The Daily News. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1918. THE HOHENZOLLERN.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 November 1918, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1918. THE HOHENZOLLERN.

It is to be hoped tlie terms of peace will provide i'or the abdication of the Kaiser and the whole of .the Hohenzollenis. The liohenzollerns have been birds of prey and disturbers of the pence since they first ruled Prussia, when it was little more than a circumscribed swamp fringing the Baltic. There have been hints that the Allies were to impose the desired conditions, but really nothing definite has been authoritatively announced. President Wilson, it is true, lias declared his intention of dealing with the German people and not with those guilty of plunging Europe into war. It is rather singular that the Allies do not put the matter beyond doubt, and declare unequivocally that under no consideration will they have peace dealings with Germany while it tolerates the Kaiser or any of his family. There has been a suggestion that Wilhelm II is to resign in favor of his grandson—a minor—, but a Hohenzollevn, of whatever degree, is objectionable, and should never again be allowed a positioli of authority. It would entail, a change in the German constitution, but it is only one of many that will need to be effected before the Allies are satisfied. The constitution of 1871 placed the German States in the hands of the Hohenzollerns, and Bismarck tool:: good care that this arrangement should not be subsequently upset. The title of German Emperor carried with it enormous powers, which were promptly put into operation. The Customs Union within the Empire was already in existence, and the Constitution reaffirmed it, and made provision for the extension of its principles, but the most sinister development under the Empire was the immediate extension of the Prussian military system, even to the cut of the uniforms, to all the Slates in the Confederation, while the fate of the German people in peace and war was placed almost unreservedly in the Prussian King's hands. "The Emperor shall represent the Empire among nations," says Article 11 of the Constitution, "declare war and conclude peace in the name of the same, enter into alliances and other conventions with foreign countries, accredit ambassadors and receive them. For a declaration of war in the name of the Empire, the consent of the federal council shall be required, except in the case of an attack upon the territory of the confederation or its coasts." This, of course, was no safeguard against the Kaiser making war. For all the effect it has it might as well be out of! the Constitution. The same loophole, it may be added, was left in the new Constitution which Prince Maximilian and other Germans brandished the other day as the latest form of democratic development in Hunland. This is the vital point. We never want it to be in the power of any monarch to plunge the world into war again, and it is because of this power that we can never again suffer a Hohenzollern on the German Throne. It is hard to tell from the varying cables the mind of the Kaiser on the matter of abdication. At first we are told he is quite agreeable, and then it is announced that he will stop in his position to save his subjects from anarchy. But his abdication alone would be insufficient. His son, the Crown Prince, appears to be even a more dangerous character. Captain Edward Fox, an American who was resident in Berlin until a month or so before the United States entered the war, declares him to be the most dangerous man in Europe. The Crown Prince, he says, is the jjlol of the Pan-Germans, but is also more popular with the working classes than his father. This is a view that lias surprised the Allied peoples. Captain Fox insists that the Crown Prince, realising early in the war that concessions to the masses would be necessary, no' matter how the conflict went, set out to cultivate the workers. Instances of his habit of moving freely, without guards, amongst the crowds, of attending a shoemaker's golden wedding, and of showing a merciless hand in the exposition of scandals amongst the court circles, and other "democratic" arts, are quoted as examples of his methods of winning the affections of the German people. The Crown Prince, therefore, is out of the question. The appointment of his infant son would give the regent powers that would be equally dangerous. The world wants to be free from the menace of the Hohenzollerns, and the only way to obtain sueli .freedom is to deprive them of any vestige of power. It would be a 'good object lesson, too, that err'ing rulers-cannot make war on the world without harm coming to their own persons. The Kaiser should, if the right thing -were to be -done, and justice vindicated, be called upon to stand his trial for then murder of the 15,000 innocent people sent to their awful ;

Capital punishment, perhaps, is too merciful an end for him. He ought to be made to do penance for the rest of his'life, preferably among the peasants in the devastated districts of Belgium and northern France. There is as yet 110 evidence of contrition on the part of the Kaiser, who, we are told, still devotes a great deal of his time to prayers with bis false God of Battles, who has now forsaken him. A more brutal, hypocritical and infamous creature has never existed, and the end of a reign that has caused rivers of blood to flow w,ould be hailed by Christendom almost as enthusiastically as the end of the war itself.