SPECIAL ARTICLE.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16430, 25 January 1919, Page 7

SPECIAL ARTICLE.

EX-KAISER WILHELM. ABUT.. EXCESSIT, EVASIT, ERUPIT. I (iTECIALLT WRITTEN* FOB "THE TRESS.") I (By Jt'lian Grande.) BERNE, November 21. it was in the autumn of 1913 that I attended the Swiss manoeuvres at which the ex-German Emperor was present, wearing one of his fifteen hundred uniforms. I thon saw a good deal of him, and had some opportunity of obsorvir«? a character which to most men, especially English-speaking men, will always bo inexplicable. That ho was or an excessively nervous disposition accounts for much, but does not excuse much. Representing, as I did, four leading British papers, I accompanied the exKaiser throughout the manoeuvres, and I was also in tho Swiss capital during tho visit which he paid it. Even then it was ouito clear that the real object of his visit was to spy out not only tho Swiss land, but the Swiss army. Ho wanted to find out whether tho latter was strong onough to resist any attempts which might be made, in that European" war which he was already contemplating, to march through Switzerland against France; or whether / it might not better suit his purposes to march through Switzerland than through Belgium. A subsidiary purpose of his visit was also undoubtedly to dispose the higher Swiss officers in his favour, to flatter them, and incline them to be, in case of a European war, as pro-German as they possibly could bo within the limits of ostensible neutrality. He joked with thorn, allowed himself to be photographed with them, presented them with autograph photographs of himself, invited thorn to luncheons and dinners. In short, he ivas nothing moro nor less than a propagandist agent and spy combined. Even tho Swiss journalists who were following him about received their due jnoed of royal patronago, and scarf pins and cigarette cases were showered upon theui. As a Roumanian colleague of mine' says, ;>ne who also camo in touch with tho ox-Kaiser, no one wants to kick a / fallen lien, but we must first bo. sure 7 thafc. the lion has something leonine ( about him beyond his skin: He- adds: "To the many titles with. which William J I. has been, parading about the world for tho past six and twenty years, one ; more has-just : been 'added, • -one which will remain for all tirtie: William the Coward. . > He left his Empire, his people, v bißv wife,'arid his .''court in tho lurch, in ordef to save that on which, ho. set'most store—his own precious ' - . • Courage of a certain sort he assuredly possessed—that ; courage- which enabled him, with a single str6ko of th,e pen; to -condemn twenty million human Mings- to death. - Afterwards he hatf courage enough to travel from one battlefront to" the other, always with his numorous and pompous 6taff, and in an Imperial ns well war/ned in winter as it was well aired in summer. At the front he had the courage to watch t he fighting through * a telescope, from art exceedingly respectful distance, and whjeu there was. a 'slight lull ini t it to . harangue his soldiers aboilt' bringing the enemy to .his knoee." Next ■' he. Ksd the• couVogo to • go : and bel.au d his fellow-sovereign, Ferdinand of . Bulgaria, or to visit the unspeakable'Turk l and clasy him to his breast as a' brother in arms. But never- did he have the courage to" movo'•_ a :finger, to prevent the extermination - of • Vho Armenians. When his ' own daughter married, he could make .. high-sounding speech about her being the "sunshine of his house," yet he allowed hundreds of thousands of Belgian, French, and Serbian girls to be torn from their, mothers; - some to become "his officers' ordorlies," others to be sold to tho Turks. Another of Irs courageous acts was to .say, when ho cut his finger while opening his famous field-knife. and fork at a the Germani headquarters at Charieville: "You see how I am getting rid of the last drop of English...WootT which I might still have in' my veins." And this tactful speech wasmade before a number of his marshals, generals. Ministers, and ndjntants, several of whom. had English wives or, like the Kaiser himself, wero the sons of EnglisH women'. How the ex-Kaiser treated the mother that bore him, aftej* sho had become a widow, ;is matter of history. And the ■way iff which lib lias treated his otwm wife will, I thiflk, Be no loss matter of history. When Germany's defeat became plain to all, then "William the Divine," . as'. the rector of a German evangelical; seminary called him j in a fit of cringing sycophancy, thought frst --not ofhis people, but of saving jhis throne,*nct ; of saving his wife, but of saving himself. Not for him was is to say : " Xow marie me, how I do undo myaelf: I give this heavy weight from off my head, Xad thii unwieldly eceptro from my hand, Tho pride of kingly away from out my heart; "With mine own teara I wash away my balm, "With mine own haucß I give away my crown, With mine own tonguft deny my sacred state, With mine own breath release all duty's rites:' All pomp'.and majesty J do forswear; - My manors, lento, revenues I forego, i He had .not the courage of Richard n. Neither had he even the courage of Abimelech, who asked his armoarhearerrto draw his sword and slay hi u 4 "that \men .'say not of mo, 'A woman slew him.' " He, had only courage to take to an ignoble flight. . Richard 111., who d(d dare to fight to the last, otfe."ed his;: kingdom for a horse: the exKaiser offered his for an express train with,two engines, and for shelter in!a Dutch country-house. . The ex-Kaiser lacked truo dignity. His behaviour was . a compound, of haughtiness, and vulgar familiarity. : Had hie possessed true exiguity, how would it have been possible for the comic papers of his own country to have cari-catured-him as they did? A slight 'ncident wilKshow that with all his arrogance and insistence upon the paraphernalia of royalty, the ex-Kaiser yet could Ddt avoid that familiarity which breeds contempt. At the Swiss manoeuvres m 1913, when walking past the entrench:*! troops, tho ex-Emperor passed a Reman Catholic army chaplain, lying asleep nnder a tree, in the heat of the day. He exclaimed: "Watch therefore,' for ?e know not at" what hour v your' Lord doth come." "■-In Zurich a choir of male voices sans before his .hotel in the evening, after . Be had been attending a banquet Tne ; ex-Kaiser, resplendent with jewels anrl orders, appeared on the hotel terTace —appeared beforo an assembly largely composed of simple workingm;m. He . summoned the conductor of tiie choir to come and speak to him, and after, congratulating him on his choir s singing, he leant forwarfl and said samething to him. in a confidential stage whisper, -which I myself .'overheard, something supposed to be funny, but which for decency's sake I will not record here. . Let no one be deceived by any . attempte to represent the ex-Kaiser as pad. He was not and is not mad: he is.merely overwhelmingly arrogant «ind •elf-sufficient; to the point of being »«ntally ■ unbalanced, but mad—no. xor the. Bake of the world's peace ho eight not ta remain long in Holland,.

for he has still his agents, and it is inconceivable that neither he nor they will cause disturbances.

"We have to thank the ex-Kaiser, though nor him alone, for the Bolsln.'vist agents now everywhere attempting to* spread anarchy and revolution. He had an unholy alliance with Lenin, nonethe less unholy for never having been admitted; and he may still ba in communication with the Russian terrorist; The Bolshevist agents in neutral lands seem to have no lack of funds, and +o bo drawing these funds from the German secret service. Even if the exKaiser does not think of making use of Bolshevism in order to attempt to regain his crown, he undoubtedly still hopes by means of it to revenue himself upon his enemies by interna! strife and fomenting revolution in their countries.

I roncat, therefore. that the exKaiser's presence in Holland is a grave danger to Europe.