SECRET HISTORY OF 1916.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 August 1920, Page 10

SECRET HISTORY OF 1916.

AUSTRIAN KAISER'S SUICIDE. WILLIAM lI.'S DUEL WITH FUTURE EMPRESS. An incredible story of the "suicide by hanging" of the late Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph in 1916 is published by the Rome Socialist daily, "Giornale del Popolo," from its Trieste correspondent. It tells of startling events attendant on the last days of the old Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria-Hungary, and it gives the current Czecho-Slovftk Press as authority. SHOT AT KAISER WILHELM. According to this history, the Archduchess Zita (who became Empresa when her husband succeeded Francis Joseph) deeply embittered the last phase of-the aged monarch's life by Teproaching him to his face, in the presence of others, with having, in a moment of folly, espoused the ill-fated German cause and thereby undermined the house of Hapsburg and pre-destined the ruin of the Empire. A crisis was reached- during. the hu; visit of the German Kaiser to Vienna, when, in the midst of the. Court din/wr, the exasperated Crown Princess (as Zita was then called) drew a revolver and fired straight at the German Emperor. The shot missed its mark, 'but the Kaiser fired back and slightly wounded his assailant. ' Immediately afterwards an announcement was posted stating that: —''Her Imperial and Royal Highness the Archduchess is 'indisposed, and will be obliged to keep to her apartments for some days." That incident—so the atory continues —became the starting-point in the PanGerman Press of a campaign against the family of Bourbbn-Parma (to which the Princess Zita belonged).

EMPEROR'S SUICIDE. From that time Francis Joseph, who had shown rapid signs of senile decay, began to be unhinged in mind. , A few weeks later, at 10.30 in the morning of November 21, 1910, the veteran Emperor Francis Joseph was discovered to have hanged himself in his bedroom in a short interval during which he had been left unattended. Consultations were held in an adjoining apartment, and there were some angry scenes between some distinguished ladies.of the Imperial Court as to whether the terrible secret should be divulged. Finally, it was determined that the scandal must be prevented at all costs from leaking out, and so the time of the Emperor's death was officially falsified to 9 s'clock in the evening. The violent discussion had, however, been overheard by various members of the Imperial household. It was quickly reported, not only in the capital, but also among the army in the trenches, till the supreme command was constrained to issue a' proclamation ordering ,that any soldier found propagating the rumor would be shot forthwith.