THE GERMAN EMPEROR.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 20, 8 September 1911, Page 3

THE GERMAN EMPEROR.

Jii ten years King Eduard won universal recognition as a great King; hut twenty-two years have not sultiecd to gain for William of Holicnzoll.ern the rank of a great Emperor, though the sum of his varied talents approximates to genius, and his brilliance glitters along the line that divides greatness from eccentricity. After a period of partial eclipse, he once more stands forth—not, indeed, as a. loader of Europe, nor even as undisputed interpreter of Cierman aspirations, but yet as a monarch, maturer, stronger, and holding firmer, albiet more chastened, sway over the hearts both of the Germans of his Empire and of the Germans beyond his pale. Whither is he leading his people!- 1 Towards peace or towards- war ? Peace has been preserved during his reign, ■ not alone through his merit, nor because his acts and gestures have always tended to promote harmony among nations, but because, despite threatening words and deeds, he has invariably shrunk from putting to a practical test the “sharp sword and dry power” principles so often enunciated in his speeches. is ho, therefore, entitled to some degree of international confidence ? Probh ms require study, not confidence; and the German Emperor is not less aliving problem to-day than at any moment of his reign of startled peace. His most recent manifestations increase knowledge of his personality without furnishing a< sufficient clue to Jus ulterior designs. The Konigsberg speech, with its claim, scarcely attenuated by subsequent ex-! planation, that its author is an “in- ! strument of the Lord,” .and, Where-! fore, not accountable to human beings; ' the Vienna speech, claiming Austrian ! Gratitude for Ids appearance as an ’ ally “in shining armour” at the hour of need; and his German reply to the French toast of the Belgian King at Brussels, reveal the German Emperor by turns as a crowned mystic, a shrewd statesman, and a tactician often calculatiugly oblivious of tact.