HOW THE GERMAN EMPEROR SPENDS HIS SALARY.
The Emperor William receive* W* salary quarterly in advance. The money is thrice counted by different functionaries at the National Treasury, and is afterwards placed in a number of strong boxes and carried to the Royal mail waggon waiting at the door between a troop of mounted gendarmes. Alter the load has been placed in the vehicle, the Ministers of Finance of the Empire and Kingdom place the seals of their respective offices upon the door, and accompany the minister of the Royal Household in his carriage, the mail waggon with its escort of mounted gendarmes following immediately behind. Not until the money is actually deposited in the vaults of Emperor William's Berlin palace does the Minister of the Household sign receipts, which are made out in the name of "Wilhelm Rex " and "William Imperator" respectively, one half of the sum being derived from the Treasury of the German Empire, Two days afterwards the Court functionaries receive their pay ; but, although the Emperor receives his pay in advance, not one of the employees is similarly favoured, so that the Emperior is practically always three months behind in the pay-list of his household. The only exception which the Emperor makes is in favour of his wife, whose personal allowance of £50,000 per annum is paid to her quarterly and in advance. At no great Court in Europe are the salaries so low as that of Berlin the so-called great dignitaries having to satisfy themselves with a pittance of £4OO a year, while the Minister himself receives but £6OO. This is not surprising when the enormous number of persons who figure in the pay-roll is taken into consideration. For instance, there are no less than five hundred housemaids and one thousand eight hundred liveried footmen.
Every servant high or low is entitled to a pension after working in the Royal household for twenty years Over and above the civil list received by the Emperor from the Treasury of the Empire and that of the Kingdom, he draws from the War Department full salary for the different military commands he assumes. As commander-in-chief of this or that regiment, which has thereupon the right to style itself the ‘‘leib " or body regiment of His Majesty.
Whenever one reads in the "Gazette" that he has honoured a regiment in the army, one may take it for granted that it entails an addition to his income in the shape of a colonel’s pay and allowances. Inasmuch as, at the present moment, he holds the colonelcies of some fifty different regiments, it will readily be seen that this constitutes no inconsiderable addition to his income, all the more as the colonelcies carry with them forage allowances for about two hundred horses. Out of his civil list the Emperor is expected to pay the allowances of the various members of his family. But this is not a heavy drain an his purse. His brother, Prince Henry, and his brother-in-law, Prince Frederick Leopold, have each inherited immense private fortunes, and are practically independent of any allowance, "while the only other princes of his house, Prince Albert of Brunswick, the crazy Prince Alexander and the eccentric, yet talented, Prince George, all three elderly men, are exceedingly wealthy. Indeed they figure among the richest princes of the blood in Europe.
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Northland Age, Volume 2, Issue 43, 5 June 1906, Page 8
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556HOW THE GERMAN EMPEROR SPENDS HIS SALARY. Northland Age, Volume 2, Issue 43, 5 June 1906, Page 8
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