The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-11-03

Bavaria. Saxony and Wurtemberg rank ed equal to ourselves. They had their representatives at c. H. e., in the per son of the military representatives of the separate contingents. The Barva- rians were always changing their re- presentative.
 The other function of these offices
 was to uphold the interests of their own armies as against G. H. .. It must
 be clear that not even in the German army was jealousy wholly non-exist- ent If any difficulties arose in any part of the field, one national contin- gent was at times disposed to lay the blame on another. At one time there
 would be complaints of too heavy losses, at another of too little oppor- tunity to shine
 There were also personal questions to be settled with the military repre- sentatives. These officers co-operated well with c. H. e. | think l must have convinced them that 1 attended 10 their interests in a. disintereSted spirit I have never made any difference be- tween the four contingents. Ihey aii did their duty and all had their good and less good divisions. Wurtemberg alone had only good ones. The Baden divisions deserve the same praise al- though they did not form sparate contingent.
 In spite of the variety of the peoples composing 1t the army held together we'll It was only after long perloo of nerve racking toll that certain spirit of hostility manifested itself be- tween the Bavarians and the Prussians. And this never applied to officers of higher rank.
 SUCCUMBED TO THE HOMES
 In many directions the war minis
 complied with our requests. and l fOund them loyal helDeTS. when, however the exigencies of war began to affect the home life Of the people more and more intimately, the officials
 could not shake themselves free of home influences They succumbed ia- stead of rising superior ii them, and thus failed to give the army that moral support 1t so urgently needed.
 l had no dealings with the general
 officers commanding the home com mands, except on questions of patriotic instruction They were not under the orders of G. H. Q. Under the Belager- ungsgesetz (the law of the state Of seigeD they were absolutely independ- ent. and after the creation by the Reichstag of a supreme military au- thority, in the autumn of 1916, they were made responsible to the war min isters, as was already the case in Bava- ria. (Much popular anger in Germany was directed at the autocrattc ways or the generals in command or VarlouS ue- partments. Ludendorff declines to take responsibility for them.)
 By this appointment the Prussian war minister became of much more im- portance to the successful prosecution of the war. His responsibility was much greater, and he had now frankly to remind the chancellor of his duty to strengthen moral. in order that that of the army should not suffer. He had also to insist that order should be maintained at home from whatever quarter it was threatened. This was what the army expected of the Prus- l sian war minister.
 1 HOME GENERALS LOST POWER the law creating supreme military 1 cran officers commanding the home
 commands. Indeed, it was the precise
 object of that law, which aimed prima- riIy nt them and all their works l It is true that in the interpretation of the law relating to associations and l in the application of the censorship, l as well as in many other matters. IL
 was a great disadvantage to have a
 multiplicity of authorities and 1t must | have led to considerable confusion. l More and more, as the Chancellor i yielded to party pressure, uncertainty i and confusion spread from Berlin to the provinces. Independent action on the part of the general officers com
 manding the home commands became rarer and rarer. The law creating the
 supreme military authority, which