THE POOR KAISER.

Free Lance, Volume XIV, Issue 720, 18 April 1914, Page 4

THE POOR KAISER.

His Sense of Duty Makes Him Pay the War Tax. THE Kaiser is a great man because he is a man greatly ruled by principle. He is exempt from war~tax as Emperor, but he has chosen to

pay it as a private gentleman. The tax is proportioned to the property • and wealth of the taxed, and the Kaiser's quota amounted to £200,000. Probably not other man ever paid so much on one tax at one time before. The matter is not one for jest. The Kaiser shows in an honest and admirable' light. Few men, however wealthy they may be, would voluntarily pay over £200,000 that they were not legally required to pay. One can imagine the shout of exultation throughout the British Empire if the King of England should do such a thing. The Kaiser makes mistakes, but he thinks and act greatly, and not merely in the great manner. He has a tremendous sense of the responsibilities of kingship. He does not palter with his conscience." He towers above all other ruling princes because he goes stubbornly for what he holds to be right, caring nothing for what people may Bay of him, undeterred by any sense of humour (he has none) —an ominous almost tragic figure of a man—a huge being a king who holds that he reigns by the direct mandate of God.