Evening Post. TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 1925. 'THE CHOSEN INSTRUMENT'

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 151, 30 June 1925, Page 4

Evening Post. TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 1925. 'THE CHOSEN INSTRUMENT'

The 28th June, which was the sixth anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, was also the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, of the Battle of Fehrbellin, and it was in the second of these capacities that Sunday last was celebrated by the people of Brandenburg. Germany was- but a geographical expression two hundred and fifty years ago. The Kingdom of Prussia was-separated from the rest of Germany by the intervention of Poland. Marching with Poland on the west was the Electorate of Brandenburg, which under its" Hohenzollern rulers was rapidly developing into a powerful State. In the early years of the Thirty Years' War the Electorate had remained neutral, securing thereby the privilege of being "impartially ravaged by both sides." In 1631 Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden marched on Berlin, and for about ten years this, unhappy land had to support a Swedish. Army of-Occupation while suffering severely from the lawless attentions of its own soldiers. The year 1632 saw the climax of the power of Sweden and the death of their great King; yet Frederick William, the "Great Elector" of Brandenburg, who was the vassal of Poland for his title to East Prussia, was compelled 'twenty-four years later by the Treaty of Konnigsberg to transfer his allegiance to Sweden. By a subsequent treaty in' the same year, his independent right to East Prussia was recognised.

Before another twenty years had passed the Great Elector had established his country's complete independence of Swedish influence in the battle which the Brandenburgers were celebrating on Sunday. The tactics and the effects of this great victory are thus described by "D. Mueller, a German historian:—

The left.wing of the Swedes made 'haste' to cross the Rhine which forms the old. boundary .of Havelland, and the count-ship of Ruppin and leaves only a few fordable places. At one of these, near Fahrbellin in the province of Ballin, a,.sandy plateau full of fir woods, the Elector', compelled them to give 'battle 28th June, 1675. With 5600 horse, which alone had followed his lightning speed, and 13 cannon, he attacked the Swedes, 11,000 strong (4000 on horseback, 7000. on foot, and 38 cannon). At tho very, beginning he espied, with the keen eye" oE a general, an unoccupied hill which commanded the battlefield^ thither he hastened with the cannon. It was here that the fight was hottest.. . .-.- and here the day was gloriously'decided for the Brandenburgei-s. The young Power'had conquered the Swedes, whose warlike renown had subsisted unshaken since the: days of Gustavus Adolphusthe Elector had performed the most glorious task which can fall to the lot of a soldier—he had freed his Fatherland from foreign violence. Seven days later not a foe remained-on the soil of the Mark.

The prudent finance, the thorough organisation and the skilful generalship of the Great Elector had by this battle cleared Brandenburg of foreign domination and laid the foundation of the Great Empire which reached its full dimensions nearly two centuries later in the signing of the first Treaty of Versailles. At the same time the autocratic power which was partly the instrument and partly the product of his-reforms, and the -passion for military.glory with which he inoculated his subjects sowed the seeds of the terrible harvest which was

reaped by his country in the second Treaty of Versailles six years ago.

On the 18th January, 1701, the son of the Great Elector became the first King of Prussia. On the 18_th January, 1871,' William 1., King of Prussia, was proclaimed German Emperor at Versailles. The 18th January, 1919, sa w the opening of the Peace Conference convened to decide the fate of the great Empire which William II " the grandson of the first German Emperor, had brought to utter rum. The three dates form an interesting series, of which the second Wilhelm loved to proclaim the significance. He has been less eloquent about the third. It was at Konigsberg in 1910 that the Kaiser known to this generation made the most striking public reference to the crowning of Frederick I. and to the lesson that it conveyed to his successors and to those who were privileged to obey them.

It was. at Konigsberg that the coronation :of the Emperor's grandfather took place, or. rather, it was here that ■ William I. crowned himself King of irussia This express disclaimer of any responsibility to the people may be found m several speeches, but nowhere was the ex me raea nata corona attitude more forcibly expressed than on this occasion. .^. .And here my grandfather, again, by his own right, set the Prussian wowa.jipon- his head, once more distinctly emphasising the fact that it was accorded him by the will of God alone and hh* fP f f Jlaniell l t or by any assemA £\ f PT ple or by Popular vote, and that he thus looked upon himself a? the^ chosen instrument of Heaven and as such performed his duties as Regent and Sovereign', And adorned with this crown v forty years ago, he . rode ,forth to bat tie o wm the Emperor's crown tin, f*i y/ tWaS a I°"S wav 'to «« tune of the fapious telegram of the Emperor to my late grandmother: "What a change through the providence of

It was at Konigsberg that "Fred-' enck William established his authority and paved the way for^ the greater Frederick II." It W as at Versailles that William I was crowned as ,the first German Emperor and paved the way for'the greater William 11. Such" was clearly the spirit and the moral of that speech at Konigsberg in which the Divine inspiration ,of the Hohenzollerns and their blessed independence of Parliaments and laws and votes were proclaimed by the last of the series, but for once he was mistaken. There has indeed been "a change through the providence of God." "The Hohenzollerns' old Ally" was induced by the pride and the folly of their latest representation to forsake them altogether, and just as his grandfather "in his own right" and of his own motion assumed the Crown of Prussia, so Wilhehn 11. in his own right and of his own motion laid it down in November, 1918. •Six years after the signing of the second Treaty of Versailles we can' afford to smile at the grandiloquence in which he refers to "the return of, the Prussian victories" as the only way "to free us from murderers and from slavery."