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Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16141, 20 February 1918, Page 6

Ileccnt English and American papers give a good deal more of the suppressed interview with the Kaiser in 1008 than has hitherto been published. Halo, the American newspaper man who secured tho interview, got the Emperor in a very expansive and bellicose mood after dinner on tho Imperial yacht Hohenzollcrn in Norwegian waters, and a few days later hurst in upon Mr Wilo, the "Daily Mail's" Berlin correspondent, with tho sensational remark that ho had "heard things from the Kaiser that, if I dared publish them, would cause war between Germany and England in 24 hours."' It turned out that in the course of a two hours' harangue during which the Kaiser gave cvidonco of having dined "not wisely, but too well," ho attacked King Edward and England, declared that ho held France in tho hollow of his hand, that Russia was of no account, that Britain hadi been decadent ever since tho war in South Africa, and that the AngloJapanese allianco was iniquitous against all white races. He used most violent language about tho Japanese, and bitterly attacked tho lloman Catholic Church. Ho also asserted that if a pan-European war was inevitable, the sooner it camo the hotter; Germany would bo found ready, and ho plainly expressed his belief that the British colonies would not prove loyal to Britain.

As wo were told lately, this amazing interview was suppressed by the efforts of the German Foreign Offico, though beforo this the Northcliffe papers had rofuscd it. The Now York "Times' - was approached, hut the Gorman Embassy got to work and influenced tho paper to decline to publish it. Then Halo sold it for £200 to tho "Century" Magazine, which printed it, and had it ready for publication, but eventually withheld it, when the proprietors were convinced by German diplomats that it would infallibly provoke war. The story was torn out of tho printed magazines, placed on a German cruiser then, visiting the United States, and thrown overboard, but the boxes containing tho dangerous pages floated, and had to bo recovered and burned.

There can be little doubt that the extraordinary pressure exerted by high diplomatic and military personages co prevent tho publication of the Imperial indiscrotions -was due to the fact that, notwithstanding the Kaiser's boasts to Mr Hale, Germany was not ready for war in 1908. As Mr Wile says, it suited the war party much better that tne Kaiser should go, as he did a few weeks later, to Highcliff Castle, ;.t

Curistchurch,- in Hampshire, and there, in the famous interview published in tho London "Daily Telegraph," express his unquenchable love of England and the British. "My heart is set on peace," he, said on this occasion, "and it is one of my dearest wishes to live on the best of terms •with England. Have I ever been false to my word? Falsehood and prevarication are alien to my nature. My actions ought to speak for themselves." And there were large numbers of people who swallowed that bunkum, and raved against those who foresaw tho coming war. Aftor the war had broken out tho "Century," which haJ preserved' a copy of the suppressed interview, wanted to print it, but once more German diplomacy, this time in the person of Count Bcrnstorff, induced tho magazine to withhold it. He feared particularly the effect it might have on the Catholics of Austria and Italy. According to a New York message, it is expected that the interview will bo published in full in the future. Why not now, when its revelations might be of some value in widening the split between Germany ancl Austria?

Germany, as "wo know, has, by the mouths of numerous publicists and politicians, declared her intention of regaining, by tho terms of peace, the colonial possessions that she has proved unable to hold in war. As proof of lior determination, and as maintaining her claims, the German Government has just recently appointed Privy Councillor Dr. Haber to bo Governor of German Jievf Guinea. Dr. Haber was tho occupant of this position from January, 1914, until the Australian expeditionary force captured the colony' early in tho war. Where lie is now is not mentioned. Possibly he was among the Germans whom Australia, after th© capture of Friodrich "Wilhelmshaveii, generously permitted to return to Germany.

It is unlikely, in that case, that he was accompanied by an Austrian with a wide knowledge of the tragedies of the Austrian Court. This man, of whom a London paper lately spoke, is, or was— it is not known whether he is still alive —Baron de I'Abasco, whose appearance, which was that of a handsome, stalwart tobacco-planter, gave no indication thafc ho was an exile from tho Imperial Court of Austria. But the Baron knew tco. much to be allowed to live in Europe, He was a captain of the Imperial Guard at tho Koyal Palace at the time of Uie death of the Crown Prince Rudolf; Tie was on duty on the night when the Archduke John Salvator mysteriously disappeared, to reappear once moi.o as tho seaman Johann Orth, and th/:u to disappear beyond all knowledge. ''What the Baron knew," says the "Chioir'icle," "he would not tell. He was ba'a : /shed, and his estates were confiscated. He went to New Guinea, lived a p Sinter's life, with his dark secrets locked in his heart. But he could entertain, rra English M.P., and from tho latt/»i; oomes the story.'*