SAFETY FIRST.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 11763, 25 February 1919, Page 6

SAFETY FIRST.

REVELATIONS AT SPA • ‘‘FUNK HOLES” FOR KAISER AND BINDENBURG. The following story from the Associated Press is given for what it is worth. If it is not true it ought to be. Spa, Belgium, December 16.—The former headquarters of the Kaiser and his general staff is disclosing some extraordinary queer facts these days about the men who engineered the world war. Take for one, Hindenburg, Germany’s superman around whom reams of poetry have been written disclosing him as a fearless Napoleon leading his troops to victory. , As a matter of fact, he | spent a great deal of time in a wonderfully constructed “funk hole,” or dmrout, underneath the grounds of his villa here. Spa, it may be noted, is almost on Che German border, ani so far from where battle lines used to be that it was almost a day’s journey in faßt 4 motor-car to get wilhin sound of the big guns. The Kaiser, too, had a similar hiding place at Neltois, near a comic opera trench system about which he is said to have paraded for the benefit of motion . pictures. At each of their villas there ware delicate electrical instruments which would set up furious bnzzing whenever an airplane approached anywhere near. At the first sound from the contrivance Hindenbnrg and the Kaiser used to run to shelter, it is reported. People who worked about Hindenbnrg’s estblishment said that he was continually running for cover. America’s representatives on the International Armistice Commission are now occupying Hindenbnrg’a headquarters, and they were amazed when they discovered this underground lefngo of the great warrior. The entrance was through the dining room. From there a flight of steps led down to a tiled ante-room which, by the way, now serves as a very good pantry tor the Americans. “ From the tiled room there was another flight of steps that led down to the real dngont. This was blocked by a huge iron door about one inch in thickness, which could be looked from the inside only. Within, it was fastened by a double holt which would do credit to an American hanking establishment. The dngont itself was luxuriously equipped On the floor was a heavy flowered carpet, and Louis XIV. table and chairs added to the artistic arrangement. The walls, whoh were of corrugated iron, were painted solid white, and the whole place was brilliantly illuminated by electricity. On a little table was an electric fan to keep the Marshal cool in summer while an electric stove provided heat in winter. The room was about 14ft x 12ft, and was protected by 4ft to 6ft of earth before it The Emperor’s dugoat was similar, except that, it was much deeper underground, acd there were two entrances, one through the villa and the other from the grounds. The mala entrance was from the house, and led down a long flight of steps. Another tonch to the picture was added to-day when a German resident of Aix-la-Chapelle told the correspondent of the Associated Press that the Crown Prince spent virtually all of his time in amusement.