THE GERMAN CHIEF-OFSTAFF.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16289, 23 January 1915, Page 5

THE GERMAN CHIEF-OF-STAFF.

A writer in the Daily Mail gives the following appreciation of the new German chief-of-staff : — "General von Falkenhayn, who has been. Prussian Minister of War since the autumn of 1914, is tho youngest gcnoral staff chicf Germany has ever had. He is only 53 years of age, tho junior of the Kaiser himself, and he supersedes von Moltke, who is 66. General von Falicenhayn k a fine typo of Prussian officcr of the higher grade. Ho became War Minister only a few weeks before the notorious Zabern crisis, which shook military Germany to the foundations. Ho won his laurels as the defender of ' the divino right of colonels' in almost his maiden speech in tho Reichstag. " Neither political foes nor disinterested observers will ever forget the unflinching figure he cut amid the Reichstag's roaring indignation on that occasion. He stood hisl ground like a real soldier, refusing utterly to bo cowed by tho storm which raged around him. He developed genuino parliamentary talents, and his unterrified espousal of the military caste's vested privileges did much to bolster up tho army's position after tho Reichstag had taken a voto of mistrust against Yon Bethmann-Hollweg. "Von Falkenhayn is a trim, active math of medium build, with close-cropped iron grey moustache and hair. Ho was for three years German military instructor in China, and was attached to Field Marshal von WaJdersee'e general staff during the Allies' cpecstkma in China, in 19QQ."