“PERMANENT EXILE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 804, 26 October 1929, Page 28

“PERMANENT EXILE”

EX-KAISER DESPAIRS OF GOING HOME SAD AND MEDITATIVE Wilhelm IX. despairs of ever seeing the Fatherland again. The recent death of his brother Henry, who was his junior by three years, has shaken the former Kaiser's faith in a speedy reversal of his present circumstances. He knows he is going to die in exile, and he is resigning himself to the inevitable. Dr. Karl Strumbach, representative of the “Westphalian Kurier,” who was received at Doom Castle recently, writes that, he found a totally changed Wilhelm. Not only has the old proud bearing deserted him, but the tone of his voice has changed. He has become a quiet, meditative person, who prefers solitude. This is in striking contrast with former years, even at Doom, when he was always the centre of an animated group, discussing things and planning, receiving guests and entertaining his friends with the versatile flights of his imagination. He is in a sombre mood now, goes about with his eyes cast on the ground and begins to neglect the immaculate style of dressing that has always been one of his peculiarities. “I am dying in exile,” he told his German newspaper visitor. “And I am dying in exile because l have loved justice and hated iniquity. If I live today and do not. seek death in a last mad dash at the head of my beloved army it is because I wanted to live to hear witness against those who accuse Germany of the greatest crime recorded in world history. “For the rest, I have forgiven my enemies. I want to be at peace with the world. The death of my brother Henry has reminded me forcefully that the end is drawing near, also, for me. I have only one wish, to see . Germany once more, if only to lay my head for the last sleep. But I suppose even that privilege will be : denied meJ