The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 1914. THE KAISER’S HEALTH

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 8810, 13 August 1914, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 1914. THE KAISER’S HEALTH

Yesterday no confirmation of tho rumour of the capture of tho Kaiser was received. This is decisive, < because if tho Kaiser were really a prisoner of war the confirmation of the message announcing the fact—one of the last to arrive before wo went to .press—would have followed swiftly with details. His oaptors would have announced it with flourishing trumpets, given us tho names of the gallant men who did tho deed, told ©very ' circumstance of the story from the seizure to tho arrival in their camp, with particulars of the arrangements made for his confinement and his comfort, to say nothing of the effect on the course of the campaign, the conduct of the German army, and many other matters proper to Such a tremendous occasion. The silence on all these points makes it certain that the Kaiser is not a prisoner of war. Tho message, then, must read that the rumour is to the effect that the Kaiser is a prisoner, and that the war party and other chiefs are conducting the affairs of the Umpire. If that be the right reading, then it follows that the Kaiser has been • put under restraint, the affairs of the Empire, including the campaign, 'being conducted by the military officers and civil functionaries O’f the Empire. If that be the case, then tho Germanic Empire is being governed by a Junta, from which all adherents of the peace party have* been excluded. That, if anything hat happened;to the Kaiser, would naturally he tho order of things; for. the war policy having been begun would be carried on by tho men who with the Kaiser began it. dearly' the war party was in the ascendant, oi there would have been no war. That the Kaiser was with, thf war party before the war began is also proved by tho outbreak of the war. That the outbreak was rushed may be inferred from the German declaration of war against Russia, which the French, Austrian, .Russian and / British Governments treated as a bolt from the blue. The Russian and the Austrian diplomatists were actually negotiating and had not reached any impossible barrier, when the German declaration of war against Russia blew them apart. The belated Austrian declaration of war on Russia, and the stout refusal of Italy to acknowledge any obligation to join the Triplioe in the war, are eloquent signs that the war was rushed; by Germany. The violation of Belgian and Luxemburg neutrality was under the circumstances another sign of precipitate action. The semi-official declaration that Austria is not at war with Britain is, with tho strange emphatic expression of gratitude in Vienna for the speech of the British Foreign Minister, a further sign that in Austria the German conduct is regarded as precipitate in the extreme, to say the least of it. Lastly is the fact, attested by the Italian Ambassador in London, of the German threat of war against Italy. This fact is very strong evidence that someone was “rushing” things with a recklessness amazing under tho circumstances. Here is a train of events which tells emphatically of a mind unreasonable, the last of them,of unreasonableness amounting to positive unreason. They are interspersed by a number of speeches from the Kaiser, which were certainly of extreme violence. Taking all this evidence together, it goes far towards supporting the conclusion that the Kaiser’s mind may have lost its balance so far that the officers of State who had been unable to control him during the events of tho last few Weeks have found if necessary to place him under restraint at last. Were ho in a state approaching frenzy, there would, of course, bo no telling what mischief ho might not do by seizing the direction of a .great battle. Having set out for Aix-la-Chapelle on tho way to the front his power as War Lord was, if his mind were in the excited condition suggested by this extraordinary statement from Paris, getting very dangerous to tho army. That being so, the necessity for restraint would bo obvious to his entourage, and ho would be made prisoner. This we take to bo the meaning of the rumour so persistent in Paris, as M. Hanotaux has stated in the “Figaro.” Whether it is true is another story. That it appears to I have some elements of probability in it is evident enough. Whether true or not it will be denied from the German side of course, unless developments make it undeniable. Our only course, therefore, is to wait for developments.