The Hawera Star. MONDAY JUNE 28, 1926. GERMAN ROYALTIES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 28 June 1926, Page 6

The Hawera Star.

MONDAY JUNE 28, 1926. GERMAN ROYALTIES.

Delivered every evening by 5 o’clock in Hawera. Jtanaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatold, Kaponga, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Waverley, Mokoia, Whakamara, Obangai, Meremere. Fraser Road and Ararats.

No country manages to enjoy the benefits of a monarchy without cost, and* no country expects it; but it seems a bit hard on Germany that,, having overthrown the monarchy and banished the monarch, she should be pestered as she is by the supporters of the one and the representatives of ,thc other. The plebiscite of Sunday -week, whereby a proposal to confiscate all Royal properties, without compensation, was defeated. — or, more icorrectly, was not carried—is but the latest development of ,a problem which has exercised the minds of German statesmen and lawyers almost from the establishment, of the Republic, over six years ago. Thanks to the assortment of states, duchies and principalities which, went to make up the German Empire, the Fatherland was blessed—or cursed, according to the point of view-—with a small army of princes and .princelings, and these, with the ex-Kaiser at the head, left no stone unturned in the effort to re-es-tablish themselves as men of property. The c-laiims for compensation made upon the Government, in respect of lost estates and revenue, ,amounted an the aggregate to £250,000,000, one-fifth of which stood in the name of the dethroned Wilhelm. But the settlement offered by .the Government towards the close of last year (which offer Jed. to the demand for a plebiscite), although lavishly generous, did not propose to yield anything like tlio total amount claimed. Some of the ex-rulers ’ landed property was personal; much of i.t was not, hut attached merely to the office. The claims forwarded from Doom made no distinction, but demanded the restoration of, or compensation for, everything. The process of sorting out was complicated by conflicting interests in .the Reichstag, but eventually, in December of last year, it ■was announced that the ex-Kaiser and' his family would retain palaces, lands, jewels and' cash to the value of some £1:1,250,000 —this in addition to a monthly .payment: of £2500 from Prussia. The State was to take over the castles and palaces formerly held under the Crown, the works of art in the museums and treasuries, .the Crown insignia, the Royal library, the archives, .the theatres and their belongings, U'1.,000 acres of land and forest, a number of urban freeholds in Berlin, and the Kaiser’s entailed estate. Following the failure of the Socialists and Communists to carry their proposal last week, it is presumably on this basis .that- a settlement will be made, in which case the average man will be justified in the view that the role of ex-monarch is not such a Lad one after all. The proposal on which tiro nation was to have voted—actually, sixty per. cent, of those eligible did not vote at all—was that the entire Royalist properties should be confiscated and handed over to “unemployed w,ar cripples, peasants, small investors, pensioners? and other victims of the war and its aftermath”; whilo the Royal castles, palaces and shoot-ing-boxes were to be transformed into hospitals and l schools. The Government did not favour so radical a proceeding as this, contending—.and! .quite rightly—that the confiscation of private property without compensation was opposed to the principles of justice; but a plebiscite was demanded by over twelve million, electors, and the authorities could not fairly refuse it. For the .pence of Germany, however, it is perhaps as well that the proposal was not carried. Persistent reports were current that, had’ confiscation been approved, there, would have been an attempt at a monarchist coup, designed to upset the ’Government and establish a dictatorship; and President Hindenburg had given it out that- lie would., resign if the Radicals’ scheme succeeded. Probably the Government would have followed suit; in any case there ■would have beeiv a close approach to political chaos, and Germany’s late experience of the chaotic state must have been sufficient for one generation. The main -thing is that the Hohenzollerns are out of power. It may be a profitable investment- to paly them hnndsoniely to stay out.