THE KAISER'S DOSSIER

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 40, 10 November 1917, Page 8

THE KAISER'S DOSSIER

LOCKED IN THE BANK OF ENGLAND

BISMARCK'S UNPUBLISHED MEMOIRS Locked in the vaults of the Bank of England is a powerful weapon against Iho Kaiser, which it is said he keenly dreads, bat which thus far England has not produced against him, in 6pite of the pressure which has been brought to bear.upon him. It is a question of honour that saves him, the honour of the bank. This weapon, according to an account given in the New York "Evening Sun" by La Marquise de Fontenoy, is the manuscript of (lie third and most interesting volume of the memoirs of the Iron Chancellor—"his posthumous revenge upon the Kaiser." The "Sun" says:

"It may lie recalled that Bismarck died full of the most bitter find savage resentment, against (he Kaiser; a resentment carefully fanned by the old princess and by all bis entourage. He bad a vitriolic tongue and a etill more vitriolic pen, and it is known that be did Tint spare the Emperor in his final reminiscences." In the unpublished volume :re related with all the bitterness engendered by Bismarck's forced retirement the events in connection with the illness of limperor Frederick, tli; vain attempts lo eliminate that ill-M?d monarch from the succession, his brief reitfn. and the first few years of the present Emperor's rule. The story of the Kaiser's differences with his Mother over the disposal of bis father's diaries and the details of Bismarck's own dismissal from office are set forth. The memoirs' would have been published in their writer's lifetime had' not the Emperor threatened dire nenalties to the author in the event of its anpearance, and so— "The old Chancellor, fenrinj that the Kaiser mivbt proceed to the lenfth of ordering the seizure not onlv of his manuscripts but of all bis crvresnnudenee, and documents at 7rii»lriclisnme. managed, (11011711 not without difficult?, to smntrcle t'ie manuscript of the third volume ami his most precious panel's out of the country and over to London, wher» th"v have lv>r>n lodi'wl ever since in the Bank of England."

Tn a *imilnr manner, after the Irn ,, ThnnHlor's death, his sons were warned Hint the memoirs were not to be published, and all the heirs .ire now bound hv a solemn uledie that tlie volume phnll rc'iain in the T* n nk of and filin'l not be nublished during William's life. The Km'ser endeavoured to obtain from them thn surrender of the manuscript, but , in this he failed. Black Record of Duplicity. The memoirs are said to contain reyelatione concerning the Kaiser, both prior and subsequent to his accession to the throne, which would place him in so Odious a light in the eyes of the house of Hapsburg and' of the Dual Empire generally that tho alliance between Berlin and Vienna could not but be gravely affected thereby. And it is this consideration that is being pressed upon flic British Government. Tho memoirs reveal so much double dealing at the expense of Austria, such ambitious designs, expressed in writing, to supplant the Hapsburgs in the rulership of the Dual Empire, such a P«issian contempt for Hapsburgs and for the Austrians, for the Slav races subject to Emperor Charles's rule, that tho Kaiser would never dare to show his face again at Vienna. What probably William dreads even still more aro the revelations concerning his incredibly unfilial conduct toward both hie parents. ' Nowhere would the confiscation of these memoirs by the British Government and their publication create greater satisfaction than in Germany, where the cult of Bismarck grows rather than diminishes with years, since the beginning _ of the present war, and where his relatives and his admirers all look for the day when by the publication of these reminiscences the Iron Chancellor's name will be righted in the eyes of the world. Students of history all over the world look with interest for the publication of this third volume of Bismarck's memoirs and correspondence eo dreaded by the Kaiser and are gratified to know that the documents in question have escaped the fate of the equally frank, disconcerting, and voluminous diaries of his own father, the late Emperor Frederick. These other diaries, covering the entire period from 1860 to 1888, were smuggled over to England while Emperor Frederick lay dving-at Ms request and in obedience to his instructions-by Ins consort, being carried away, it was said, by members of the suite of old Queen Victoria when she visited Berlin to take a last farewell of that (son-in-law whom she used always to describe as "unser Fritz" and to whom she was deeply devoted. Emperor William was unaware of this removal of the diaries, and the very moment that his father had breathed his last at Potsdam he caused the entire palace to bo surrounded with a cordon of troops to prevent the diaries from being carried off. He started a relentless search with a view to their seizure. His abominable treatment of his mother during the following months was due to the knowledge that she had frustrated his designs. She claimed them as her private property, and osserted her right to publish them if it seemed to her necessary to defend her husband's memory against the insinuations of her son's entourage. It was only through Queen Victoria's mediation, which the Kaiser invoked, that Empress Frederick was eventually induced to have them, brought back from England to Germany and to surrender them to her son, vh promptly destroyed them to avoid further risk. It is eaid that if the British Government haa not yet proceeded to publish the Bismarck documents now in the possession of the Bank of England, it is owing to the protests of the bank. Its directors are said to fear that in the event of'tho Government making use of its authority to seize ,the documents for political purposes, the , confidence reposed at home, and especially abroad, in the bank as a fiduciary institution would be impaired. Foreign rulers, foreign Governments, Latin-American dictators, capitalists from China, from the Orient, and other parts of the earth have alwavi felt Hint the one place in.the world where their riches would be safe and secure from all seizure was' in the vaults of the Bank of England, the safest refuse on the face of the irlohe. The directors hold that the fame of the bank as such would be injuriously affected were it forced to surrender to the Government the memoirs and nepers of Prince Bismarck, even thoueh they be in every sense of the word enemy property.