The Daily News. MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 1914. THE REAL KAISER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 80, 24 August 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 1914. THE REAL KAISER.

Il'erhapg there is 110 monarch in the world that is experiencing a more uneasy time at present than the German Kaiser. There was no one man but he who had it in his power to prevent the awful war that is convulsing Europe The Kaiser is pictured by his friends and his subjects as the embodiment o'f peace and virtue and genius; by his enemies ho is depicted as an iron-handed, ambitious and arrogant enemy of peace. He is a complex personality, and not easily understood. The Kaiser's first notorious indiscretion was the famous cablegram to President Kruger at the time of the Jameson Raid in 189fl. The message was a direct affront to Great .Britain, and it was resented accordingly even in quarters where no sympathy was felt for the South African Imperialists. Twelve years later, in 1908, the Kaiser's blunders seemed to have culminated in tiio interviews granted by hiw to British and American journalists, Prince vou LSulow, the Imperial Chancellor, intervened sharply, and Germany's Emperor yielded with what grace lie eould muster to a demand that he should show more reserve in his public utterances and respect constitutional liut no more than two years later came Uie remarkable Konigsburg speech, in which the Kaiser told his subjects in so muny words that lie ruled by special sanction of the Almighty mid intended to go ins own way regardless of "iJ Parliament, national assemblies and the popular vote." The words were no mere bombast. The German people have never won political freedom, and they have had as little say in the ruling of their own country as they had in the declaration oi' war which has plunged all Luiope into eonJliet. Quotations from tlie Kaiser's pithily utterances may not throw very much light upon his character, but they help us to understand what puit he has played in the affairs of his country (remarks a contemporary). -Many years ago iie lold a great gathering at WilheUiishaven that "the trident of the sea must ue in our list" Ale publicly regretted ai the time of the -.South African war that his subjects had not. listened to In* suggestions and pro\ided him Willi a lieet large enough to enable him to speak to Britain with the voice of authority. Yet when he iotind that the British Government and people were angered by his words, lie told a representative of the London Daily Telegraph that he was a much misunderstood man. "Vou English are mad, mad, mad as -March hares," ran the published report of liis remarks, "What more can 1 do than I have done? I declared with all the emphasis at my command, in my speech at the Guildhall, 'that my heart is set upon peace, and that it is one of my dearest wishes to live on the best of terms with England. Have 1 ever been false to my word? Falsehood aud prevarication arc alien to my nature. My actions ought to speak for themselves, but you listen to those who misinterpret and distoil them. That is a personal insult which I feel and resent. To be ever misjudged. to have my repeated offers of friendship weighed and scrutinised with jealous, mistrustful eyes, taxes my patience severely." The Kaiser did not stop there. He proceeded to quote "proof" of his friendship for Britain. "Just at file time of your Black Week, in the December of 1599, when disasters followed 0110 another in rapid succession," he said, "I received a letter from Queen Victoria, my revered grandmother, written in sorrow and affliction, 'f at once returned a sympathetic reply. Nay, I diu more. I bade 0110 of my officers secure, for me as exact an account as be could of the number of combatants in South Africa on both sides, and the | a<tual position of the opposing forces. ■Willi the figures before me, 1 worked out, what I considered to be the best plan of campaign under the circumstances, and submitted it to my General Stall for their criticism. Then I despatched it to England, and that document is among the State papers at Windsor Castle, awaiting the serenely impartial verdict of history." The Emperor added that it was a "curious coincidence" that Lord Roberts adopted a plan "very much 011 the same lines'' as' the one prepared at I'otsdam. But the Kaiser is nothing if not versatile. About the. time tlie Daily Telegraph interview was published—official repudiation followed as a matter of course—an American journalist, Dr. liavard llale, secured from tlie Kaiser a statement of a very ; dillerent kind. Dr. Hale's interview was printed in the Century Magazine, and then, at the urgent representation of the German Government, the whole edition was suppressed. But it found its ; way into the newspaper?. "The Kaiser 1 told Mr. Hale," ran one summary, "that King Edward had been hounding and

humiliating liim for two years, and that he was exasperated; that Germany was the Paramount Power in Europe and England was trying to neutralise her power; that lie held France in the hollow of his hand, and that Russia was of no account since the Japanese war. The Kaiser said also that if a European war were inevitable the sooner it came the better, because ho was now ready and was tired of the suspense. Great Britain had been a decadent nation ever since her victory over the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, and the Anglo-Japanese alliance was an iniquitous alliance against all the white races." This interview also was formally repudiated by the German Government, but its authenticity seems undoubted. Many times the Kaiser has stated his view of the privileges and responsibilities of royalty. "My grandfather, by his own right," he said at Konigsburg four years ago, "placed on his head the royal crown of Prussia, declaring with emphasis that it was bestowed upon him by God's grace alone, and not by Parliaments, national assemblies or the popular voice, so that lie regarded himself as the chosen instrument of heaven and as such performed hig duties as ruler. Adorned with this crown lie went into the field of battle to win the Imperial Crown. .... I, too, look upon myself as the instrument of God, and, disregarding the views and opinions of the hour, intend to go my own way, which is dedicated to the welfare and peaceful development of the Fatherland." Tile Kaiser lias always pictured himself as devoted to the cause of peace. But his hand has ever rested upon the sabre. .