KAISER TO ABDICATE?

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 99, 26 April 1917, Page 7

KAISER TO ABDICATE?

FORECAST BY AUTHOR OP

"J'ACCUSE."

The abdication of tlje. German Emperor is forecast by the former German magistrate who wrote the celebrated book "J'Accuse,'^ in an interview published in Oeuvre on 24th March. He cays:— "The Kaiser is obsessed by the thought that he is responsible for the war, a thought which poisons his whole existence. He feels that he is menaced by three enemies at home, without counting those abroad:

"First, is the Crown Prince, the real author of the war. "Second, is the Junker pan-Germanic? you cannot imagine the sjnoulder jng hatred of the Emperor- for those whom he believes to be the maniacs who are driving him into an abyss.

"Third, are the people, not the Socialist party, but the people yrhg are starving and who he feels are growing in number and rising little by little against those Trho organised the ■\ynr. /

"The other day at Ihe meeting of the Parliamentary Presidents sn d the' Minister- of the Federal Sovereigns at which the submarine war was decided upon ? the struggle between the Kaiser's party and that of Yon Tirpitz was most bitter. The majority against the . Emperor was so great, however, that he was obliged to. submit and pretend that, he was convinced. In particular he was personally opposed to a. breajc with President Wilson, but he was forced to consent. Dopuments will be published one day which will prove that secretly he did everything not to bring America down npoji him '^nd that he cousiders that the rupture was an irreparable mistake. The failure of the submarine war will soon show that he was right, but it will be t.oo late.

"The ppople he fears most are the anti-militarists, anti-Prussian, Liberal Republicans who want the Reichstag to be based on universal suffrage. That is why Wilhelm Is so anxious to convince the nation that he did not want war. All his protestations are madn to appease the Liberals and his'famished and, ruined subjects, whose murmurings are growing stronger. He wants to continue popular at any price, and that is why he spoke the first word of peace. The people were grateful for it, but the submarine war came and spoiled every* thing. "It is hard to realise how this Emperor, who enjoyed a popularity unexampled in our epoch, 6uners in his pridfl. Ho alone "perhaps in Germany knows the whole truth, sin.cc he ajone has in his possession the elements for forming a judgment on' tho situation as a whole. How can ho resist morally and physically' under such a strain? Certainly he hopes sQinetimep, but Jess a.nd less, for the success of the iinrestricted subhia.rine war which he opppsed,. He see»i the isolation, of Germany become more and more complete. "Once ho tried to initiate peace negotiations and fai'ed. To try uga-in would be to admit ani proclaim to the whole world, but above all "to the German people, which he fears most, Germany's real situation. If the Allies solemnly declared, as they did with Napoleon in 1815, that they would refuge to treat for peace with the Hohenzollems it would be a knockout blow. Our German people, who still believp in him, would abandon him, for peace at aiiy price will soon be tho unanimous and hidden thought of tortured Germanj. "■What recourse is left to him l)"t adramatic abdication in order to retain the sympathies of the German people and EiVve the political future of Prussia. He will say: *I sacrifice myself to make peace. Without me those only are responsible who desired a savage war and the complete isolation of Germany, those who took at the beginning my son as their party leader and forced mo to mobilise a measure ■ I hesitated to take.' "