YON MOLTKE'S DISGRACE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27, 2 February 1915, Page 7

YON MOLTKE'S DISGRACE

SQUABBLES WITH THE KAISER. THE CALAIS FIASCO. (MOW OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT) LONDON, iiiind December. The story which comes to hand about the dismissal of Count yon Moltke from the chief command of the German armies [ in the west is so characteristic that most ! people will not question its accuracy. It is now a month or two ago that yon Moltke was said to be suffering from a slight indisposition which required rest and change, and it was announced that he had gone to Homburg for a cure. Though the indisposition was said to be inconsiderable the cure lasted week after week and finally it was stated that the Chief of Staff had returned to Berlin considerably improved but that lie would not be able to take the field again for some time. There were rumours at the time that yon Moltke had fallen out with the Kaiser, but these rumours have been abroad in some sliape or form ever since war broke out. Now the Handlesblad publishes a statement which is generally accepted as accurate. This paper ascribes the "disgrace" of the Chief of Staff to a difference of opinion between Count yon Moltke and the Kaiser about a couple of months ago. It is Baid that from the beginning of the campaigns there were constant differences and rather heated arguments as to the course which should be adopted to overcome the opposition of the AUies. Over and over again when the Kaiser visited the Western front he interfered in the arrangements of the campaign, interposing schemes formulated by his own favourites, Generals yon Falkenhayn, yon Lyncker, and yon Plessen. 'When Antwerp fell, tho Kaiser's one aim was to reach the coast at Calais and so endanger England. Yon Moltke all along desired to concentrate on breaking through the line of the Allies at Verdun, and so compelling the British troops to retire to the northward, where he hoped that yon Kluck would .be able to cut off their reinforcements. There are said to have been many bitter disputes on these rival schemes, and Count yon Moltke is said to have spoken out very plainly in condemnation of the Kaiser's plan, which he considered both futile and reckless. But the Kaiser, needless to say, had men by him who were only too glad of the chance of demonstrating their ability to carry out his scheme. General yon Falkenhayn. who has been at the Ministry of War since the retirement of General yon Heeringen, willingly worked out the details of the Calais move and undertook supreme command to carry it out. What success he has had we now know. Almost at the same time as the desperate efforts to get through at Ypres ana Dixmude came to grief. Count yon Moltke appeared again at headquarters. It would not ba at all surprising, when Germany at large has finally had to admit the failure of the Calais attempt, if yon Moltke does not come into his own again, and with rather more freedom from interference. It is said that the only German general who is strong enough to be free from the attacks of the Kaiser s entourage is yon Hindenburg, [ who, v in command in Poland.

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