HIS SHELTERING WING

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 75, 23 December 1918, Page 8

HIS SHELTERING WING

CRIMINALS AND THE KAISER

IMPERIAL PROTECTION From time to lime, in order lo save both himself and his CuuH from grave scandal, the Kaiser has -prutouli'd pwipls guilty of the most; serious crimes iroin lioiiiff brought to dial for llu-in (>avs a writer in "Pearson's"}. Several cases of this kind isuno directly under my notice when I was with the lit lingers in Berlin. One of the most noted of these, crimes occurred' in connection wilh the failure of a biff financial concern, known as the "Prince's Trust." This concern was p-oniole'd by Prince Fnyslenburg, one of the Kaiser's must intimate friends iind it well-known figure in Ine hnaiicial world in Berlin. The frauds commiihHl by Prince P.iirstoniMirg were identically of the Ki-mo kind as those coin milted by Ihe lale WhiHaker Wright, except; that in the caso of the Prince the frauds worn of ii more obvious kind. The warrant was actually issued «t the liislance r.t the Public 'Prosccnlor for Ihe Princes nrrest, and a statement to tins effect upneured in a well-known Berlin paper. The Kaiser was a<: Kiel at. the timo (lh\s was in the Rprinir of 18i:i). Tlio Prince, when he learnt tunt a wrant was about to be issuc.il lor Ins arrest, went to Kiel to fee the Jvaiser. •••i(-l- the r<«t!>l- Hi-'- li-■' Ka"-«r *'"":! tn the Minister of the Interior, ITerr P.nkrof, ordering him to suspend the execution of the warrant, and subsequently the. warrant was cancelled. In the meantime the editor of the paper which piililishcrt the statement that a warrant kid been issued for the arrest .01 the Prince, had the publication of his paper suspended for a neck Mid was fined .£5(10. Prince Fursleiibivrg mode nn immense fortune, out of "Princes Trust" The manner of Etlmtiers told i me that from the papers and accoun.a that he saw the Prince must have pu no less than ,S25!).W> of the ehareholders money into liis pocket.

Murder in Train. Another notorious wise of the Kaiser protecting a friend of Ins from the Lvor of the law was when lie refuted to allow Count liJode.nstßin to be put on rial for Hie murder of a girl named ' »u!cin Esthnun. The Count was being ■ blnckmailed by the gwl. who had fortnerlv been a governess in his house. One Tveninir when the Count was. (ravelling from Potsdam to Berlin. a. journey o. about twontv miles. Fraulein Eathmen mot him cither by djwice or dos.en at Potsdam etation and travel ed to Belli" with him. They travelled alone, together, and the Count shot her dead during .the iournev. ; , ~ Tm The 'Count was a member of the Imperial Household, and n great-friend .of theKaser's. He wont to the Imperial Mace direct from the railway station and Informed the Wr of what he had done The Kaiser at once decided not to allow the Count to be arrested in connection with the murder nf the girl, the chief of the police was informed by he Minister of- the Tntenor, the next day. thnt Count Medenslcin of tho Imperial Household, hi.d. travelled by the same- train as Fraulein KatUmcn from Potsdam to Berlin when she was murder«l but that the circumstances must not bo allowed in any way to implicate the Count in the crime, and that under no circumstances was a. warrant for his arrest to he issued. .. That, letter was the official way of toiiinir the police that the Count had mnr'acred Fraulein Esthmen. tat that it was the Kaiser's wish that he should not be arrested for the crime. As a matter ot fact, three Tailwny servants. at the /eiblatz railway station in Berlin, which is the terminus of the Berlin to IMfdnm railway, saw the Count ret out of the carriage where the body of the murdered woman was found. . There i? no doubt that Fraulein Esthmen had blackmailed the Count in (he most cruel manner Her persecution of him, I think, drove him partly out of his mind. But be that as it may, the hard fact remains that the Count murdered Fraulein Estlimon and that Ihn Kaiser' prevented any srens beiiifr taken to have the Count put on his trial because the Count was a member of his i household.

Countess Who Pawned Pearls, The Conmess Elsburjr was another prominent member of the lioyal entourage whom the Kaiser would not allow to be prosecuted for a. deed that would have entailed on her a term of imprison-

ment and social disgrace if the Kaiser had not shielded her from both. The Countess was in pecuniary difficulties. She purchased a pearl necklace worth .m.flOfl from TTulzleiiV, the well-known jewellers in Berlin. She paid .£SOO deposit nml agreed to pay (lie balance by monthly instalments of\£soo. She then pawned' (he necklace for JJ7OOO, and in this way relieved herself of Gomo very pressing lial)ilitic3. When three months' instalments for the necklace became due llatzlen's became, very pressing, and finally they offered to lake bai'k the necklace from Hie Counless, lint she was _ not, of course, in a position to return it. Ultimately the jcvelleis icnrnL that lihe hurt pawned the lii'eklace and they applied for a wnrrnnl for her am-sr.

But in the meanwhile the Countess had made a confession to the Kaiser of what she had done, and the issue of the. wiirrnnl: wn« refined- Eventually the Ksii'cr (rave the {.'oiinlws the money lo ri'dociu lilt , necklace, nnd "he returned it. to the jewellers; the Kaiser only saved the Countess in order to sure a Court scandal.

Any criminal prosecutions in Germany can be slopped a! the instance of the ' Minister of the Interior, and no reason need be as'iprned for his doing so. The action* of the Milliliter of tho Interior as a Minister of State are entirely controlled liy' Uic Kaiser, and the Kaiser can, there-fore, atop any prosecution he pleases. This power is supposed only lo lie exercised bv tho Chan-c-'Unr cn'llie Kai-ev's behalf for reasons of Stale, but, as has been shown, it is frequently, as is well known, in Berlin, exercised by the Kaiser for personal reasons. Cheating at CardG. Just before the w General von I'alIcsnliayn wns u willies',- in the famous slander action which the Baron Eii.w.'-ier took against Colonel Count Versheini of the Death Head lluf-stm;. The action arose over a charge that tho coloiwl had made agaiint the biirou of cheatiiuj at cards. General von l-'alkmhayn v;.s a witness on behalf of the colonel, who lost, the action nnd had to pay the baron .-C3GOO. Subsequently proceedings were asjninst von Mkenhayii fov committing 'pji'jnry, but these proesedinge were never continued and nothing more was heard about the matter. The Kaiser hud intervened to save, his friend. Hut sometimes tho Kaiser interfered, or attempted to interfere, with the ordinary course »f the law for other re:iFons than to save the ifoheiiMilieni family and Court from scandal. The Knirar was always striving to preserve the character anil reputation of tho Prussian titled aristocracy and to present it to the world in general, and the Gorman people in particular, as the most perfect aristocracy in the world, the members of which'were model citizens, lending lives as pure nnd immaculate as it was possible for any human mortals to do, and who were as unselfish and patriotic us they were virtuous. For this reason the Kniscr would sometimes interfere with the course of the law to protect cr.y well-known Prussian arfitorrat from beiiiK found guilty of. conduet not exactly becoming a gentleman. For example, when Bnvon Stronheymer forged the name of a friend of his to a. bill for .£7OOO the-Kaiser endeavoured to save Baron Stronheymer from being criminally prosecuted. But in (his the Kaiser was not successful. The man whose name the baron forged was a financier in a large way of business, and he had no scruples about prosecuting The Kaiser could forbid the public prosecution from proceeding against the baron, but he could not prevent the financier from taking criminal proceedagainst him, and the financier insisted on doing so, with the result that the baron was sentenced to two years imprisonment.