THE EX-KAISER’S SISTER.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 March 1920, Page 4

THE EX-KAISER’S SISTER.

A CHEQUERED CAREER. “FOUND HER BROTHER OUT.”

The recent death of the ex-Kaiser’s sister, Princess Charlotte of Meiningen, did not come as a surprise to tier friends in this Duchy (a correspondent wrote recently from Baden Baden).

When she returned here at the beginning of the war it was noticeable that she had greatly changed, and those who came into contact with her got the impression sh# was a sad and disappointed woman. As a matter of fact the war broke her heart. She was, indeed, one of Hie very few who realised that it meant the downfall of the German Empire. Now that she has gone it is interesting to recall- that in her early days of married life she was very pretty, although it is said that before she became the Princess of Meiningen she was by no means a beauty. As a girl she and her brother Wilhelm were very much alike as regards disposition. Neither of them cared to be dictated to, and although the Duke of SaxeMciningen was anything but attractive, she was glad to take him for better or worse, in order to acquire independence. The engagement created a stir at the time, as there were' influential people who did not hesitate to say that she had been sacrificed. As a matter of fact, the marriage was more or less arranged by Charlotte herself, who hod contrived to make the Duke promise, and then had gone to'her parents wit lithe announcement. The union, as all the world knows, did not turn out a happy one, but the Princess had got what she most desired—liberty and the right to do as she pleased. She was a great favourite of her grandfather, William I, who frequently settled her dressmaker’s bills, which lie never did for anyone else of his family. He also placed at her disposal a suite of apartments in the castle at Charlottenburg. She was a great flirt, and for many years was one of the most prominent figures in Berlin society, where, however, her love of gossip gained for her a host of enemies.

The Meiningen people reproached her for not having given her husband an heir. When informed of her growing unpopularity, she shrugged her shoulders and remarked that “Meiningen and its people could go to together for all she troubled.” The Princess was supposed at one time to have a considerable influence over the Kaiser, and when the scandal connected with the anonymous letters which made the Berlin Court so notorious occurred in the first years of his reign her name got mixed up in it to an extent which, had she not been a Royal Princess, would have compelled her to retire into private life. There lies, perhaps, the redeeming point which entitles the Princess to a special place in the gratitude of the world. She found her brother out long before anyone else had the slightest idea of the ambitious plans which he nursed. And she warned the world of tlie catastrophe about to fall upon it. At last she settled almost entirely at Cannes, where she lived nine months out of the twelve during the war. There she tried to forget she was a Prussian princess. She hated militarism and its spirit, as did her father, the Emperor Frederick, and when once asked to characterise her brother William answered that he was a “non-commissioned officer in charge of a great nation.” And no one who has met the ex-Kaiser will dispute this judgment of one who knew him better than anyone else.