THE THEATRICAL KAISER.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 September 1919, Page 9

THE THEATRICAL KAISER.

REMARKABLE SIDELIGHT ON HIS CHARACTER. Berne, June 13. A letter written on May 13, 190S, by the late Herr von Holstein,, the famous permanent official of the German Foreign Office, has just been published by a South German journalist, to whom it w*s addressed. It was written during the first Morocco crisis, and was sent to the South German journalist for the delibe/rate purpose of pcrauadiuz him to critiei/e William lLrrf'TTie press. Herr von Ho!/tern >y>rre: "There Ts only one way of avoiding the certain dangers of the future—namely, we must oppose and criticise all useless provocations of other Powers, whether committed by word or deed, and we must show that such provocations indicate political unwisdom on the part of the man who commits them. It is precisely the loyal, constitutional, and conservative press which must do this. U the Vorwarts criticises, the effect produced works only on the masses, and not on the Kaiser, who needs to be curbed. "All provocations are either committed by the Kaiser himself or are committed by others to please the Kaiser. I will give an unimportant instance. Ballin, who does all sorts of mischief to make himself intersting to the Kaiser, is going" to run a few steamships between Basra and the Persian Gulf. In this case, it would be a good thing to discuss publicly, in the press, whether the slight advantages gained by his enterprise are worth the disadvantage accruing to Germany by reason of the fact that by obtruding herself as a buffer state between Russia and England in the zoiie in which there is friction between these two Powers she inevitably promotes a rapprochement between London and St Petersburg. (The Anglo-Russian agreement in regard to Persia was, in fact, concluded in 1907, a little more than a year after Herr von Holstein wrote this letter.) '"To be effective, this criticism must be aimed directly at the Kaiser. Of course, every, word must be weighed, but the Kaiser must be made to feel (hat his prestige suffers if he allows himself to be swayed by every impulse. The Kaiser systematically puts a stop to criticism | by those who are in personal touch with him. ... "I warn yon, therefore, that without criticism of the Kaiser we shall get into serious difficulties. This criticism must be uttered by Press and Parliament. The Press must begin, because there are very few independent men in the Reichstag: the members of the Reichstag will be emboldened to criticise if (he Press leads them. Not only in other countries, but also here in Germany, the fear oi ni»»0" lute monarchism is growing. "The Kaiser has dramatic instincts, but no political instincts. He thinks of the dramatic effect of his words, and not o? **»e real consequences. Indeed, he is generally unpleasantly surprised by the consequences, when they become evifiem,