STUDY OF THE KAISER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 208, 11 February 1915, Page 8

STUDY OF THE KAISER.

"TIIE ENIUMATIC KMPRIIOE.'' A PROPHECY FULFILLS). Twenty-three years ago u strikin..; study of the Kaiser was published *iu the Lisbon newspaper, A Capital, and such was tlii! keiiiikss of insight <iiiplayed by the author intij the complex character of the (icrman Emperor that his article is of even greater : iiture.it in tiles* momentous days than when it fir.it- sa.v the light. It has been republished by the Ixuden '1 iuies, and has been reproduced Mi dozens of other English newspapers from that source. The writer of the article was Jose Maria Ecu de (Juieroz, a Portuguese author who won fame in his own country. He had iv varied career, and in his late!' years he was attached to the Portuguese Consular service. At the time <;! his death in I»!)!>, he was Poiiugucsc-Consul-Oeneral in Paris. His study ol the Kaiser was written in 181)1, when his Majesty had been three years on the throne.

The article opens with a reference fu Ernest Kenan's regret that death brought for him the only regret that he would be prevented from witnessing the final development of the enigmatic Emperor. "Up to the present, in the first act, lasting over a period of three years," slates Eca de Qiiiero:;. "by the oiversity and multiplicity of the manifestation. William It. has merely revealed thr fact that in liini, as in IlarnM, there exists the germs of various men, ami «"c cannot preconceive which of them v.'ill prevail, or whether when one lias finally developed he will amaze us by ilia greatness or by his triviality." Then

follows a recapitulation of tro o>"s. activities—the Soldier King. "rigid, atiil", i n helmet and cuirass, occupied with nothing lmt reviews nil 1 manoeuvres ;" tlie Reform Kimr, "attending only to questions of capital and .vages. eogerly evoking social eon-jro***, rlajming the management of all human :nipiovements, and determined to g.i down in history embracing the proletariat as a brother whom he h--:-i set i're.';" the lvng by Divine Right, "haughtily rating his Gothic s-cptrp on ';b« hacks of his people suhieet'iig the lrghest law to the will of the King;" the <'our: ier King, "worldly, pompous, thinking only of the brilliance and snmotuosity of etiquetts, regulating festivals and mas ; querades, onering tie.' style of headd'ess to *).! w(.n by lad';-!;" lb-- Mt-b-ni King, "treatin the d \«t ' * bigot'.l, "< - g!.riling the factory :n t!ie si-preme temple dtea-'inig of ({.M-iivvuv as " i 1.:»: Ked entirely by'-electricity." Reference U made '.o i ! . various pari..-' playd bv th 'Enpror i,i his visits a)*.ud fiom Lor.don to C.- T.siantiiiepK "The world in perplexity murmurs - Who is this man who changes cr.il multiplies himself so incessantly ! oont'iiiie: Eca de Quicroz. '"Thus William II has lv :ome a temporary problem—ihrre tlioofl'-s regarding hi,m as then are regarding magnetism, the influenza, or the plaeet Mars. Some say he is ' merely :'.' J ""tlv thirsting for newspaper fame, and who, with f-'.l eye to publicity, prey-arcs his impromptus with the, spectacular method, art, and patience with which Sarah Bernhardt prepares her eosti'mes. Others aver ; that there is in hi.!! nothing but an 1 overbalanced fancy, carried madly along by the innmlscs of a morbid imagination, and, for the very renson tint lie 1 is a u almost omnipotent emperor, he is ' allowed to exhibit without restraint the : disorders of his far.-.'. Others, again, see in him simply a Tlohenzollcrn, i:i whom are summed up and in whom flourish with immense parade the qualities of Caesarism. mysticism, red tapeism. sergeantism, dogmatism, which alternatively characterised the successive kings of that most lucky race of petty lords of Brandenburg. Tt may be that eaeli one of these theories contains, as is fortunately the case with all theories a particle of truth. Tt is my cpin-

inn. however, that he" is nothing but n dillelantc of activiti'-s —T mm a man strongly enamored of activity, conumhending and feelim;, with unusual intensity tlic infinite delimit it offers, and desiring, therefore, to experience and on joy it in every form permissible in our state of civilisation. '•'This is what male es the German Emperor so prodigiously interesting a figure. In him we have among us in this philosophical century a man, a nnvtal who, mere than any other expert, prophet or paint, lay:; claim anil appearto be the only allv and intimate friend of Cod. Tin; world lias never seen, sin.:c the days of Hoses On Sinai, such intimacy, such an alliance; between the creature and the Creator. The reign of William 11. seems to be, as it were, an unexpected resurrection of the Mosaism of the Pentateuch, He is the favorite of God, lie holds conferences with God in the burning bush of Berlin Schloss, an,! at the instigation of God he is leading his people to the joys of Canaan. Truly lie is Moses IT. Like Moses, too, 1m never tires of proclaiming (daily and loudly, so that, none may ignore it) bis spiritual and temporal relationship to Cod, which makes him infallible and I therefore irresistible.

