THE HAUNTED KAISER.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLII, Issue 12822, 14 April 1916, Page 4

THE HAUNTED KAISER.

The Paris "Temps'' publishes a long article (by a neutral who has just come from Germany after a long stay there) on the subject of German militarism during the war. Speaking of General Falkenhayn, who has been thief of the general staff since Marshal Moltke fell into disgrace after the battle of the Maine, he says : '"Ho is to-day the most powerful man in Germany. The power of General Falkenhayn come? from the extraordinary influence, inexplicable even to those who know this personage, which he wields over the Emperor. •'A German said to me, 'Our Sovereign is hypnotised by this general, and is the victim of the physical ascendancy which the latter is able'to exercise over him." "General Falkenhayn is very jealous of his authority, and keeps away from headquarters all whom he thinks might seek to uain the confidence of the sovereign. ""This isolation of the Emperor is an important fact, as the Sovereign only learns what General Falkenhayn wishes him to know.

William 11. to-day is a prisoner of his military camarilla. Various persons told me that for months past the Emperor has been in a state of extreme nervousness. "Livid and Greenish."

"An officer who saw him at close quarters during a recent review on the Western front told me lie was terribly pale, adding. '1 should never have known him. His hair has become quite white and his colour was so livid and so greenish on that dav that everybody remarked upon it.' -* •"

"i cannot certify to the truth of the anecdotes which represent William as bursting into tears at the sight of a cemetery at ihs front; but I know that, if necessary, I could name persons who have refused to tell the Kaiser their fears regarding the situation, being afraid of brinsrins on a crisis of this sort.

"ft has also lately become very difficult to approach the Emperor, -because General Falkenhayn excels in isolating at headquarters. "The Crown Prince, as is known, has lost all the popularity he ha-d before the war, and also is very tired of the struggle, and in his view the best thing to do would be to finish as soon as possible without satisfaction being given to either side. In conversation he is very severe on German diplomacy, and freely, declares that' "the Empire, however strong, is not able to fight against the universe."