Payette enterprise. (Payette, Canyon Co., Idaho) 1909-1935, 1918-10-17

commander of British merchant yes
sci, who was captured after he had
rammed German U-boat. I don't
know to what extent the kaiser was
directly responsible for that dastardly
crime, but from what he said regard
| ing the capture of another British cap
/ tain, the commander of the Baralong,
| it was quite evident that he was In
entire sympathy with acts Of that
| character.
A German U-boat had sunk Brit
ish vessel upon which were some OF
| the relatives of the crew Of the Bara-
! long. The crew Of this U-boat was
subsequently captured by the Bara-
long, and according to reports in Ger
many they were harshly treated. Then
( It was reported that the Baralong had
been captured and that her captain
and the crew would be summary
dealt with.
81 hear we have captured tine cap
| tain of the Baralong," the kaiser de
clared to me at that time. IF we can
prove that he's the man we'll fix him !"
The manner in which the kaiser
spoke left no doubt in my mind that
the direst punishment would be melted
out to the unfortunate British captain.
! Booty is undoubtedly a legitimate
| incident of war, but 1t is legitimate
only as an incident. Otherwise booty
becomes loot. In any event, when In
F., vading troops seize private property 1t
/ is customary to pay for it. That the
Germans were good takers but poor
payers is revealed by two incidents
which the kaiser narrated to me, and
j the keen enjoyment he derived from
them can be fully understood only by
! those who know how much the kaiser
appreciates getting something for
nothing.
"Roumania wanted our gold for food
products" he told me. "They demand
ed pure gold and they set enormous
prices on their wares; but we needed
| what they had to sell and we were
ready to pay even the outrageous
prices they demanded. And then they
| foolishly declared war against us and
we got it all for nothing! When
spoke to Hindenburg about the con-
templated campaign against Rouma-
mia he said, This will be very inter-
estipg campaign 1t was. We got all
we wanted and didn't have to pay
penny for it"
The kaiser beamed all over as he
contemplated the results Of Rouma-
MAS entry in the war.
When the German troops entered
TarnapoI, Russia, at later time they
captured vast quantities of American
made hospital supplies.
eve were just figuring what this
! seizure amounted to, and my army
doctors were strutting around as If
they owned the world" declared the
kaiser, when one of my officers was
approached by a group of long-haired,
greasy Jews, who claimed that these
supplies belonged to them. They are
our private property; we bought them
and we should be compensated If you
seize them they contended. Did you
pay for themT my officer asked. No,
we didn't pay for them, but we gave
our notes. they replied. Then said
my officers, when you take up those
notes we'll pay for these stores; In
the meanwhile Wen just take Them
We secured bandages serums-every-
thing, in fact, that we needed so very
badly, and we got them all for moth
mgr
I did not know at that time that the
German army lacked medical supplies,
but later l saw paper bandages in use.
1 have previously referred to the
kaiser's defense of the use Of Zeppe-
Inns against Paris, London and other
nonmilitary cities. He claimed that II
was proper to make war on civilians,
because England was endeavoring to
starve Germany. On one occasion
pointed out to him that in 1870 the
Germans had besieged Paris and had
starved its population.
"The cases are entirely different"
he answered hastily. Then we were
besieging q city and the civilian pop
ulation had plenty of opportunity to
evacuate 1t before the siege began.
England is besieging a whole nation
and trying to starve my women and
children, who have nothing to do with
war;"
l couldn't help thinking of the
"whole nations" which had been alb
solutely crushed under the kaiser's
heel-of Belgium, Servia and Poland.
The kaiser never admitted that the
destruction of the Lusitania was re-
suit of special instructions from him
to the U-boat commander, but in dis
cussing the general subject Of subma-
rine warfare he asked:
what right have Americans to take
passage on these vessels, anyway? II
they came onto the battlefield they
would not expect us to stop firing,
would they? Why should they expect
any greater protection when they en-
ter the war zone at sea?
"Don't ever forget" he went on, "a
bullet from a pistol would be enough
to sink one of our U-boats. How can
we stop and board vessels we encoun-