselves and their wealth to other
parts of the empire where the state OF
single blessedness is not subject to special
taxation. One bachelor of Greiz, capital
of the principality, has given further
evidence of his displeasure by revolxing a
bequest of $12.50o, which he had intro
duced in his will for municipal bath
house at Greiz.
German Embassy Building
Participation in the open architectural
competition to select designs for the pro-
posed German embassy building in WASH
ington, is extraordinary heavy, no less
than 26s plans have been submitted. The
work of the committee of selection, which
includes Prof. Peter Behrens, and other
prominent architects: Count Bernstorff,
German ambassador at Washington, and
Herr Won Jabow, the secretary of state
for foreign affairs. will therefore be
equally arduous.
The building is to cost about 100000.
though this limit win probably be exceed
ed on account of the increased expense OF
building. Among the competing architecs
Is one American. who had earlier finished
sketches for an embassy building and was
therefore especially invited to participate
In this competition.
Bees Die of Starvation
Thousands of German emigrants died OF
starvation in Holland this summer.
whittier they had gone in search of food
The victims were not persons, however,
but bees, of which the beekeepers OF
Westphalia and the Rhine districts take
thousands of hives across the frontier
every summer to the great Peel health.
which In summer Is covered with masses
of wild flowers. Specitl trains are employed
to facilitate the transit of honey
makers. This year. however, the flowers
bloomed later than usual and the bees