KAISER'S WANING POPULARITY.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 March 1916, Page 8

KAISER'S WANING POPULARITY.

GENERALS CURB 'HIS DESIRE TO INTERFERE IN WAR OPERATIONS. . S° ni ° fi'esn light 13 thrown oil the Kaiser s illness and his waning popularity with his people by a Swiss correspondent of the London Standard. The Kaiser's indisposition, lie writes, began with a chill taken during a tour of the southern extremity of the Galician front during the second half of December. In the east ■ and in the south he held reviews, delivered speeches, received deputations and passed through numerous triumphal arches erected in his honor, but very little has been heard of the imperial progress through Galicia and Serbia, either.in Germany or Austria. The publicity given to the Kaiser's orations has been strictly limited: it apthat each speech was published only in the district in which, it was delivered, and Wold's Bureau did not circulate the text of any of them.

Whatever may have bqen the reason for retieence of these particular occasions, there is no .d<>ubt. that the Emperor William's withdrawal into the background has been one of the most curious features of all but the earliest stages of the war. At the outset it was'clear (hat .the Kaiser wanted to be more than a royal figurehead. He actually assumed the supreme command of the German forces, and' so long as General von Moltke was chief of' the General Staff the Emperor was the real directing force in the eastern and western campaigns. It wan during this period that General JofiVe won the battle of the Marne and that the Russians overran East Prussia and conquer, cil huge tracts of Austrian territory in Galieia. General von Moltke was then dismissed into retirement, the Kaiser subsided into comparative obscurity, and the 'real brains of the German General Staff took charge of che. direction of operations.

| What is more, the Kaiser lias been kepi in the background ever since; .his generals seem to have him well in hand, and many amusing stories are current in Berlin regarding the methods by which they contrived to curb their imperial master's restless energy and to frustrate his insatiable desire'to interfere in everything and to pose as the twentieth century Napoleon on every possible occasion. >, RIDTCL'LF.D BY HIS GENERALS. Some of these stories are doubtless exaggerated, but.the ridicule which Marshal von Hindenburg poured publicly on the Kaiser's idea of a .triumphal entry of the victorious German- armies into Berlin after the final defeat of the Allies was a significant revelation of his gen» oral's new attitude towards hirn. In an interview with a representative of the None Freie Presse. General von Hindenburg declared that if he were summoned to take part in the projected procession, into Berlin he would leave the train at Kottbus (the Inst station before the capital on rhe line from the Russian front) and walk into the city to escape observation. Making allowance for Ihe embellishments which almost invariably add to the piquancy of stories of candid truths told to autocrats, there seems to be no doubt that some of the highest officers of the General StnfT spoke very plainly to their supreme War Lord on more than one occasion, especially toward the end of 1914, and at the beginning of last year, and the veil of secrecy dtawrt over most of the Kaiser's trips to the front is evidently a result of the reserve imposed on liim hv his military advisers. But the imperial speeches delivered during the recent tour were still, full of bombast, and they contained mnny references to the invincibility of German Armies and to the especial divine , support given to German political ambitions. t

Speaking to a brigade, of Infantry on Ihc southern front, the Kaiser said: "Yon and your comrades have worked v.-onders, thanks to the graeioiis aid vouchsafed from heaven ,to yon and your general. You have swept everything before you, and yon have wreaked a terrible vengeance on those who maliciously and wickedly planned and plotted to bring about, the destruction of Germany and her disappearance from the ranks of the great Powers. So will it always be.- Spite and hatred will be unable to overcome Germany, who has a great destiny to -fulfil under divine inspiration. Whenever and wherever 1 have given the word of command to advance the enemy legions have vanished before the stout swords and doughty arms of GeYmany's sons; you and your comrades on all fronts- have earned imperishable fame, and the record of your splendid deeds will go down to history, lo be read and studied with profound'admiration by the people of future generations and by our own descendants. 1 thank you one and all for the services which yon have rendered to Germany, and through Germany to the cause of civilisation, again«t, organised brigandage and barbarism,"

OPENED WAY TO ORIENT. In another speech, somejvhere on the -nuthern front., the Kaiser said:—"We have driven back our enemies in the I cast and in the west, the repeated efforts of our foes to break through our lines have led to no result except tremendous losses of men find material on their part. In the south we have fought our way through to Constantinople, and wo have opened up unbounded possibilities for German development in the Orient, Under Divine leadership and with Divine inspiration German soldiers have achieved deeds unequalled in the annals of the world's wars; they have fought '<ml beaten an unprecedented combination of enemies, whose plight is now almost pitiable to behold; German soldiers have proved themselves to be heroes in 1 lie highest sense of the word," At each of the places the Kaiser decorated with bis own hand those officers and men on whom the Iron Cross had been recently conferred In recognition of distinguishing service in the field. Describing one of these scenes. Otto Schabbel, one of the German war correspondents on the southern' front, writes: —"There stands the Kalner among his generals, firing his eagle eye on the soldiers who "are to receive the Tron Cross, as they march past him for a preliminary inspection. Then His Majesty enters a square formed by their ranks and addresses them. It is an impressive sight; the tali, martial figure of our Emperor, suvroundM by the men who have fought and won our battles. (In reality, the Kaiser is undersized). He spenks to them as n benevolent, father to his sons. Then they como, one hv one, to receive the Iron Cross. Tliev are greybeards and youths .vho are so overcome by the awe-inspiring presence of their monarch that they can hardly stammer their replies to his kindly questions, But when tlwv look into the

clear, friendly blue eves that smiled on them frmo beneath the Kaiser's helmet, their courage returned; here, they felt, was a man not to he feared, but to be loved." And so forth, through, two columns of sycophantic flattery of the Kaiser, why may draw from such descriptions some consolation for the snubs administered to him by his generals.