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Show FAILURE PREDICTED BY TEUTON OFFICER Fears the Kaiser's Drive Through Serbia to Constantinople Con-stantinople Too Daring. DANGERS POINTED OUT Says Serbs Will Inaugurate Guerrilla Warfare to Sap German Strength. Special Cable to The Tribune. BERLIN, Nov. 20. Naturally all eyes are directed toward the Balkans, where the German armies are endeavoring endeavor-ing to crush the stubborn resistance of a nation of fighters hardened through centuries of warfare. The plan of forcing a way through to Constantinople is said here to have originated orig-inated with the kaiser and to have met at tirst with strong resistance on the part of the older German generals including in-cluding Yon Hindenburg and Von Mack-ensen, Mack-ensen, who thought it too daring at a time when Germany's armies were weakened weak-ened and with the attitude of Rumania and Greece still uncertain. In reality, of course, the plan is mere-lv mere-lv an altered version of the plan of the g'reat Napoleon in 1798 and 1799, when he hoped to strike down England in India through Egypt, followed by his. later attempt to do the same througa his invasion of Russia in 1812. The kaiser is now trying to conquer the British world empire by repeating the tactics of Napoleon under other conditions con-ditions and in the reverse order. The attempt to annihilate the armies of the czar having failed, and Russia still barring bar-ring the way eastward, the kaiser believed be-lieved that Napoleon ' first attempt to threaten India had a better chance of success under modern conditions than the second, and under the war cry "To Egvpt and India via Constantinople," raised in the entire German press, the frontier of Serbia was crossed. Plan Is Daring. A correspondent has had a long talk with an old German officer, considered one of the first military experts in thi country". "The kaiser's plan," he said, "is certainly most daring and one which appeals ap-peals to the heart of a German soldier, but I am afraid it is being carried into execution too late. Had we tried this stroke at the beginning of the war, as soon as we had won Turkey to our side, I believe vfe should have had a fair chance of success. We should tnen nave had sufficient troops at our disposal to force a wav through Serbia to Constantinople, Constan-tinople, while Serbia was exhausted and unable to. offer any serious resistance, and before England had organized her defenses in Egypt. ' ' Now our path is far more difficult. Of course, we shall ultimately crush the armies of Serbia, but that does not mean that the country itself will be crushed. We shall have to contend with the same kind of incessant guerrilla warfare that sapped the strength of Napoleon in Spain. We are still strong enough to crush a powerful foe putting up a strong concentrated resistance, but what can we do against a thousand invisible foe striking from everywhere! Raids Are Expected. "We should have crushed the Russian Rus-sian armies had they been willing to fight us in a decisive battle, but when they evaded our decisive blows our strength ebbed out in the sand. We shall never be able, I am afraid, to keep our lines of communication through Serbia Ser-bia safe. Thev will be subject to constant con-stant raids which will be exasperating, and the idea of striking at Egypt witn German troops acrosB a desert with the navies of England. Prance and Italy in absolute control of the Mediterranean is sheer insanity. "And still, I am forced to admit that the invasion of the Balkans was forced upon us, because there appeared to be nothing else to do. As a patriotic German Ger-man I can only hope that we may not have weakened" our eastern and western fronts too much and that our enemies mav blunder or quarrel among themselves. them-selves. "I am afraid, however, of this 800-kilometer 800-kilometer long corridor to Constantinople, Constantino-ple, through which we must supply enormous enor-mous masses of troops with rood and munitions and which it will take an entire en-tire army to guard, because it runs through a hostile country whose population popula-tion has had centuries of experience in guerrilla warfare in mountains that hold no secrets from them." In Belgium and especially in Brussels Brus-sels the Belgians irritate the Germans bv an incessant warfare of pin pricks, Y"ou cannot fight flies with heavy guns. The sight of the German military governor gov-ernor fighting the mysterious paper, "Livre Belgique, " which has no office of-fice and is printed God knows where, is quite Quixotic. The governor, with an army of spies at his disposal, has made frantic efforts to discover who is editing and circulat-1 circulat-1 ing the paper. Every printing establishment establish-ment in Belgium has been searched. In Brussels alone 800 printing offioeB, have been visited in vain. Occasionally the paper appears bearing bear-ing the imprint of one of the many German Ger-man firms of printers. It does not appear ap-pear regularly, but whenever a new issue is-sue is printed, the governor finds the first copy lying on his desk on top of all other pauers. marked, "With the compliments of the editor." Who puts it there nobody knows. German detectives have even visited all pnper factories and compared their stock with the paper of the mysterious journal, but in vain, for no similar paper has been found. In his despair the governor has offered of-fered a reward of $15,000to the person who discovers the "diabolical pamphlet-eors" pamphlet-eors" and denunciations by the score reach the "Gernian kpmmandantur" daily. |