EUROPE’S MADMAN.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 14 August 1924, Page 7

EUROPE’S MADMAN.

'IALES OF THE EX-KAISER. A NOBLE’S REVELATIONS. r^ oullt Robert : Zedlitztrntzschler’s Twelve Years at the Imperial Court” is probably the most interesting book on the ex-Kaiser that has yet appeared. As it is by a Prussian noble who from 1903 to 1910 was Coutroileir of the Household, its authenticity is beyond dispute. It has been uercely attacked by the militarists in Germany because of the pitiful nicture which it gives of the ex-EmpeTor. William 11. is contrasted with Edward VH. thus:— On the one side the man of the world, ten times tried in the furnace, whohad every move in the game at his finger tips, and had trodden everv byO' l the other, the Idealistic big child who had grown up with none but flatterers about him, in ignorance of the world. The approach of catastrophe, Count Zedlitz insists, was discerned “many years before” by “a few clear-sighted individuals.” But no man could speak the truth to the Emperor; he would listen only to the servile. His mother, the Empress Frederick, had said of him :

Pray do not believe for a moniem that my son ever does anything for any other reason but vanity.” His Court was a strange one and he had a liking for rough practical jokes. Thus on a hunting expedition':— “His Majesty held down Colonel von I>, who was in command of a cavalry regiment, for a long time iti the snow, and to the great- delight of all the spectators, rubbed snow all over him, just in the way a school bully would treat a weaker boy.” If there was no real friendship between Edward V 1,1., the Czar and the “ph? iTaly on the one hand, and i .i m OTI other, “it is very largely due to the fact that the Emperor has often, both by word of mouth and in writing, expressed himself, when he thought it was safe, quite without restraint, not to sav vulgarly, about their Majesties, and this naturallv has come to ,tlieir ear^.” One of the most extraordinary episodes in the hook is the. death of Count Hulsen-Haeseler, before the Kaiser at an entertainment given by tile Fursten bergs : “The exceptionally smart and brilliant company assembled after dinner in the beautiful great- hall of the castle, with a hand playing on the staircase. Suddenly .Count HulsenHaeseler appeared in ballet-skirts—not for the first time—and began to dance to the music. Everybody found it most entertaining, for the count danced beautifully, and it is an unusual experience to see a Chief of the Military Cabinet capering about in the costume of a lady of the ballet.”

Just as the performance ended a heavy crash was heard and Count Hul6en was found lying on the ground dying. Doctors arrived and, while the hand continued playing, strove to restore him, but nothing could he done. As a specimen of William Xl.’s hubumour this riddle is given: “What is the difference between a in other-in-1 aw and a good Havana cigar?” Naturally nobody knew the answer, and he said: “In the case of a good cigar we prefer the first breath we draw, but in the case of a mother-in-law it is the last breath that she draws that we like best.”

This, he professed, was telegraphed to him from London by a former British military attache.