ALLEGED BROKERAGE OF TITLES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15657, 10 July 1914, Page 6

ALLEGED BROKERAGE OF TITLES.

Following on the allegations that titles have been conferred in England for contributions to party funds comes a statement that in Germany there has been a brokerage of simony. Dr. Liebknecht has accused the late General von Lindenau, and also a prominent member of the Imperial League against Socialism, of having offered to use their influence, in return for large sums of money, towards obtaining titles. As regards General Lindenau, ho avers parenthetically that tho general even went so far as to promise that those advancing him funds should receive preference in contracts with military authorities, a promiso which, he says, was apparently redeemed in several instances. He states, secondly, that General Lindenau for many years had the closest dealing with title brokers. Ho then quotes a letter which he says refers to a promise to obtain tho title of "professor" for a very young Berlin physician in consideration of £1250. Dr. Liebknecht gives his version of how an unofficial negotiation for titles may occasionally bo conducted, and what is the scale of charges. " The most romantic wav to secure a Prussian title," says Dr. Liebknecht, "leads through the back door of the Imperial Palace. For example, one receives a simple postcard from one of the initiated fixing a rendezvous at a pastrycook's teashop on the palace square. Here one meets a woman who leads the title-seeker into tho palace. The goal is an official connected with tho control of the Empress's private purse, now no longer in the service. This is no fairy tale, since it happened like this in September, 1912." Herewith Dr. LiebKnecht gives the tariff of charges for titles, ranging from £20,000 for a Prussian title of nobility entitling one to use "von," £12,500 for a Coburg nobility, £250 for the title of Court purveyor in Waldeck-Pyrniont. The fourth class of the Red Eagle is quoted as from £400 to £600; purveyor to the Imperial family £500 to £750 the title of Court opera singer varies, according to status, between £250 and £500. Dr. Liebknecht adds that intermediaries usually receive from 5 to 10 per cent, of these amounts. Even if Dr. Liebknecht is able to prove tho truth of most of his assertions it is scarcely to be supposed that even the majority of titles have been granted after manoeuvres of the kind he describes. Nevertheless, the revelations produced a flutter of excitement, and the Public Prosecutor decided to proceed against Dr, Liebknecht on tho strength of a clause in the penal codo rendering a libel against anyone deceased punishable by as much as six months' imprisonment.