DEATH OF COUNT MOLTKE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 106, 5 May 1923, Page 19

DEATH OF COUNT MOLTKE.

GREAT SCANDAL RECALLED. Count Cuno Moltke, whose death In Berlin was announced recently, was one of the ventral figures of the great Court scandal which In 11107 shook German society to Uw foundations, and drove the ex-Ivalser l'> seek refuge for some weeks in England Count Moltke was at that time aide to the Emperor and Military Governor of Berlin. The scaudal was brought to light by a scries of "Zukunft" articles, in which Max! mlllan Harden stated that the Kaiser warhedged in by ii small circle of sycophantof abnormal temperaments and perverse proclivities, who, by'ministering to his in satiablo appetite for adulation, had got him completely into their power, ami were thus exercising a very injurious Influence on German policy. Among those mentioned !>y name were Prince Eulcnburg, who had breu Dismissals from high, office's and withdrawals of so.-ial fa\oilr wen; then tlic signal for a long series of sordid lawsuitt and prosecutions, which for the first tinii revealed to the world the pitiful and cot. temptible realities lying behind tbt Emperor's heroic poses. It was Impossible for the persons impllcatotl to sit still under the charges mad": against them, and, with great circumspection, they put forward Count Moltke t<. light their battle. Mo was, apparently, t!uleast offensive of the whole Rang, and unci Innocently allowed himself to be made ih.instrument of others' schemes and intrigues. The Chief of the Police Department concerned with the affair has re-enlly state'l in a book of reminiscences that Count

Moltkc.'s peculiar idiosyncrasy never found expression in actions inconsistent with I he

law. Though n general and Covernor. In really cared nothing for cither military molten or politics. All his Interests! were li. the spheres of art. It was, uo doubt, for the reason that he could face legal crossexamination with a comparatively clear conscience that the men who had beer, using him to maintain their influence 01. the Kaiser pushed him Into the foreground as their champion. Count Moltke's first idea was to wi;ie hie reputation clean by a due!, bill his cnnl" lenjie was dedinet] by (Harden. There was. consequently, nothing for it but a libel action. Throußh one vicissitude or another tiie proceeding drasßed on endlessly, till at last a sudden and unexpected development

f^n vp iliom 11 turn Id ;i now nlrn^tion. TVvo rustles who hail acted as boatmen tn rrinco Kulcnberg on a lake in Bavaria save crldence In flut ((inflict with that of the Prince, and thus brought down on him a prosecution for perjury. No sooner, however, had hie trial been begun than heither became 111 or simulated sickness with mi eh success ss to deceive the doctors attached to the court. But the public was suspicious thnt the Kaiser's favourite was helns let down easily, and raised so louo a clamour that it was only after the TrlnC" had more than once been brought into court in his lied thnt the tricl was Indefinitely postponed. Till his death, which took place since the war. the Prince lived quietly on the estate to the north of Rerlln, where he had so often entertained William 11.