Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1919-04-18
LED PARTY THAT TRIED TO CAP
TURE THE KAISER.

n recent dispatch from Washington
to the New York Times says:
Colonel Luke Lea, former United
States Senator from Tennessee. COM
mander of the 1l4th Field Artillery
of the 30th Divsion-thc old Click
DRY" Division of Carolinans and Tenn
csseans, who returned from France
recently, is the American Colonel who
led the party of American army Off
GERS who tried to kidnap the former
German Kaiser last winter.
The fact that Colonel Lea led the
party has been fully confirmed from
the lips of n Tennessee man who talk
ed with Col. Lea upon his arrival nj.
Newport News.
While current versions of the story
printed last January in French, Brit
ish and American newspapers assert
ed that the attempt to kidnap thtc
Kaiser was made on Jan. 5, Colonel
Lea indicated to those to whom he
spoke last Sunday that it really took
place just before Christmas.
What were you going to do with
the Kaiser if your kidnapping project
had succeddcd?" Colonel Lea WIS
asked by those to whom he admitted
that he headed the party that went
to the castle of Count Won Bentinck,
near Amcrongen.
"We were going TO give him free
ride to Paris in an automobile and
present him to President Wilson as
Christmas gift.
This statement by Col. Lea would
Indicate that the attempt was made
just before Christmas, and it was in
timatcd tonight that it took place
about Dec. 81. From what was learn
ed from the gentleman who talked to
Colonel Lea ut Newport News there
were fully dozen officers and men
of THE American Army In tthc au-
tomobile party commanded by Colo
mel Lead had tried to obtain possess
ion of the Kaiser.
They were armed with passports,
| which they had managed in come way
to to botain and which enabled them
to travel through Hollond TO the Cast.
| lie where tthc Kaiser was stopping
They got close enough to the presence
Of the Kaiser, Colonel Lean told close
friends since his arrival in this coun-
try, to hear his voice, but were foiled
through the sudden dispatch of Dutch
guards from Ammerongcn ito the
CASTLE, Il contingency wholly unex-
pected nd which forced the American
officers to make quick retirement
! in their military automobiles to avoid
, arrest and possible incrment by the
| Holland authorities, if not court-mar-
tial proceedings in the American
Army, providing their identity should
become known.
! Fear of Court-Martial.
| Colonel Lea did not desire to have
the story of his escapade become
known at the time. 1t is his intention
ito make full public statement re-
garding all the details of the kidnapp-
/ ing attempt rs as soon as he is dis
, charged from the United States Army.
! The possibility thaat he might even
yet have to face cort-martitl for
having crossed into Holland on such
an expedition and that those who were
, with him might be similarly dealt
with, has been one of Colonel LEAFS
motives for extreme reticcnce in the
matter. While in France he and those
who were with him remained exceed
ingly quiet about the matter because
/ they were in constant fear that shcy
would be court-martialed
He related some of the details to
several with whom he talked and told
them that THE party of more than Il
dozen American officers and soldiers
was made up of men from all parts
of the United States.