PEN – PICTURE OF THE KAISER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1523, 16 March 1916, Page 2

PEN - PICTURE OF THE KAISER.

The latest pen - picture of the Kaiser is not flattering. It is given by the correspondent of the London Daily Mail, who attended the banquet in honour of the Kaiser at Nish. He writes: ‘T was face to face with the Kaiser directly I left the train. .King Ferdinand had only a few moments before received him on his arrival from the West, and the Royal couple were walking up and down the station platform without ceremony, arm in arm. I had never seen Ferdinand before, and it waS eight years since I had last seen the German Emperor. What a change ! The Kaiser is not the tall man he is represented to be in photographs, and beside the great, massive figure of the hawk-nosed King Ferdinand, who has a curious duck-like waddle, the great War Lord seemed almost diminutive. The Kaiser wore a a long grey coat, a brown fur necklet, and a spiked helmet' covered with some sort of khakilike doth. The people did not show much interest ia the Kaiser,

but the Bulgarian Ministers were obsequious. How did the Kaiser look ? Whether it be due to the fatigues of the war, the effects ot a two-days’ journey, or ill-health, I cannot say. So much is certain —the face is that of a tired and broken man. The hair is white, though the moustache is still suspiciously dark. There was an absence of the old activity of gesture, the quick, nervous wheeling about, and the unstable manner of the man. The Kaiser was obviously out to make himself agreeable. He examined the medals of Bulgarian soldiprs with apparent interest, chatted with Royal affability, and smiled right and left. None the less, he is a greatly aged man.”