The Greeneville daily sun. (Greeneville, Tenn.) 1918-1920, 1919-09-08
Kaiser Fought
Hard Against
Abdication
Hand Forced After Several
Conferences When Prince
Max Made Statement.
By CARL D. GROAT

BERLIN. (By Mail. Germany
has a hard time admitting that she
was "militarily" defeated when the
armistice came.
But Gen. Hindenburg, Gen. Groen-
er and many other of her prominent
leaders knew it quite well, and very
plainly told the Kaiser Nov. 9 last
that the Gig was up entirely and
that he must abdicate at once, ac-
cording to revelations just made in
the pan-German press from "authen-
tic sources which IN Germany US
ually means quite official sources.
While the purpose of the pan-Ger-
man press in making the disclosures
was probably to present quite diff
ferent aspect of the closing days at
great headquarters, Spa, nevertheless
the admission of defeat is quite out
The revelations, in a nutshell, show
that group of generals urged the
laiser to abdicate because of the in
ternal revolution; that he hesitated
and wanted to lead an army against
the revolters ITO save the Father
land" that a canvass or other high
generals showed such a project was
impossible; that they couldn't guar
antee their troops would fight boil
shevism and that almost without ex-
ception they declared the army was
in such shape that it wanted only to
quit and get home The situation
was pictured to the kaiser as one of
with food and supplies
low, with a crack in the lines COM
ing any time-in a word, that Ger
many was militarily beaten and in no
shape to carry on. The kaiser's hand
was finally forced after Prince Max
of Baden, without permission, gave
out to the Wolff official news agency
a statement that Wilhelm had abdi-
Gated The kaiser was willing to re-
nounce the title of kaiser but not
king of Prussia. He was finally per-
suaded to leave, though not until he
had had several changes of heart, and
until his generals had told him that
they could not guarantee his safety
f he did not take an immediate de-
parture for Holland.
The pan-German journals produced
the outline just at the time when the
pan-German group in the assembly
was seeking to unseat Erzberger and
the government. The OBJ
iect of their disclosures perhaps was
to strengthen the position of he
kaiser with the people, and thereby
to support the Deutsch national par
ty in Weimar, by picturing him as
seeking only the veal of the father
land up to the last minute of his rule.
1t was on the first of November in
the great headquarters at Spa that
the subject of abdication was first
broached to the kaiser, who promptly
rejected the idea. On the 5th and
5th Gen. Groener was in Berlin where
he gained the impression that the alb
dication of both the kaiser and the
crown prince could hardly be post
poned any longer with safety, but
felt as an officer he ought not to
broach the matter further, since the
kaiser had once refused. On the 9Th
the kaiser conceived the notion of
leading an army against the revolters.
On the same day, Hindenburg,
Groener and Gen. Plesse conferred
at Spa, Plesse, who was close to the
kaiser, was issenuer from the
whole scheme, but the discussion de-
that the movement inside
Germany was desperate, that the sup
plies and food for the troops were
for only a few days, and
that transport of other material was
being hindered at important
junction points, including Cologne.
The group agreed that sufficient
reliable troops for a march against
the revolutionists were not to be had.
So the following morning, the whole
was presented to the kaiser.
Plesse and Gen. Schuldenburg dis
sented. Hindenburg and Groener
said that the fact that the troops had
fought well in the spring was no
proof that they could longer be de-
pended on, and that chaos-Avas un.