KAISER AS SEEN BY HIS BRITISH COOK.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 208, 31 August 1918, Page 19

KAISER AS SEEN BY HIS BRITISH COOK.

LOBSTKK. CHEURY PIE, AND RED CIIAAiPAGXE. ROYAL FIT.S OF THE BLUES. Frank Bowles, Who comes of a sturdy Essex "longshore stock," has followed the sea all his lire, in! his rouud, wholesome face eloquently suggests a straightforward character and a blameless life (writes a special correspondent of "Lloyd's News"). But accusing memories are apt to disturb the old fellow's complacency. He can never quite shake himself free from a guilty sense of the past contaminating experiences. "I acted in all innocence, sir," he told mc, humbly. "1 wouldn't have done it, you may be sure, If I'd known what 1 was doing. I never gave so much as a thought to how matters have turned out since." Yet, explain and excuse his conduct as he may. Bowles cannot blot out the damning fact that lie served as cook on the Kaiser's racing yacht 'Meteor. For several years "n periodic occasions he made for the lioyal table digestible delicacies that are now bitterly i-ogretted. "During racing week," Bowles recalled, "it -was always cherry pie. The Kaiser ■whs Tvonderfn.V.F' fond of .cherry pie. Give him lobster mayonnaise and cheTry pie and he wanted nothing else. The lobster mayonnaise was the only dish he himself ;ilways servetl. -For one thinir of course it is a dish easy to serve with n single hand. On the rare occasions when be hnd ham snrt chicken it was curious to see the way he used his special kind of fork. You may say it had four prongs, and the first two he used for picking up his meat with. But the other two were Joined together into a blade, and that is 'what he cut his meat with. A MODERATE DRLXKER. "Nearly always be bad a favourite kind of lijht wine, though occasionally be would lake a special sort of champagne— a red sort. But lie wis always moderate— very different from some of iis friends who u«ed to come on board. For Instance, there was yon Tirpltz—be is quite a heavy drinker. The Kaiser mostly smoked cigars, hut occasionally yon would see him "with a clsnrette." "Did you come at all into personal contact with the Kaiser?" "Yes." replied :Bowles, a little apologetically, "anil the way he behaved didn't lei you sec whnt's turned out to be bis true character. Always he'd go round the yacht when lie first came aboard, and mostly he'd ask if I was getting along all right, ami h-e would have a nice word to say about the cooking, and once or twice he shook linnds with mc. He could make himself very pleasant, I must say, and there were times when he'd toe fnli of good spirits with his friends on board, laughing un:l chatting with everybody, though iipvor iiii■ to so free :i< Ills brother, Prince Henry. Some t lures the Kaiser'would turn i" anil li'iid n hand with the mainsail. "Bui there were other days when the K.ilot would Btny nil by himself In Ills '•nhin. and you could see him bunched up. with his head resting on his hands, frownins to himself and thinking. Those were

' times when neither the captain of the | yacht nor anyone else dared go nigh | him. Nobody took any notice; and It ; might go on like that for hours, only some- ' times, when meal time came ronml, he'd get cheerful again, and forget about his fit of the blues, or whatever It wag. •Til never forget that time when there I came news of those Royal assassinations ■which some people say started the war. We were In a race, and yon Mnller came up in one of the Ilohenzoliern's pinnaces j and threw something on board. It was :\ | case that had had opera. glasses in it, and when somebody picked it u-p aud opened it there was a written message inside Baying j ■what had happened. ! A riCTCRE PtZZT,K. "As soon as the Kaieer read the news hr said 'Dormer ■wetter!" and he save orders ' for the race to be abandon-ed. All the races were at once given up except those f° r tl,e ; fifteen-metre olass. 'When wo readied Kiel i there were the fonr .British ships, with | their flags at half-mast, and also flying the j Austrian flag. But the German ships '■ weren't doing anything, and the Kaiser got very angry about it, and gave orders ' for the German ships to half-mast their | flags. He didn't stay to hav e dinner on | the Meteor, but -went nt en-:« to the Hoheii- ! zollern, aud on to Berlin the same evening; and I've never seen him since. But I've got something to "remember lilm fty—a pictur of himself which he gave mc, with my name written on it, an* words in German to say lie presented it. "It'e a bit of a puzzle to mc," contlnned Bowles, thoughtfully, I ought to do with that picture. Some say, 'Smash it up, others tell mc to sell it for the Ked Cross. I haven't made up my mind yet. And, meanwhile, I'm when I'm going to get the £22 the Kaiser owes mc. Fifteen poonfls ivas prize money due; the reet was pay that was owing. When war was declared a pass to le>v« Germany wns made out for' mc and the four other Englishmen on the Meteor, trat Captain Begas, the Kaiser's representative, said thp money hadn't come from Berlin to pay us with, bnt he'd give tie eno.h £'> Osl account out of his own pocket. He snid the rest should be sent over to us In England, but there's been some hitch, and we haven't got It yet." In ttae meantime, Bowles has found a better master with whom he sees glorious service. This is Captain Hamilton Benn, M.P.. commanding the flotilla of motor lnunchcs which co-operated so usefully in the recent historic operations at Ostend.