“BRILLIANT FRAUD”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 569, 23 January 1929, Page 9

“BRILLIANT FRAUD”

Scathing Indictment of Ex-Kaiser GERMAN WRITER’S CONTEMPT (Australian and N.Z. Press Association} LONDON, Monday. Almost on the eve of the exKaiser’s 70th birthday a German writer, Herr Herbert Euienberg, publishes some admirable biographical sketches under the title of “The Hohenzoilerns.” The author publicly brands Wilhelm as “the most brilliant fraud who was ever wrapped in Royal ermine.” Many hard things have been said of the ( - x -Kaiser by his adversaries, but it has been left to a German to describe his character in words of ridicule, satire and contempt. Herr Euienberg says he alienated everyone in England by his upstart ways and by arrogantly and rudely competing with England in a futile endeavour to outdo her in the sphere which has been Britannia’s pride for centuries—namely, the Fleet. The author describes the ex-Kaiser’s desertion of 1918 as an unworthy and dishonourable act which would have involved degradation from his rankin peace and should have involved his summary execution in time of war. He says that on that eternally ignominious November night Wilhelm shattered not only the dynasty, but the centuries-old tradition of the Prussian Army, which he had tricked for a quarter of a century. Herr Euienberg quotes the words of Wilhelm when the war broke out- “ Now we will thrasli them." I-Ie describes these words as barbarous.