THE KAISER.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXXI, 11 January 1916, Page 2

THE KAISER.

DESCRIBED BY A DIPLOMATIST.

The remarkable accuracy of the warnings sent to the Belgian Government by Ithe Belgian Minister at Berlin (Baron Beyens) in the months immediately'preceding the outbreak of the war has previously been noted, and there is consequently keen interest in Baron Beyen's book, "Germany Before the j War," which has jusib been published in Paris. Perhaps the most engaging part of: the book is that in which the author giyeis his personal impressions of the characters of people at the German Court. Here are a few extracts, says fi London correspondent:— "Certainly the Emperor is a very •gifted man, intelligent, and well-in-formed. 'One has the impression, nevertheless, when speaking with him, t thatfho has only a superficial knowledge of certain subjects about which he is pleased to discourse. This need cause no surprise.. In spite of his rare faculty of assimilation, William II does not possess a universal mind capable of speaking with equal facility about politics, industry, commerce, agriculture, music, painting, architecture, and what not, de omni re scibiii,' for he does not' fear to venture on the thorny paths of the sciences, properly so called. His ■' confidence in' himself has: always ren- \ dered th© collaboration of a superior! mind or of an independent will insupportable for the government of the Empire. After a reign of two years hej impatiently shook off the tutelage—' maladroit, no doubt, but still necessary] —of the man to whom he owed his i Imperial crown. If they desired "to ; serve him* for a long time, it. was nee'es- ' sary that his Ministers should adopt his ideas or should have the art of presenting their own as if their inspiration "was due -to him, His Chan- j cellors, after the dismissal of Bismarck, have been only the executors, more or less ■ capable, of his sovereign will, and the chietfs of an army of bureaucrats..! . . .. For a Chancellor of/the Empire to govern is not to '"£ brsee; it is to obey a versatile and headstrong master.. "Without .being imbued witn all the . reactionary ideas of the Prussian Conservatives, .William II ha s no liberality of spirit. -He is a "monarch'of Divine right, who believes himself to be invested, like his predecessors, with a mission of governing his States and. looking after the weil-b&ing of his subjects, even .in spite of themselves, according to the principles of religion and following the monarchical ..tradition.; he is a resolute champion of . the imprescriptible principles of. Royalty, limited only by modern constitutional barriers. LET FRANCE BEWARE, '"It musit be stated quite precisely." says Baron Beyens, "that the Emperor William had always thought that we would have to fight only France, the old ; and irreconcilable enemy. The future, war was to be a simple duel between the Republic and the Empire. He hoped for a, long time to divide his adversities and secure Russian inaction. At the Court of Berlin the FranceRussian Alliance was never regarded as indestructible. The Potsdam agreement .concluded by M. Kokoffteeff seemed 'to warrant - extensive hopes. Repeated advances %ere made to the $zar Nicholas; interviews took place in which William. n, as during the visit!! to Baltic ports, employed all the f-edudtions of his intelligence.-towheddle the Russian Sovereign and capture the confidence of his Ministers. Only a few months before the war the Emperor himself said to me that illusions were entertained in France as to the solidity of the Duel Alliance; that he was well informed as to the true'feelings of the Imperial Court by high Russian personages, who, when passing' through Potsdam, made. no concealment of the side on which their sympathies lay. "In February, 1914. on the night of a court/ball, during a conversation in •which my friend and comnatriot, Baron Lambert, took part, the Emperor used this phrase, more picturesque than in conformity with the truth, which he loved* to repeat, as he had already uttered it to other diplomatists: 'I have often held out' mv hand to France; she has only replied with kicks.' His bitterness was next extended to the Jrench oress, which, he said, daily attacked Germany in unmeasured terms. He ended in a serious tone by declaring, with that theatrical expression which gave weight to his words: 'Let them 'take care m Paris, for things will not always be thus.' Now. when h e was , speaking m this way. the war was already determined uoon in his mind. What was the meaning of this language? Was it a comedy, duplicity, on his part, or must one rather regard it as anxiety to pile ut> his grievances in order to justify his future acts " THE KAISER IRRITABLE. Just before the war the Kaiser became noticeably irritable and nervous: In a King, in a statesman, there ar^ often- several different men who appear successively at different ages. Very rare are those who, cut in an urialtera ■■ £? ' Hever var-v from youth to ■3P' X aturit J and experience cause them to cast a more distrustful glance on t-h© Enterprises on which they would employ their resourses and their efforts. xu'-rr b?T n °&P°site in the cas© of William 11. In him the wise and prudent man, of every relative wisdom and prudence, it is true, has not been the mature man, but the youth. The s^e of his health—l have heard him say it—may have been th e factor of a moral degeneration. In spite of the open air exercise which h e took assiduously,, or because of his frequent travelling and the overstrain, caused thereby, his nerves had become enfeebled by an excess of tension. The daily rest of an hour in bed every afternoon which he forced himself to take was not sufficient to establish th© necessary physical equilibrium. His wrinkled 'face and grey complexion betrayed the gradual exhaustion of his'constitution. Those Germans who did not see him frequently were struck by the premature ageing- of their Kaiser. Baron TBeyens. it is scarcely necessary to say, blames the Kaiser entirely for precipitating the war.