THE HAUNTED KAISER.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 265, 5 April 1917, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE HAUNTED KAISER.

This wonderful article, written by a man who knows Germany well and was formerly "honoured'' with the per.-onal friendship of the Kaiser, throws a lurid light on the German peace suggestions. The picture of a conscience - stricken monarch, eager to end a war of has own seeking, a war which has steeped his own people in guilty blood, is as arresting as it is true. A grim fear haunts the consciencestricken soul of the Kaiser. Ho is afraid that he (will die before peace has como to the suffering humanity of Europe. Nemesis in the- shape of this fear pursues hm like a relentless shadow. The fear lies at the hack of all Ins arrogant talk; it under-runs all nis blasphemous boastings. The fear accompanies him in the feverish rushes from one blood-sodden battlefield to another—an aide-de-camp that never sleeps; it is with him when the fresh German casualty-lasts, still damp from the printing-presses', blankly meet his stare, or when, with false-ring-ing martial speech, he sends a new division of his country's dwindling reserves to their death.

Every time the Kaiser tragically summons tho world to believe "I never willed this war,'" the fear of death with tho war still raging grip him by the throat and they who wait in the porch of Emperors think curiously of the corpse-like paleness of the Prussian King's face at such times.

There was good reason yhy he stayed away from the funeral of his blood accomplice, the aged Emperor Francis Joseph who closed his eyes on an fnglor. ious reign with the words, "I am tired." Tho associations were too morbid for him, and too likely to feed the growing fear in his own breast. This Emperor died beforo knowing the issue of the conflict which he helped to provoke. Might not the stime fate attend his brother in crime? AH official Germany knows the dreadful secret; it has sped through the whisper:ng galleries of the East. The Sultan, iwith his fatalistic temperament, is puzzled by the Kaiser's mental obsession, but King Ferdinand of Bulgaria, hiding himself in Vienna, understands. He has fc!t something of the samo fear himself.

ILL-BALANCED AND EMOTIONAL

Tho Ka'ser would give anything today to have the past 2:) months wiped out, and to banish this fear that presses liKo a cold hand over his heart. With childish reiteration, he is always repeating the cry that he is guiltless, of provoking tho war; always asking that peace may come, while realising only too well that peace will only come when his proud legions are smashed and, if ho is alive, despa'r also po:6:sses his soul.

The Ka'ser does not know which is worse —to die before peace* or to be avive when tho kind of peace in store for Germany materialises. Tlie German Emperor is an illbalanced, emotional personality, who cno moment is in tho seventh heaven of delight, the other moment in the deepest slough of despondency. On such a temperament the superstitious fear of an untimely end easily obtains a strong hold, particularly as the state of his health gives small assurance of comfortable old ago being reached. THE OLD SCOURGE. Though littTo has been said on the subject, it is general gossip in neutral countries contiguous to Germany that tho death of Francis Joseph has been a great shock to the reminding him that it may bo his turn next. The German peace plot was his direct inspiration. He wants peace before ho dies, and, that his end may not be a violent one, he wants a German peace. Ho shudders at the thought df joining the Hohenzollerns who have passed to a chorus of almost universal curses.

The Kaiser has aged, lie has not escaped the penalty ot his terrible responsibilities. Physicaf weaknesses hitherto unsuspected have shown themselves. His throat is a perpetual menace to him. The physician who daKy examines him is afraid that one day he will find signs of the same siourge that carried off his father, tho Emperor Frederick. Though tho German Emperor is seen hero, there, and everywhere, he is, to :» largo extent, an Emperor in cottonwool. The soldiers who cheer his arrival at the various fronts may be cheering his double, for all they know. Often when the Kaiser is reported on the West or on the East, he as at Potsdam with a temperature. Conceive the mental stress under which ho 'lives! Every hour 130 men die in the 2200-mile-long battlefield. The war that was to have been over in tho first six months has reached its third winter. There aro victories in plenty for the German people, "but little food, and many women aro to lie heard sobbing: "G-ivo us back our husbands, cur sons, our fathers I" Xo man with any human instinct whatever could look unmoved on such a picture, and the Kaiser lias still some human qualities left.

But it is easier to start a European war than it is to stop it, and William 11., with his uneasy conscience and the pain in his throat, needs no telling how far removed i>oacc still is. H's restless wanderings bring him nerther easo nor forgctfulness. Hindenburg'c messages of victory fail to thnll him. The novelty of victory has worn off, and he doubts with his. pcopl > whether it is really right to ca'.l them victories.

" Wo want peace !" murmur the famished German poor. The rich Prussians and tho military chiefs, who have plenty to eat, prefer to discuss how they are to divide Europe up. The Kaiser says "Peace" with the multitude, but lie dare not tell them the conditions if poate. At present lie trembles for his soul. In the stili watches of the night the spoctre of the dead Emperor Franks Joseph, dead' befoiv tlv war ho fashioned had erased, rises I efore his trouble.l vision.

When hunger bites yet more shrewd - ly into tho bodies < f tho German population, nnd pe:u-e, over tantalisingly dangled before them, still eludes tho/r grasp, tlit* Kaiser will tremble not only for his soul, nut for his crown as well. He wiK ho ;■ j>rey to many foars. with the p.m m his throat always aouto enough to suggest tlio grave. However miserable tho Gorman Emperor is tn-Jay. and however heavily the burden of .s : n and care may neigh upon him. the future looms oven more darkly. They say that Francis Joseph might have lived another ton years had worry not hastened his end," and his hard heart was largely proof against anv disturbing emotion.

Worry is killing the Kaiser. 'Hie world has condemned him as being in the main tho nuthor of tho present war; ho eoii'd have prevented it had ho wished to <! • so. Futile though ho knows it to be, ho bid* the world judge him (lifferenty: "I didn't, will this war." \n, ■ •„ that a sign of if it is not ti.o l«o£'nn ncj of remor-e?