MEDDLESOME WILLIAM.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 41, 5 October 1914, Page 4

MEDDLESOME WILLIAM.

The Dominion says some people may wonder why it is that the Kaiser appears always as the foremost figure in German affairs. Whether it is in deciding the military plan of campaign ; or a naval matter; or an affair of diplomacy; or an internal economic trouble, it is the Kaiser—always the Kaiser—who appears as the dominant guiding influence. Generals, admirals, statesmen, all are little better than marionettes acting as he dictates. He is the Overlord, not merely in name, but in fact an interfering, domineering, arrogant master. It is now contended that the failure of Germany’s plans may be largely laid at his door—that his blindness to his own limitations has led him to push aside his counsellors and pit himself against the statecraft and military and naval genius of the best brains and most highly-trained strategists and tacticians of Europe. It is interesting to note what the Berlin correspondent of the London Daily Mail has to say concerning the “omnipotence” of the Kaiser. “No one who has not lived in Germany, the correspondent states, “can possibly comprehend the ever-allness of the Kaiser. His official title uot the All-Highest Person without a reason. He is it. Berlin cannot erect a public fountain, an opera house, an elevated railway station, or a ■ statue without his all-highest approval. If his omnipotence extends to the unconsidered trifles of national life, visualise his almightiness in connection with the affairs which count. A great career is impossible without his favoring smile; a frown from Jove wrecks it irreparably. Chancellors, Ministers, generals, admirals, and burgomasters propose. The Kaiser disposes.”