"William 11. runs the. awful danger of being cast down the demoniac. He boldly takes upon himself the responsibilities which in all nations are divided among various bodies of the State—he alone judges, lie alone executes, because to him alone it is (not to his Ministers, his Council or to his Parliament) that Cod, the God of the Holienzollerns, imparts His transcendental inspiration. He must, therefore, be infallible and invincible. At the first disaster—whether it be inflicted by hw burghers or by his people in the streets of Berlin, or by the allied armies on the plains of Europe—Germany will at once conclude that his much-vaunted alliance with God was the trick of a wily despot. "Then there will not be stones enough from Lorraine to Pomerania to stone this counterfeit Moses. William 11. is In ver'y truth casting against Fate those terrible "iron dice' 1 to which the now forgotten Bismarck once alluded: If lie win he may have within and without the frontiers altars such as were raised to Augustus; should he lose, exile, the traditional exile in F.nglaml, awaits him —a degraded exile, the exile with which he so sternly threatens those who deny his infallibility.

"11. Kenan is therefore quite right; there is nothing more attractive at this period of the century than to witness (.he final dcvelojijiient of William II". In the. course of years, (may God mai:e them slow and lengthy!) this youth, ardent, pleasing, fertile in imagination, of sincere, perhaps heroic, soul, may lie sitting in calm majesty in her Berlin Schloss presiding over the destinies of Europe—or he may be in the TTotel Metropole in London sadly unpac from his exile's handling the liattered double crown of Prussia anil Germany." "To him uotliiii!:' is impossible, for'he commands IOOO.WIO soldiers and a people who seek liberty only in the regions of philosophy, ethics and exegesis, and who, when their Emperor orders them to march, silently obey. And furiher, to him nothing is itnptis.-il>]i>, foy it !|j.I'elief that. Cod is o„ his side, insniriii!: him and sane.'ioniie/ his nower. 'A splendid end iiev.l iable desire to enjoy and experience every form of activity. ui'der the sovereign conviction that God promotes ami warrants the ultimate success of his every undertaking, explains. I think, the conduct of this mysterious Emperor. Now. did he rule an empire at the other side of Asia, or did lie not possess in the Julius Tower a war treasure for the maintenance and equipment of 2,000,000 soldiers, or were he, edged round by a public opinion us active and coercive as that of England,

William 11. would merely be like many oilier Emperors in history, peculiar : from the mobility of his fancy- and the' illusion of his Messianic office, But being unfortunately in the heart of the workshop of Jiurope, with hundreds of j. disciplined legions, with a- people formed of citizens disciplined and obedient us soldiers, William 11. is the most dangerous of sovereigns, for in all his dilettantism he has still to experience the most seductive form of activity that a King can know—war and its glories!

"It may indeed happen that one day Kurope will awake to the roar of clashing armies, only because in the soul of this great dilettante the burning desire to 'know war,' to enjoy war, was stronger than reason, counrj or pity for his subjects. Not long ago. indeed, he gave this promise to his faithful retainers of Brandenburg:—'l will lead you,' he said, 'to splendid and glorious destinies!'' What destinies? Battles, of course, in which the German Eagle shall triumph. William 11. has not <he slightest doubf as to the issue, for besides several minor sovereigns, he has for his ally, the supreme Sovereign of Heaven and Kartli fighting among the German Landwehr. as in the days of old when Minerva, bearing his spear, fought with the Mask Phalanx against barbarians! "The certainty of a divine alliance! Truly, nothing can give a man more strength, than such a faith which almost renders him divine. On the other hand, to what risks it exposes him! Nothing o:;;i l-ake the fall of a in:i:i more disastrous than the proof, borne out by the crude contradiction of facts, that sr.ch c:>riainty was but the chimera cf a mad i:Jatu-.ition."