intention to the military authorities,--a rule which the young man had
violated.

The German press, in its comments on the case, admits that it has an
importance far beyond the person of the accused.

The Berlin _Post_, one of the chief organs of the aristocracy in
Germany, said:

"In the interest of the army's good name it is urgently
requisite that abuses such as have been partly disclosed
should be speedily and thoroughly eradicated."

The Berlin _Tageblatt_, a leading paper, said:

"Lieutenant Bilse's book should be seriously pondered in
high places."

The _Vossische Zeitung_, one of the oldest and most respected journals
at the German capital, made this comment:

"That such things could be possible in German military corps
would have seemed impossible to the most malevolent critic
... the public confidence must be restored."

The Hamburg _Nachrichten_, Bismarck's old organ, says:

"We regret to admit that the picture is not overdrawn."

And that is the tenor of all the comment of the entire German press.
In the neighboring countries, in the house of Germany's friends,
Austria and Italy, the comment was even more outspoken; while in
France and Russia, although their political affiliations are not
precisely friendly to Germany, more forbearance was shown.

The Bilse book and the Bilse case have since formed the theme of
divers debates in the Reichstag. On an interpellation from some of the
delegates, the Minister of War, General von Einem, made some
interesting admissions. He did not deny that Bilse had stated, in the
guise of fiction, established facts; nor did he repudiate the
statement that the conditions described by the author existed in
duplicate form or worse in many garrisons of the empire.

The Kaiser himself was forced, much against his will, to take notice
of Bilse's book. A detailed report was made to him by the chief of his
Private Military Cabinet, General von Huelsen-Haeseler, on all the
essential facts underlying the plot of _A Little Garrison_. He
expressed himself as much grieved at the terrible revelations in it.
In their totality they presented a state of facts of which he himself,
thoroughly acquainted as he had deemed himself to be with conditions
in his army, had been ignorant.

The immediate outcome of this conviction on his part was the issuance
of a secret decree directed to the various commanders of the
twenty-three army corps