THE KAISER'S FRIENDS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 259, 12 April 1915, Page 5

THE KAISER'S FRIENDS.

WHAT HE LEARNED FROM THI'M. Just now ■ (says the London correspondent of the Ohristcliurch Press, waiting on February 4) the Kaiser's friends in England are placed in a peculiar ttr.d somewhat awkward position. No one imagines for a moment that the Iviv-er'n friends ever acted or even thought <*>f acting as spies, but the fact renuins that in perfect good faith and without over considering the harm it might do in this country, some of these people undoubtedly give the Kaiser information which has probably proved of much more use to the German Emperor and his military and naval organisers than any information that has been gleaned from German waiters and other now "suspected" persons in a humble lank of life in England. It was the Kaisei's habit of lute years to stay in Ensriand as the personal guest of' some of his friends. During the past few years he • did so in strict incognito. He "was the guest in July, Ml2, of a retired English admiral with whom he has been on terms of the most intimate and close friendship for the past thirty ymirs. The admiral has kept closely 'in tondi with naval affairs since his 'rctirenwiit, and has several intimate friends on tun Admiralty Board. What was more natural than that he should discuss naval matters with the Kaiser, and what more likely that in hi* blub" Bag- i lish he gave his guest-information. .soiruj of which at any rate, was probably wful. That the admiral himself htrr on thought he had been" incautiously e.-ui-did and informative with the Emperor is evidenced by the fact that almost directly after the war broke out he went to the Admiralty to inform Mr Churchill of all he had told the Kaiser. A veilknown sporting peer, who is aho a well-known friend of the Emperor's. In.? confessed to a member of the Cabinet with them he is on terms of eolse friendship, that ho deeply regretted his incautious communications hi spcakhi" about certain affairs to the Emperor! How much information the Kaiser really had from his friends or how much u='e had been made of it by the German military and nawil organisers is, of eourv, not known, and it is common gossip in the naval and military clubs that the Kaiser certainly had from his friends information that has been turned to good account by the Germans. Two members of the Marlborough Club lu\e actually resigned, so unpleasant had the gossip about them in connection with their friendship with the Kawer made their position in the club. The unfortunate thing for the Kaiser's friends is that in many instances there is justification for the gossip that is being circulated about the information, that the German Emperor had from them. Much of this possum is untr „ e 0 r exaggerated and distortion of facts, hut it is not without foundation, and the Kail's former fiends in England will soon become almost as great objects of pon-tlar suspicion and aversion as German remdents.