HOW THE KAISER ESCAPED.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14705, 4 June 1920, Page 5

HOW THE KAISER ESCAPED.

One of the men who stopped the German Kaiser at the Holland frontier on the day when the fleeing War Lord, his armies crumbling and his people 111 revolt, knocked at the door of The Netherlands and asked asylum, told the tale latelv. as follows: I sat in the lobby of the Tort Shelby Hotel yesterday. What would you say if a person came to your door and said: "The Kaiser is out here and wants to see you." Joseph M. W. Joosten, late of the Dutch Army, looked with impatience and unbelief at the excited subordinate who gave him the message, that day in November, 1918. _ . "Go away, and don't josh," he saia sternly. "What do you mean by getting me lip at this unholy hour in the morning to play tricks?" But it was not josh. The Kaiser was outside, waiting at the electrified border barrier, until Lieutenant Joosten, or some one, would be so kind as to say he could enter. 'He waited, in all his Imperial regalia, until Joosten said he had about decided they would have to park William Hohenzollorn in a pigeon coop, and let it go at that. ■Toosten was patrolling a sector of the Dutch frontier at tlie village of Eysen. He was in bed when four closed automobiles pulled up to the frontier and stopped. The sentry, f, peasant, looked on curiously as a, driver came forward. • "This is the Kaiser s party, he said. "Nobody passes, Kaiser or not," the guard replied. The sentry didn't believe it was the Kaiser, and if it .were, he didn't see why he should btfther about it. Jn another hour his relief would come. Let his successor take care of this fellow who was trying to be funny. It was trouble en.oiigh to stand in the rain. Seven German generals who alighted from the automobiles did not impress him, hut at least he called a corporal and the corporal summoned a sergeant. - "Hava you passports ' asked the sergeant. "His Majesty's people are in revolution and he wishes to seek safety in Holland," replied one of 'the Germans. "You can .stay here on the road then," said the sergeant," "while I send ivord to the lieutenant." • Thus Joosten, sleeping soundly after i night motor-cycle ride along the bor- ; ier, was told. Ho was sceptical. | "I think to mvself, 'This is very bad dam fix.'" said-Joosten, in describing it. "I. didn't know where to put him." "I believe you all right," said Joosten to the German general who met him at the border, "but- I can t let you come through."' He telephoned his major and that officer also was perplexed. They decided to telegraph the Hague for orders. - • Meanwhile the runaways were allowed to pass on to the smalL railway depot at Eysen, where the Kaiser alighted. He was in a general's uniform with sniked helmet, according to Joosten. The royal train of coaches and 37 servants arrived at tpe town at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. The news -soon spread. Roads blackened with people hurrying afoot to the little depot. In the beginning the j crowd merely tried to catch a glimpse of the celebrity. As the hours wtent on, this mood changed. Then someone hissed; someone yelled, "Kill him!" and the mass surged forward, pressing those in front against the sides of the train. The Dutch guard, 26 strong, drove them back with clubbed rifles.-Joosten expected a bomb, he said, but it didn t come. The crowd thinned as the evening wore on, and the Kaiser, smoking, appeared on the hteps about 11 o'clock. Would the Dutch major join him P The major, with his'lieutenant, went aboard the train. "He talked, like you and. I talk." said Joosten. "Hif? voice was soft He said the. end had come. 1 had seen him at manoeuvres m Westphalia. in 1912- and he did not seetn j much changed. Perhaps his hair .-was a little grayer, but that. was aU. , A country had taken its idol off. the. inantelpiece and dashed it on the .floor. 1 shall never forget that night." The next morning the Netherlands I Government gave official permission_for the imperial train to moye into Holl land. ' -