English-Born German Princess

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6802, 4 January 1929, Page 4

English-Born German Princess

T

i HE Princess of Pless in 'I her youth was famous | . for her great beauty, I which she still retains 4 notwithstanding the adJ. vance of years. Born

in England, a Cornwallis-West, she married when a mere girl the heir to a principality in Prussia, whose family were of enormous wealth. She knew everyone of distinction in England and in Germany. But what .gives- her letters and her recentlypublished diary such a peculiar charm is their sincerity, combined with that inner beauty of thought which marks also the letters of the famous . Lady Bessborough. She pronounces her verdict, from personal knowledge, on the characters of both King Edward and the Emperor William 11. of Germany, and her verdict will probably be endorsed by posterity. She married, as she says, when a mere child, and warned her future husband that she did not love him. “He said that it did not matter'; love came after marriage.” She saw not a little of the Kaiser and what she says of him shows that he was always a chivalrous friend to her. When his mother, the Empress Frederick, died she wrote to him a letter of sympathy, to which he replied: ■' She had a great liking to you. and when" I told her that I know no woman whom I admired and loved more than you she said I was perfectly right, that she thought you the most sweet, lovely, and lovable being she had ever seen; that your arms, neck and hands were perfection, and happy the man whom you possessed and who was beloved by you, and that she hoped I would always prove a friend to you and not let you be maliced or anything said against you as long as I could put a stop to it. The book proves that the Emperor faithfully carried out his mother’s dying injunction. And the Princess loyally did her best to help him and avert the storm which year after year she saw approaching. At times she

spoke-very bluntly to him. Thus at the epd of 1905, when the Morocco crisis-.was causing danger, she discussed it at Pless Avith him.

He .did not resent what I said; only once or twice he got very excited, and during: our conversation about England :htfe,ha'cl tears in his eyes. ... To the Emperor it is. a bitter disappointment to be misjudged and to be disliked—and he wants always to be first. . . . The King (Edward) -simply dislikes the Emperor. . . . There are great mistakes on both ■sides.

The German Empress vras unfortunately not able to help the Kaiser with wise counsel. She was little more than a piece of furniture.

What a silly woman she Is! Clothes and children are really her chief conversation, and the only thing she thor-

otigldy understands. . . . For a woman W that position I never met anyone so devoid of individual thought, or agility of brain and understanding. She is just like a good, quiet soft cow—that has

calves and eats grass slowly, apd then lies down and ruminates. . . . I looked right into her eyes to see if I could see anything behind them, even pleasure or sadness, but they might have been of glass. King Edward’s Seizure

The Princess was in Berlin at King Edward’s last visit in'l9o9. For the superstitious there was a whole series of bad omens:

The procession.-was bad; the carriages did not keep, equal distances, the horses of one being almost. Ifi.ihe legs of the footmen’ standingl.:js|lii'Si.a''''the preceding one, so .that thbjjipSoi'-ihSn -kept on turning round ’ to' l bef: wkbthC'r they would be bitten. ' Them, wljen. nearing the palace, the horses ' in tlie 'carriage ■of the Empress arid* the' Qtjeen v refused to go on, and both ladies ;imd ‘ tdi.'ge t, cmt and get into >, /In Salm’s sqbadroh.,’guarding ; ':the ! carriages two of tho horses ‘got-frightened a'nd the men tumbled off, ■ /*;■■■ ; G,

The Princess' was talking to King Edward in the Palace when he had an alarming seizure:

Suddenly he coughed and fell back against the back of the sofa and his cigar dropped out of his fingers, his e3 r es stared, he became pale, and he could not breathe, I thought: ‘‘My God, he •is dying; oh! Why not in his own country.” I tried to undo the collar of his unform (which Was too tight); then the Queen rushed up and we both tried: at last he came to—and undid it himseir.

It was the first sad sign of the King’s approaching death.

Weeping Into His Cigar

It was not William 11,, she insists, who made the war. In one of the many crises which arose between England and Germany, she says:

I never saw a man more unhappy and affected than the Emperor' was when talking to me after dinner. He said, “Oh, I am always misunderstood; there is no one living to tell the truth to me,” and a tear fell, on his cigar! I was at once touched and antagonised. The act of weeping into his cigar, so typically German, somehow put me off. She says elsewhere:

■ln his secret heart he was always sincerely devoted to the cause of peace. He was the Emperor and King, practically an autocrat, yet he allowed himself to be overborne, intimidated, or perhaps perverted by the wicked apostles of war. . . . The German Militarists lost the war. That the Emperor was too weak to withstand them was his misfortune rather than his fault. I doubt if, by that time, Napoleon tho Great could have withstood them It is the people who make Their kings; not Icings who make their people.

Whether for Its personal lnteiyjst or its political value, the book is among the most important that have appeared since the war.