El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-06-13
EMPEROR IS
FIRM FRIEND
Of RECRUITS
EXerts Influence to Stamp
Out Cruelty to Rockies
of Germany Army.
URGES GENERALS TO
SUPPRESS EXCESSES

II ERIN Germany. June 13.-The
X kaiser is again attempting to
- stamp out cruelty to army re-
cruits. Gen Falkenhayn, the minister
of war, in a recent speech in the
reichstag adopted the usual attitude
Of calling the cases Of cruelty much
less grave and less frequent than
charged, but later in his grafton sur
prised his hearers by announcing that
the emperor had once more interviewed
in person
In his annual confidential address
to commanding generals, too, the kali
ser made a very pressing appeal for
sterner measures Of suppression. It is
a strange coincidence. that a few days
before, there had been a serious incl
dent. involving a protest to the imper-
ial government, from the French am
bassadOr, arising from the German
campaign against the French foreign
legion, and that a few days later,
there should be an appeal by the pros
ecutng counsel against two otherwise
rather sharp sentences against two
cuirassier guards who had come TO the
barracks late one night under the in
fluence Of liquor. They had then
routed the younger recruits out Of
their beds, and had made them stand.
sleepy, and shivering, on the tops of
their cupboards and there sing comic
songs One was wounded On the
shoulder and cut in the face
Sentences are Severe
At the first trial The chief culprit
was sentenced TO two months and his
assistant TO four weeks imprisonment
But the prosecution did not consider
this exemplary enough At the trial
on appeal, sentences Of as much as
six months and Il weeks were asked
for by the prosecuting counsel The
court actually did increase the sen
fences
Public opinion is curious to know
whether this case is to establish a pre-
cedent In the recent debate in the
reichstaE on the military estimates a
Socialist member stated that the num-
Der Of suicides in the army between
1870 and 1910 was 10,4S9, and that in
the same period there had been 1858
unsuccessful attempts to commit sui
eide General Faulkenhayne did not
refute these figures but argued that
since they amounted TO only -43 per
1000 among the military element and
the figure for civilians between 20 and
25 was SO per 1000, they did not bear
the very grave Interpretation that
was placed upon them
But il Is admitted that the severity /
and cruelty OF non commissioned o.
ficers are the most important factors
in providing soldiers for service under
the tri color in the foreign legion
Foreign Legion Increased.
A very tempestuous and unscrupu-
lous campaign has recently been car
ried on in Germany, which logically I
amounts to interference in the internal /
affairs Of another country. Indeed, J
the campaign has gone so far that few 1
can believe that the foreign legion is 4
not the only organization Of its kind I
in the world, and that il is not almost /
exclusively constituted Of Germans,
reliable information shows I
that Holland has also such a foreign 4
legion contingent, and even proposes |
to enlarge it, that Italy and Spain are /
the formation of similar i
bodies and that all in all. the German I
element in the French legion is .
scarcely more than IS per cent Of the 4
whole