WHY THE KAISER IS 'HARD-UP.'

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 487, 31 July 1912, Page 7

WHY THE KAISER IS 'HARD-UP.'

Ninety years ago the German King's allowance amounted to £385,964, To-day the Kaiser draws £785.464, and wants it increased to £994,000 in order to maintain the dignity of his position. And in all probability His Majesty will get this increase in salary in spite of the protests which are being made by a certain section of his subjects} who assert that the Kaiser is needlessly sxtravagant. He has certainly spared no efforts to make his Court the most magnificent in Europe, while when he travels he never fails to create a sensation with his pomp and splendour. KEEPING UP FIFTY CASTLES.

He takes a small army of servants and officials with him, distributes costly gifts lavishly, and entertains

magnificently. Hi's journeys to the Mediterranean and Palestine some years ago cost nearly £IOO,OOO each. Moreover, the Kaiser has no less than ninety estates and over, fifty castles. He is, in fact, the largest

landowner in Germany, his estates being managed by the so-called "Court Chamber of Properties of the

Royal Family," which has several thousand subordinate officials in the provinces.

Not content with this number of castles, the Kaiser some time ago proposed to build a new gorgeous palace at Babelsberg, which he intended to ultimately hand over to the Crown Prince. He abandoned the idea, however, when he found that he could not afiord to pay for it. As a matter of fact so hard-up was the Kaiser two years ago that he proposed to sell five of his castles in order to raise money, but was ultimately dissuaded from the idea. Naturally these castles cost an enormous sum of money to keep up, and it is estimated that they swallow all the revenue of the estates, which amounts to over £500,000 a year. Apart from the Civil List and the Kaiser's ninety estates, there are a number of valuable Prussian family trusts, in which the Kaiser is the chief beneficiary. One was founded in the seventeenth century by the Great Elector. In 1733 Fricdrich Wilhelm I. founded another House Trust. Friedrich Wilhelm 111. left behind him a large property, of which £750,000 was put in -trust as a "'Crown Treasure," Half 'of this Crown Treasure is knov. n as the j

"Notpfennig," or Necessity \Fund, and is to be touched only in case of •xtreme.need. ;