The Press. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1918. The Kaiser and Germany.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16358, 1 November 1918, Page 6

The Press. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1918. The Kaiser and Germany.

There is a story in to-day's news that the Kaiser has informed the party leaders of the Reichstag of his willingness to abdicate, and it may well be ■ quite trae. The Kaiser has never been ! known as a monarch very eager to coniform to the wishes of his people, and J if he is making up his mind to go it ' will be less because Germany's interest . requires it, than because, as a "Daily ■ "Chronicle" correspondent remarked the other day, he has as little use for a democratic Germany a 9 a democratio | Germany has for him. This is the impression one receives from all those accounts of his Majesty which have the J appearance of accuracy, and it is an • impression which is much strengthened fay what one feels is by far tho /best 1 picture of him yet 'drawn—the picture 1 which emerges from the absorbingly in- 1 teresting memoirs contributed to "The 1 "Times" by Mr Davis, who was for mariy 1 years the Kaiser's dentist. Davis saw ' , much of hi 3 royal patient during his ' fifteen years' residence in Berlin, and 1 as tLey were very good friends, and T the Kaiser was a tremendous chatterer, c not to say a "regular gas-b3g," as the v saying goes, there were few ideas in * his head that he did not impart to Mr 0 Davis, who has Boswellised him in the most spirited manner. For the nioment we are only concerned with the v Kaiser-s attitude towards democracy,. a and Mr Davis's record on this point is very complete. His attitude is prac- a tically summed up in the following out- s; burst, one of many in which he ex- 8 pressed his dislike for Mr Lloyd George: p "Lloyd George is running England. a He is virtually a Socialist. How can w the King of England sit there and r . allow this sort of thing to go on without asserting himself?" P He was constantly revealing his entire abelief in the "divine right of kings." P Shortly after Mr Wilson's election in & 1912, ho said: "What will America ever I tl "accomplish with a professor at its j tl "head? Davis, your country will never u " be truly great until it becomes a ol " Monarchy." On another occasion he f{ exclaimed: "Look at England to-day. la " She is ruled by Lloyd George, a ai " Socialist. Why, England is virtually pj " a Republic, as bad as France. "What's m 41 become of the King of England ? Why pc "doesn't he assert himself?" He was ui furious with the Allies for trying, as ' pi he said, "to force their rotten form of cc "democratic government on Greece." tii Nothing, indeed, over impressed Mr 0 f Da via to much as the fundamental and w ,

ineradicable hatred of tie Kaiser to- - wards democratic ideals., This hatred was not suspected b.v the mass of the people, whose veneration for their Emperor Mr Davis declares was very strong and real in the first three years of the war But when he left Germany early this year he found many evidences of a change of feeling. He records that in May, 1916, when Lie'oknecht made a fierce attack on the tt Kaiser, his fellow-Socialists turned againat him. To-day Germany is filled with execrations of the War Lord and clamorous demands for his abdication. J To the Kaiser, we can easily believe, this is. not only very painful, but also very di6gusting. He complained to Mr Davis of having to start the work t>f regenerating Europe at the age of 60; at the age of 60 he is unlikely to adapt himself to ideas which are a complete denial of the very basis of his philosophy of lifo. He will not go while a j ray of hope remains, but we cannot imagine him content to remain as a shadow King if the German constitua tion is completely rebuilt, with a German Lloyd George ruling the country y and the All-Highest utterly una/ble to " assert himself."