GERMAN NOTABILITIES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 20 May 1915, Page 3

GERMAN NOTABILITIES.

HINDENBERG AND TIRPITZ

The pictures of General yon Hindenberg go not, jguggest t-uat tne "second ismeixer" has a very pronounced gentie element in his nature, and most or the stones or him insist on his roughness or' manner and unyielding stubbornness But Mr J. 0. Bennett reveals another side to the German strategist's character. The American correspondent relates that in January yon Mindenberg had his portrait painted by Kari Ziegler, and used to go along to the painter's studio whenever he had half an hour to spare. He seems to have been a willing subject, very anxious to help the painter; grave always, but keenly interested in the progress of the picture. Mr Bennett discussed the matter with one of yon Hindenberg's staff officers. "Perhaps," said +,he Prussian, "you think it strange for the FieldMarshal to. be sitting for his portrait in these troubled times. But you must understand that it rests him, and takes his mind off the campaign." Once persuaded to grant the sittings, the General entered into them with gusto. Each otm is supposed to last half'an hour. At the end of fifteen or twenty minutes the subject i 3 likely to stride across the room, peer around at the picture, utter, a contented monosyllable, and go. back for another quarter of an hour. On the day of a visit to the studio the painter said to him as he was departing: "I thank you heartily, exce.llenz, for taking the time to come and see my work." But the old man would not have it that way. "Nay," he said, "it is I who have to thank you. It was kind of you to give me the time," and with a ceremonious bow he stalked down the stairs.

Grand-Admiral A.yon Tirpitz, the man chiefly responsible for the modern Ger.man Navy, and also for the murderous tactics of the present so-called "blockade" of the British Isles, was the son of an attorney. He was born away from the sea, but. at sixteen he secured a naval cadet-ship in the very modest Prussian navy. It is stated that even in humble office* he displayed an extraordinary talent for initiating enterprises and for obtaining recognition of his views from superior officers. By 1891 he was Chief of 'Staff at Kiel, impressing his powerful personality on the fleet and earning.an extraordinarily high reputation as on administrator and naval director. It was during this period that he applied himself particularly to the study of the torpedo service, his plan being virtually "to dt-\ise a- means by which a weak navy i .-.ight conduct a contest, not unevenly, vith a j strong one. Later came his promotion to the Admiralty Office, in Berlin. The famous naval law was • < nceived in the fertile brain of yon Tirpits, and it owed its passage almost entirely to his enterprise. Perhaps the most striking proof oi: his success at the Navy Office is that he r.'ii^orl the annual expenditure on the fleet from six millions in 1898 to twenty-three millions in 1913. The Grand Admiral, it is stated, bos never aimed afc equalling the British fleet, but he believed that if the German Navy wers broughi im to two-thirds of the British strength it would give the Empire the security it needed on the sea. It is cuiious, by the way, to read that yon TirniJ.z is, or. was, a feryant admirer of Britain and the Brit-, ish, and that hatred of Britain has nover a.ffected his plans or calculations. He schemed simply for the sake of his country, to ensure, its progress and prosperity.