Norwich bulletin., 1915-03-04
Stories of the War
Gettinu to the. Fatherland.

are among the-most remarkable of the many experiences which Germans from many corners of the earth have had in trying to reach the Fatherland for patriotic service.
 Boeclzing was in Abyssinia when Germany went to war last August. He had been living in that remote section for six years, and was widely known there as a former captain of cavalry in the German army. The ingenuity he was called upon to exercise in his trip home was worthy of Phileas Fogg, whom Jules Verne sent Around the World In Eighty Days. It included an imaginary case of rabies, to feign which Boeclzing~ had the nerve to burn two holes in his leg. These were to represent the bites of mad dog, for treatment of which he successfully begged aid in expediting his trip to the Pasteur Institute in Cairo. He car ried out his bluff even to the extent of submitting to the Pasteur treatment.
 When Beecking determined, imme dlately upon the outbreak Oftthe war to Germany to volunteer, he first con- sidered which was the safest of the three usual routes out of Abyssinia- The quickest, via Jibouti, would take him into French Somaliland, where he was well known and could not hope to escape detention by the French off, cers. A second route, via Massaua, led through neutral Italian territory, but
 
 the watch and were searching all Ital- ian ships carefully. Apart from the danger of the hostile ships, this route required a two months trip by caravan which Boecking selected, notWith standing that it was perhaps the most risky way of all, was through the Eng fish Soudan.
 He secured a pass purporting to be issued by a neutral state and started jcTh and Siy T1fS He believed the English would hardly assume that German had the nerve to travel. after the outbreak of hostil- ities, through a region so strictly guarded as the Soudan. He started on September 23 and notwithstanding the rains, covered the distance, which ordinarily takes 31 days, in 23.
 In Gambela he encountered an 1ta1- ian acquaintance, and, casting about for an excuse for his presence, recol- lected that this Italian had, in the previous year, been bitten by a rabid dog, thing not uncommon in Abys- sinia. Boecking promptly imagined that he too had been bitten, and told his friend he was on his way to Cairo to be treated at the Pasteur Institute there. He explained the situation to his friend, asked him to announce his arrival to the British authorities, and he, in the meantime, repaired to his hotel and carefully burned two holes in his calf with a red hot poker.
 He had to wait in Gambela ten days for steamer to Khartoum The whole time he suffered torments of mind for fear that the authorities might be moved to telegraph to the British Legation at Addis-Abeba a query as to his identity. They did not do so, how ever, and Boecking left Gambela by steamer. still keenly alive to the neces- sIty of preserving appearances.
 'The victim of a rabid dogs bite" he said to himself, must, if possible reach the Pasteur Institute within for ty days to be certain of a cure. It is therefore up to me- if I want to make my dog story creditable to keep within this period, CT, at least, to exceed 1t as little as possible. To this end he left the steamer at a small station on the White Nile, and travelled on to Khar- toum by rail.
 As he left the train he was greeted by seven officers, who told him he could not proceed immediately to Cairo. and that, since he had been the British military hospital. Two of- f1cers accompanied him thither. Two surgeons examined his ''bites'' and praised his foresight in cauterizing tben. Boecking continues:
 After had spent three days as a military prisoner in the hospital, word came that I was to be brought before the governor general. At noon stood before his excellency, and learned to my great delight (which I did not ex- hibit) that. as citizen of the neutral state of - I was free. His excellency was kind enough to talk with me for an hour about conditions in Abyssinia, and he sent me back to the hospital in his own automobile. There all my be- longingS were returned to me, and I was told that it was greatly regret ted, that, in consequence of a denunci- at:on as a German officer, had been arrested. I was 10 be permitted to go to Cairo unhindered, but a military es- cort would be given me to prevent me from being mo1ested.
 T was held four days in Khartoum, but can speak only in terms of praise of my treatment there. If I had been recognized as a German 1t would have been different. The English major who brought me to the railway sta- tion told me that I had been denounced as a German captain, and he congrat- ulated me that had proved I was not. Otherwise, he said, should have been Drought before a court-martial and either shot or condemned to life im- prisonment for having a false pass port"
 At Cairo Boeckingt went directly to the Pasteur Institute and began taking the treatment. He remained for the prescribed twenty-o one days, and upon leaving, on December Sth, secured a Noi AA old tA1e PIClCH puyS1CtdHS of the institute that he had been treat ed with success. Arrived at Alexan- dria, he was again threatened with ar i rsst, but his passport and Pasteur cer- tifcate saved him, and he was permit ted to board an Italian steamer sailing via Syracuse for Genoa.
 One more ordeal awaited him. The steamer was stopped six hours before reaching Syracuse by a. French war ship. which examined every passenger aboard individually. Again the Pas teur certificate and the false passport saved Boecking, and he finally arrived in Genoa, after Q trip lasting nearly three months. He volunteered for ser vice as soon as he reached Germany and is now at the front.