GENERAL ITEMS.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 February 1916, Page 5

GENERAL ITEMS.

NOTES FROM THE TIMES. WAR MEDALS " Times and Sydney Sun Services. Received Feb. 23, 5.35 p.m. London, Feb. 22 In the Commons Mr. B, E. Peto asked for the issue of an Imperial war service medal for the men who served at Gallipoli. In reply, Mr. Tennant said it was considered undesirable to issue medals until the conclusion of the war, SKETCH OF THE KAISER'S COURT. HIS FINANCIAL POSITION. The London Magazine publishes the personal experience of Edith Kerr, an English dresser to Princess Victoria of ■Prussia for seven years. She iwas recently released from internment at Potsdam, and describes the Kaiser's voluptuary extravagance. She states that bad investments are his principal worry, and he owes immense sums to tradesmen in Berlin, London, and Paris. lie- always has a heavy personal overdraft, and is indebted to two wealthy members of his household. The Reichstag in 1907 increased his allowance, but this did not [enable the Kaiser to overtake his difficulties. As a result tho family sold favors, and the Empress secured large sums in return for appointments as maids-of-honor and ladies-in-waiting. Four who were appointed in the season 1010 brought £35,000, and a wealthy German paid the Empress £IO,OOO for permission to accompany her to the London Court. Tradesmen paid £IOOO for royal warrants, and £IOOO was the usual fee for an invitation to a Court function, when seats in the galleries were sold for £3, the Kaiser making a thousand pounds at each banquet, which provided scenes of elaborate, most costly, and degrading gluttony. General Ilindenburg is the most notorious glutton in the army. Once he ate six stuffed partridges, but the Kaiser devoured seven, and Prince Leopold exclaimed. '•Wilhelm won the gobbling match because Ilindenburg did not like partridges!" The Kaiser sold part of his Potsdam estate to escape financial disclosures, Tho Kaiser, who is only a tremendously glorified figure, has enforced the most rigorous discipline at Court.