Evening Post. THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 1926. WILHELM'S ESTATES

Evening Post, Volume 137, Issue CXI, 10 June 1926, Page 8

Evening Post. THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 1926. WILHELM'S ESTATES

The half-column of German news which reached us by cable from London and Berlin yesterday was saturated with the irony of history. Ten years ago Germany was still the greatest military Power in the world, and i': was an open question whether the stupendous exertions which she was putting forth would not result in the crushing of France,, tho smashing of the British. Empire, and the subjection of the whole world to a German dictatorship. The figure-head of that dictatorship, and something more than tho figurehead, would have been the man whose study of the careers of Alexander the Great, Napoleon 1., and other great conquerors had induced him to register a vow "never to strive for an empty world-dominion," but who was nevertheless hoping, to succeed where-Na-poleon had failed. Ten years ago Wilhelm 11. was still going. as strong as ever, but rivalling him in popularity and soon to surpass him, if he had not already done so, was the officer whom he had adversely criticised and placed] on the retired list three years before the War. Turned down in this way at the age of 64, the military career of Hindenburg appeared to be at an end, but despite the disapproval of the AllHighest ho still carried the baton of a field-marshal in his knapsack, and within four, months after the outbreak of hostilities it came to light. H. had been called from his retirement - stem the Russian invasion of East Prussia, and within a month the smashing victory of Tanncnberg had made him a popular hero. In due course he was to become the popular idol, the centre and rallying-point of the hopes of German patriotism. It was Hindenburg's wooden statue and, not the Kaiser's that was erected in the Koenigsplatz at Berlin, and studded with nails for the privilege of driving which patriots were proud to make contributions to war charities. Closely, associated with Hindeuljurg both before August^ 1916, when he took over tho whole conduct of th. operations in the East and the West and afterwards, and serving as his' auviser and executive officer, was Ludendorff. The combination retained tho supreme control till the end of the War, and it was on their joint advice tendered in September and October, 1918, tha' the German Government sought for an armistice. But in 1916 Germany hadi no' thought of anything but victory, and in these two men and the Kaiser her confident hopes were embodied. This was ton years ago, but where are these three men to-day? The answer is supplied by yesterday 'a cable messages. The Kaiser who "stood from under" when the crash came is an exile in Holland, where he has displayed none of the marks of his former greatness unless an unlimited self-confidence, selfrighteousness, and grandiose loquacity can be counted among them. And now, to add to his misfortunes, a plebiscite is pending which will decide whether or not the immense estates- which he could not take with him to Doon, but of which he has hitherto drawn the income, are to be treated as his private property or as the property of the State. Hindenburg, who has faithfully observed the vow of loyalty to the Republic which he took on his election to the Presidency in April, 1925, is now distracted by a loyalty of longer standing, and threatens to resign if the vote goes against his late master. Ludendorff, who has stood for hatred and strife as conspicuously as his former chief has stood for unity and peace, appears to have shown himself no less impossible as a husband than as a politician. The two disqualifications are strangely combined, by his wife in the grounds of her divorce suit, namely, "that he is overburdened with political and other activities, and that he has treated her badly." The ferocity of Ludendorff 's politics might hopelessly bias i oven a Monarchist jury in favour of the I petitioner on both grounds. : It is a singular coincidence which has brought these three ex-heroes of the German nation into the same unenviable prominence in the limelight at the same time, but for the present it is the best of the three that has the first claim upon our attention. It is by no means surprising that Hindenburg, who has never disguised his devotion to tho "Old ArmyV and the old Kaiser, should strongly sympathise with the latter in the. approaching ordeal. But it is odd that a man whose balance, dignity, and sense of responsibility have never before failed him as President should now display, that sympathy in a fashion so unbalanced and so well calculated to aggravate on both sides tho passions and the prejudices which he has hitherto sought to restrain. Even the Monarchists, we are told, "did not expect such vehement language," and'the element of surprise has served equally to intensify their delight and the resentment of the Republicans. The President denounces a measure which the Government and the Legislature have approved as "a great injustice, showing a grave lacK

of traditional sentiment, and an act of gross ingratitude." The submission of the estates of Count Wilhelm and the other ex-Royalties to the chances of a popular vote seems to President Hindenburg equally objectionable from the legal and the moral standpoints. From a legal aspect, he ■ says, it is a highly lamentable onslaught on the structure of the State, whose firmest foundations should respect tho law of property. It offends the foundations of morality and law, and it will undermine one of the pillars on which tho State reposes, and open a way leading into a steep pit. The loyalty which the man who had "spent his life in the service of the German Emperor" still feels for the exile of Doom must command the honour even of thoso who regard' it as misplaced. But to charge tho supporters of the plebiscite with "gross ingratitude" to the ruler who brought ruin upon the nation can only raise a smile. With tho legal and moral issues we have left ourselves no space to deal, but tho President might surely have expressed his dissent from the proposal in a less provocative fashion. It is, in particular, the declaration of his intention to resign if tho proposal is carried that threatens to, nullify^the great work of reconciliation which he has helped to accomplish in both the domestic and the foreign politics of Germany.