EX-KAISER’S HOPES

Southland Times, Issue 22510, 19 February 1935, Page 8

EX-KAISER’S HOPES

AMBITION FOR A TITLE. “THE EMPEROR OF PEACE.” “ Emperor of Peace” was the title by which the ex-Kaiser hoped to be known to history. That he cherished this ambition is revealed in “British Documents on the Origin of the War, 1898-1914,” recently published in England by the Government Stationery Office. The Kaiser’s views, together with a somewhat violent outburst against England, are contained in a memorandum which Lord Granville submitted to Sir Edward Grey, the Foreign Secretary. Lady Granville had been sent by Queen Alexandra to represent her at the christening of the son of Prince and Princess August Wilhelm of Prussia, and it was on the occasion of this ceremony on February 18, 1913, that the Kaiser had a talk with Lord Granville.

The Kaiser was discussing the situation in Rumania, and he said that if Rumania and Bulgaria chose to fight he did not much care, provided others were not drawn in.

Lord Granville then speaks of the conversation touching upon certain eventualities which might lead to war breaking out, and continues: “His Majesty declared that Germany, alone cf all the countries in Europe had a clear conscience—she alone had never intrigued and never tried to ‘grab.’

“At this I said I must protest—we had never either intrigued or tried to grab. “ ‘ You are the worst of the lot,’ he replied, ‘your representatives have intrigued against mine everywhere.’

“This last sentence his Majesty uttered with tremendous emphasis, his eyes gleaming and his fist thumping the air. People amused themselves, he said, with sinister motives, in decrying his army, but anyone who believed such stories would have a rude awakening if the time came for him to strike. “Many of the Emperor’s remarks did not carry conviction,” adds Lord Granville, “but I am convinced of his firm belief in his mission to keep the peace and of his ambition to be known in histoiy as the Emperor of Peace, and I may venture to add that I believe a war would be quite especially distasteful to him in this year of his jubilee and of his daughter’s marriage.”