BULLETIN: Former Kaiser flees

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November 10, 1918

Former German Emperor Wilhelm II and his eldest son, Wilhelm, the former Crown  Prince,  have crossed into the Netherlands.   Wilhelm is expected to travel to De Steeg, near Utrecht.

Field Marshall von Hindenburg is believed to be with the former German Emperor's party.   They arrived at Eysden at 7:30 in the morning, according to reports by a Daily Mail dispatch, sent to newspapers abroad.

Wilhelm was accompanied by "practically the whole German General staff,"  and "ten automobiles carried the party.   The cars "were bristling with rifles and all the fugitives were armed."

The former Kaiser was in uniform.  He alighted at the station, and "paced the platform, smoking a cigarette."

Wilhelm chatted with members of his staff.  He did not look "in the least distressed," according to the correspondent.

There are divergent reports, however, about Wilhelm's departure and arrival in the Netherlands.  A Reuter dispatch from Copenhagen says "semi-officially" that Wilhelm, accompanied by only ten men, had arrived in Arnheim and "occupied Count von Bentinck's chateau."

Another dispatch from Copenhagen, this time form the Exchange Telegraph Company quotes Politken, a Danish newspaper, as saying that when Wilhelm arrived at Maastricht, he was accompanied by his wife, Augusta Viktoria.

In Washington, D.C., the War Department authorized the following dispatch from the General Staff at the Hague:  "Press reports state that the Kaiser arrived this morning in Maastricht, Holland, and is proceeding to Midachten Castle, in the town of De Steeg, near Utrecht."

Midachten Castle is owned by Count Wilhelm Friedrich Carl Heinrich von Bentinck, a member of the Prussian Guards.  Before the war, the count was an attaché at Germany's embassy in London.