THE GERMAN COURT SCANDAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 14 December 1907, Page 3

THE GERMAN COURT SCANDAL.

London, October 25. The libel action taken by Count Kuno Von Mohke against Men- Harden, which commenced lit Berlin last Wednesday, promises to provide the "sensation of the year.'' To enable one to get a proper understanding of the case, it is nciw.-avy to summarise briefly the events which led up to the trial. Between October, l!l()(i, and May of this year llerr Harden, the editor of the weekly magazine "Due Znkunft," published a number of articles in which he alluded to several individuals of high rank known as the Liebenberg clique, who, in his opinion, were exercising great political influence in the country without bearing any responsibility for their actionn. Herr Harden | mentioned the names of several of these persons, whom he accused, further, of exercising undue influence on the Kaiser. Among them were Prince Kulcnbnrg, formerly Herman Ambassador in Vienna, and Count Kuno Von Moltke. Commandant of the Berlin garrison. Herr Harden also stated that many of these persons were in some respects abnormal, and that their abnormalities affected their general relations with one another. They were also spiritualists and faith healers, according to Herr Harden, and altogether of so unmanly and sickly-sweet a character as to be unwholesome and dangerous counsellors of the Kaiser. Prince Enlenhurg and Count Moltke were specially singled out for these attacks. The Kaiser first heard of the attacks on these men from the Crown Prince, who, in a state of great indignation, placed those numbers of "Die Znkunft" before his father which contained the alleged libels. After the Kaiser had consulted with the Minister of the Interior and the Police President of Berlin, he dismissed Prince Eulenburg from the Court, and relieved Moltke of his high military command. There were other dismissals as well, and several highly-placed courtiers and military men vanished suddenly from Berlin, and have not yet returned. Moltke knew about the "Znkunft" articles as long ago as last December, but, it was not until May. and after his dismissal from his command, that he sent his cousin (Major Von Moltke) to Herr Harden, with the statement that the ar:icles, in so far as they attributed "abnormalities" to him, were false. He gave his word of honour that they were false, and demanded that Harden should retract all that he had said and all he had insinuated. This Harden declined to do. Thereupon Majoi Von Moltke, on liohalf of his cousin, handed Harden a challenge to a duel. But Harden objected, on the ground that a rttw-'l was hardly a logical way of discovering the truth. Count Von Moltke then appealed to the public prosecutor to take action against Harden for libel, but neither the public prosecutor nor the Minister of Justice could see their way to grant his request. Moltke had therefore to bring a private action for libel.

When the trial opened on Wednesday lust ninny of the moat notable witnesses failed to put in an appearance. Prince Pnlow wrote saying that lie rr.uM not get to Berlin in time. Prince Kulenburg. whose presence one would have thought essential to liis Moltke, declared per liis legal representative tliat lie was too ill to appear. Another important witness on Von Moltke's side was prevented from being present liy a congested liver, and other witnesses coulil not he found, as they were '-travelling."

"THE DARLING." The chief witnesses on the opening lay were Herr Harden and the divorce! .vi'fc of Count Von Moltkc. After the •cading of the articles in the "Zukunft," which Count Moltke alleges arc defamatory, Herr Ji.adai, in reply to the President <# the Court, said tliat*.3 ar-

ImtUl "lb" denounce Count Moltfcp. and others -to the polite, and he Lad no special wish to see the plaintiff go to prison. What lie said was that the plaintiff was abnormal, but should he be forced to prove the graver charge, he would prove that Count Moltke was one of a group of men with pernicious inclinations.

In the course of his evidence Heir Harden declared that the count was addicted to the use of rouge, that his intimates referred to him as "the sweet one," and that the Liebenberg clique were in the habit of referring to the Emperor as "das Liebchen" ("the darling'). He also alleged that Moltke's friendship with Prince Eulcnburg had an erotic side; that the plaintiff had pressed his friend's handkerchief to his lips, crying, "I'hili, my Pliili," and addressed him in letters as ".My soul, my beloved."

Early in the case the judge threw out suggestions for a compromise between the parties, but these were scornfully rejected by Heir Harden, who declared that he would rather go to penal servitude than compromise, now that matters had gone so f&r. The count's divorced wife, Frau Von Elbe, and her son corroborated Herr Harden as to the handkerchief incident, and the lady gave some very unsavoury ami unedifying details of her domestic life with tiie count. She asserted that ('ount Moltke had often spoken slightinglv of his relations to her. When she said': "Wbat will his Majesty say to our divorce?"' her husband replied: "His Majesty only hears what I allow him to know." She also created some sensation by stating that the count once wrote to her mother that he had made a circle about the Kaiser which nobody could break through. Yesterday the principal witnesses called were two stalwart soldiers, members of the Garde du Corps, whose evidence was of such a nature that the general public were cleared out of court, and though the press remained behind, the German papers find the evidence, too loathsome to publish, ft is not too much to say the onlire German Empire is following the'details of the trial with the most intense anxiety. The fate of the two principal actors, although important, is not what the people are thinking of. Their gaze is directed helow the surface, and they ask themselves: Were Count Moltke, Prince Fulenbiirg, Count Hohenan, and the rest ef the men who have been building "an impenetrable wall around the Kaiser" influencing his judgment and the trend of the policy of the Empire? People i"re saying how miserable must be the rolilical situation of the country in which a man like Harden maintains that with articles such as his were.—articles alluding to the most, loathsome things- lie can bring about political changes for the good of the Empire.