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Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12767, 8 February 1910, Page 1

The Emperor of Germany maintains the closest supervision of tlio plays oroducod at his six theatres merciless] v. hacking tho MSS. to ribbons when occasion demands, and insisting upon drastic changes in tho schemes of staging. However, he has exercised i beneficent influence upon tlie public taste in some directions. In 1907 he inaugurated a series of performances of severely classical plays for workmen only, at reduced rates of admission, and no fewer than 200,000 applications wero received for the series of ten entertainments, But for all his strenuous patronage of tho stage, his subjects would much prefer to lean upon the tender mercies of private enterprise for tlieir amusements, and oven the Prussian Parliament is becoming restivo at tlie monarch's theatrical extravagances. Historical ballets do not build Dreadnoughts, and thafc epitimises tho under-current of German public opinion at tho present time.