LESE MAJESTE.

Gisborne Times, Volume X, Issue 994, 14 September 1903, Page 2

LESE MAJESTE.

Soma time ago, when the murder ol a manufacturer by a man said to hold anarchistic opinions, was reported from Alsace-Lorraine, the German Emperor, in a telegram to the Governor, commented as follows on the case 11 Another victim of the revolutionary agitation fanned by the Socialists !! If only the German nation would bestir itself Ji” Wljat the Emperor wished his people to do is not quite clear ;.but it is evident he ascribed the blame .to

the German Democrats, and that his telegram fanned the German police into bestirring themselves to institute prosecutions for any utterances in speeches or in the press which might by any possible means he construed into lose majeste or high treason. So far “ this father of his people.” A few weeks since the editor of the Vorwarts was arrested for stating that the Emperor had built unto himself a fortified castle in which to retire, if necessary, and now we have the information conveyed by cable that a rigid censorship is being exercised over the Socialist press to detect cases of lese majeste. Prosecutions for lese majeste have been very numerous and often absurd. Herr Liebknecht, for instance, was sentenced to four months’ imprisonment for some utterance in his inaugural address at the Breslau Congress. He took care not mention the Emperor at all .• therefore his judge decided that his hearers might take his remarks as allusions to the Emperor, an'l it was in the possible meaning which others might attribute to his words that lay les majeste. Such a view to take of a speech may well be alarming. Next, we may expect absolute silence to be construed into lese majeste, and there will be an end to freedom of silence as well as of speech, under the rule of Kaiser. Wilhelm. Herr Liebknecht. who is about seventy, has suffered so many terms of imprisonment for his opinions that he may at least join St. Paul with u in prisons more fretjjuent.” ' More childish still was the prosecution of Dr Hans Delbruch, the editor of the Preussischo Jahrbucher, who in one of his reviews commented as usual on the political situation in Germany. About a month after his remarks were suddenly alleged to be insults to the political police, and he was summoned to appear before the tribunal whose conduct he ventured to criticise. .The summons he received roused almost the whole European 1 press to indignation at the highhanded conduct of the German police. Plowever, the Minister of the Interior, having satisfied himself that the Professor did not intend to insult the police, abandoned the prosecution. Dr. Delbruck, however, was in no way intimidated by the probability of punishment hanging over 'him, for in the following number of his review he was even more outspoken about the blundering policy that had been adopted.