THE KAISER & HIS MOTHER

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 20 December 1913, Page 12

THE KAISER & HIS MOTHER

NEW BIOGRAPHIES

The German Emperor is what Americans call a "spectacular" man. For the 25 years of his reign he has commanded the attention of every civilised nation and whenever complications have arisen all the great powers of Europe have asked, some,, of them tremblingly, • What will the Kaiser do?" There was a time, each, in his reign, when the watching nations accounted him vainglorious. He made seemingly ra3h speeches and asserted audacious claims. 3he. outside world 6miled tolerantly, but it has come to realise that the Kaiser is no empty boaster, but a man of iron, and one of the custodians of peace among the great powers. In the period of his reign peace has been maintained so far as Germany is concerned—a magr'.ificent tribute to the high statesmanship and humanity of a monarch at ouce powerful ai-d ambitious, and, in his own country, swaying enormous mii fluence over his people. Dr. Stanley Shaw, in his "William of Germany" (London: Methuen and Co.) essays a biography of this remarkabale monarch. For nearly half the period of the Kaiser's reigri the author has lived in Berlin, a close observer of the Emperor and of political events. He devotes most of his book to political history. Apparently fierce lights do not beat upon German thrones, and if they did they would reveal rothing disreputable in the case of the reigning Kaiser. Dr. ' Shaw seems a little disconcerted by the . non-existence of scandal.' He regards it as a difficulty to the biographer that "the life of ihe Emperor has been blameless from, the .moral standpoint," ! and says fhac perhaps one-half of the i human interest of biography disappears when those it treats of have no vices.

The Kaiser 'vas 54 years of age at the beginning of this year. His life since his accession has been, to quote Dr. Shaw, "to no small extent the history of the world. f) Qn the ".day of his accession he said to his army, "I and the army: were born for each other: let us remain indissolubly connected, come peace or Btorm, as God irav will." To the navy

he spoke in a similar strain, and here w^ have ;tho keynote of his life's policy. The navy was then small, but continuous and determined endeavor and personal study on the part of the Kaiser,, have given it at. least, to use a sporting phrase, a "place" in the race of Dreadnoughts. Dr. Shaw will convince his readers of the very great krowledge of i naval, science, construction, and history possessed-'by the Rmpiyor.- Two years after his acoe*don the' Kaiser quarrelled with Bismarck, a very bold thing for a young monarch to do, and an action which, whatever th© merits |of the case, stamped him as a deter- | mined and fearless statesman. Dr. Shaw describes the dispute at length, and rives this thumb-nail sketch of the difference iii the two in^n's tiu-.? actors:— "Bismarck had small regard for manners. . . The Emperor is courtesy | itself, as everyone who meets him testifies.- Bismarck was fond of eating and drinking, a man with the apjietite of a horse, and the thirst of a drayman, uni til he was nearly 80, and smoked strong cigars from morning till night. . .

i The Emperor has never cared particut larly for what are called the pleasures of the table, is fond of apples, and one .or two simple German dishes, and has i never been what, in Germany, is called a chain-smoker." I>r. Shaw dwells j upon' the various war scares with which Germany he* been associated, and oom- . forts Tis with the assurance that now there is no cloud visible on the horizon. "The eharac*f,r of the Emperor, as monlarch," says Dr. Shaw, "is reflected very I largely in th^ character of the Germany ■of to-day. Germany is optimistic, ardently desirous of peace, bent on worthily maintaining the gre&F place she has j won, and deserved to win, among the nations,, and so materially prosperous \ps to make many Germans tremble at 'the thought that the prosperity may too great to last." The author points out, however, that, noxious as well as beneficial forces have been introduced into the social life of the country:— "German home-life is ceasing to be the admirable and exemplary thing it was , before the present era of class rivalry, j commercialism, the parvenu, and the snob. . . Social democracy is yearly gaining fresh adherents* and if { guilty of no political violence, is yet a constant source of danger to domestic peace."

j "The Empress Frederick—a Memoir" (London : Nisbet and Co.) is anonymous.' The publishers announce that the writer , had had the privilege of access to per- , sonal correspondence of the Empress ' and of aid from Her Majesty's friends. I The book is an agreeable popular sketch, scarcely full enough to be oallied a biography. The political aspect of J the Empress's career is relegated to the i background, and in particular instances j entirely obscured by. the personal, elei ment, from which' circumstances wo i shrewdly guess that the anonymous writer is a lady. The story is simply told. The somewhat pathetic history of the Empress at a foreign Court, the hostility, even brutality, of Bismarck; the estrangement for a time of the young Emperor William from his. mother: the downfall of Bismarck: and the placidity of the later years of the Empress Frederick's life, are described sympathetically. That her marriage with Prince Frederick William wns a success is, however, abundantly obvious. The Royal pair were sincerely devoted to each other, arid the union oroduced that "fine boy" who is the Kaieer of to-day. What more rcraid pithp*" Great Britain or Germany have hoped for?— Melbourne Argus.