FORBIDDEN BOOK

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17105, 29 March 1921, Page 7

FORBIDDEN BOOK

BISMARCK'S MEMOIRS. I EX-KAISER AND THE MILITARISTS j (By Cablfr— Press A&foeiatitm—Copyright.) ("Tho Time*.") j LONDON, March 26. The forbidden third volumo of Bismarck's Memoirs, which is on the eve of publication, discloses ample reasons for tho ox-Kaiser's anxiety that it -hould not see the light of day. The volume vividly demonstrates the j ox-Kaiser's leanings towards war, both ; before and immediately after he attained tho throne. Bismarck realised, even when the elder Wilhelm was still alive, the ill-elfects that the military society cif Potsdam were exorcising on _ the voting man's character, but the stinginess of the Imperial Household defeated his efforts to transfer the Prince to Berlin. When he was twenty-seven the Prince applied for, and was granted, access to :lie Foreign Office documents, despite 'lis father's strong disapproval. Frederick wrote: "Considering tho unripeness and inexperience of my son, with his vanity, presumption, and overweening self-estimation, it is dangerous, as yet, to bring him into touch with foreign affairs." Notwithstanding the extension of this orivilecre. Bismarck was chagrined to find "Wilhelm ascend the throne without any impressions of tho internal life of Germany other than those afforded bv regimental life. ' While his grandfather and father were both alive, tho Prince drew up a brief proclamation "to my future colleagues, the princes of the German Empire," embodying His views on their mutual relations, which he conceitedly affirmed were very different from his" father's. Wilhelm requested that sealed copies of this document be deposited in the legations of the various German courts, but Bismarck, struck by tho folly and indecency of the proceeding advised him to burn them without delav. Wilhelm, nevertheless, contrived to convey the impression to the minor courts that his father's views were stricter than his own. Wilhelm's first hint of his "mailed fist" predilections was given a month or two before reaching the throne. He wrote a letter which showed how fully the Prussian militarists of 1888 anticipated the views and plans of their successors in 1914, and how thoroughly thev permeated the man launching the world war. The militarists considered the moment favourable for attacking Russia, and. writes Bismarck, "claiming for the General Staff a more powerful influence over Imperial politics, Wilhelm considered that the Gorman and Austrian military authorities should have been called "to attention in juitnmn last year, when a favourable military opportunity for warlike procedure then offered itself to both countries." The opportunitv did not come till twentyfive years later. Another remarkable pronouncement made at the same time by the future Emperor has a bearing on Russia's position to-day. He foresaw that Russia after an unsuccessful war, could fall as the result of critical internal trouble into quite a different state of impotence than it was likely would happen in the case of any other European State.