DISRAELI

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19721, 11 December 1926, Page 16 (Supplement)

DISRAELI

WHAT EX-KAISER THOUGHT OF HIM LONDON, Nov. 8. An outspoken pen-picture of the Earl of Beaconsfield is included in this week's instalment of “My Early Life’’ by the ex-Gcrman Emperor, published I to-day. It was during a visit to England, that the young German Prince called upon the Prime Alinister at the Foreign Office. He was a very tall, broad-shouldered man, with strikingly long legs. His face was colourless, ashen pale, almost waxen; his hair pitch black and curly, and a little pointed board adorned his chin, above which was a small mouth like a fine incision made in the face with a knife. It was hard to observe his eyes, as he never looked straight at his com panion, whether speaking or listening. No definite expression could bo traced upon this mask-like countenance, but it left a general impression of cleverness and cold calculation. He had also very adaptable. I might almost say supple, manners at his command. The ex-Kaisor adds that as Queen Victoria used always to speak verv softly, and was comparatively small, “the gigantic statesman had to bond down to her so far that his body almost formed a right angle. “I was very much surprised that the Premier stood so. high in my grandmother’s favour, as I knew that the Queen liked a frank, straightforward address, and was averse from any par ado of obsequiousness.” Wilhelm was taken to see the Eton and Harrow match, and ho relates how a “ lively old lady,” seeing that he was a foreigner, invited him to got up on an empty chair beside her, and acted as his tutor on the game. Noticing that he had no ribbon in his buttonhole, she cut off a piece of her hat ribbon and gave it to him. When ho asked which side wore that colour she answered: — “Eton of course! Now you look a full-blown gentleman, young man. B<* fore you were only half one!’’