Omaha daily bee., 1919-05-12

break out at any minute. The army
in the field had rations only for a
few days, and if the army was to
feel the pinch of hunger catastro-
phe would be the result. The army,
he claimed, was not to be relied on
any longer. 1t would be absolutely
impossible to command the army to
turn about face with the enemy's
armies at its back and march three
weeks back into the heart Of Ger
many for the purpose of waging a
civil war. According to his own and
the field marshal's opinion, which
was supported by all the chiefs OF
the departments as well as b.. the
quartermaster general (Ludendorff)
the general in charge of the commits
sary and the general in charge of the
railroads, the German fatherland' S
only salvation would be the immed-
late abdication of the emperor.
"Thereupon the kaiser asked me
to express my opinion What |
said is about as follows:
The army group commanded by
the crown prince behaved excellent
ly during those many weeks of
fighting in the fall and always Of
fered the toughest kind OF resistance,
in spite of the almost superhuman
demands made upon their staying
power and nerves. Now their lines
are thinned out, and the men, while
still in the hands of their leaders,
have only one desire, armistice and
rest. After an armistice is once
signed it will be difficult to lead
the army against the enemy.
Needed Rest Badly.
But after the men have a few
days of rest, after they had had
time to delouse themselves, after
they have slept a decent night
sleep, when they can be housed in
decent quarters where they have a
chance of cleaning and recuperating,
their leaders will again be able to
control them and Their fighting
spirit will return. Of course. you
cannot make the whole army in the
west turn about face at a moment
command for the purpose of fight
ing a civil war in the interior of
Germany.
"The army would not stand for
that, but that is not at all neces-
sary. Why do we not engage the
revolutionists in spots? Why do we
hoist the white flag right at the be-
ginning, without offering the least
resistance? We should send picked
troops, commanded by picked Off
GERS, and supplied with the most
modern of weapons, such as fog,
gas, bombing squadrons, flame
throwers, etc, to Aachen, Verviers
and Cologne, to begin with, and let
us restore order in those places by
the force of arms. Of course, a pre-
requisite, absolutely necessary for
waging such campaign i. the right
kind of a slogan.
Hits at Profiteers.
81 am sure our men will fall for
this slogan if we tell them that the
navy in conjunction with Jewish
war profteers and stay at homers is
stabbing them in the back and is de-
priving the field army of its food
supplies. This slogan will take, |
am sure it will arouse the men. 1t
is bound to have salutary effect on
the whole country when the people
see order restored by the force of
arms in certain places, when they
see we are determined to follow this
up with similar action in other
places. Determination is every
thing.
1t is true, the army's food sup
plies are short. But we have
enough to live on for some days
Besides the, bulk of our army is in
Belgium, rich country, which can
feed our men for some eight days OF
more should it come to the worst.
So far the supply trains carry
ing food to the army have not been
stopped by the bolshevists. Let us
take a chance and wait to see
whether they will dare to stop the