EUROPE'S GREATEST COURT SCANDAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 September 1919, Page 12

EUROPE'S GREATEST COURT SCANDAL.

THE UNHAPFIEST WOMAN M GERMANY. (By the wife of a Neutral Diplomat). Fourteen years ago. A city ablaze with -flags, flowers and triumphal arches. A tumultuous cheering crowd, and a bride whose dark eyes beamed with delight, pride and happiness, as an Emperor and Empress, their glittering Court and a hundred maids of honor, greeted her. Such was my first impression of Cecile Auguste Maria, Duchess of MecklenburgSchiverin, as 1 saw her arrive in Berlin, in accordance with the Hohenzollern tradition, at the Brandenburg Gate, to meet her betrothed, and drive along tlie Unter den Linden, the Piccadilly of the German capital.' Never did a prospect seem more fair to an eighteen-year-old bride than on that day when Berlin was en fete to celebrate the nuptials and Cecilie became the wife to the heir to the throne of one of the world's most powerful and prosperous countries. What a contrast^to-day! I have lately seen the woman who was the envy of her sex on that wonderful day a sorrowing, unhappy figure, living in obscurity, ignored by the populace, and deserted by the husband she has grown to hate. To-day the ex-frown Princess is the most miserable woman in Germany; not because of the fate which has befallen the Hohenzollerns through their despotic arrogance and greed, but because marriage has proved such a tragic disillusionment. A HUSHED-UP SCANDAL. Wives forgive much, but the most selfsacrificing superwoman could not forgive the cruelty, profligacy, indill'erence, and desertion which the ex-Crown Princess has suffered at the hands of the man whose scandalous conduct has made his name a byword n Europe. Many fictitou:> si'ories have been told about his conduct towards his wife. The truth is worse, and some of us behind the scenes in Berlin knew of the intense sufferings of the girl who to-day is de: termined to seek freedom in the courts from one who has proved utterly unworthy of her love- Time after time she threatened to leave Germany and divorce him, and time after time matters were patched up by the intervention of the Kaiser, who feared the consequences of the scandal. For the people had a' genuine liking and admiration I for Cecilie, and only the iron heel of and militarism prevented them from showing open contempt for the i ex-Crown Prince. Scandal succeeded scandal, however. He seemed determined to pursue his Iterations and liaisons at all costs. Before his marriage Berlin had begun to murmur at his shameful escapades.v Callous, brutal, and cynical to a degree, he treated women as mere toys, and it required all the efforts of the Court to hush up the tragedy of one girl, a lieutenant's sister, who, on account of his conduct, committed suicide.

He could not resist a pretty face. Dancers, actresses, daughters, sisters, and wives of army officers, all were treated without the slightest honor or chivalry. The ex-Crown Prince's extravagance, dissipation, and the demands of his many mistresses made the Kaiser hold the purse-strings tightly, causing his son to rebel against such parental restrictions; for his income was derived directly from the Kaiser and was only paid subject to his father's goodwill. "Get him married," said his advisers, when the Kaiser expressed his worry and perplexity.

"What is she worth!" the; Crown Prince asked, with his characteristic bruial cynicism and frankness, when Cecihe, daughter of the Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia, was mentioned to him aB a possible bride. "Her dowry will be £l,000,0i)0," was the reply. And thus it came about that \he exi Prince wooed and wedded Cecilie, not for love of this innocent and charming girl, but merely because her dowry placed him for the first time in a position of independence and enabled him to snap his fingers at hjs father, witn whom he quarrelled almost every weekWithin a few weeks of his wedding he began to ignore his marriage vows. She eked and horrified, Cecilie tried to leave her husband. She almost succeeded in reaching Switzerland. Orders, however, had been sent from Berlin to intercept her, and she was captured at the German frontier like any common criminal and taken back to Berlin under arrest. FOR HER CHILDREN'S SAKE. The Grand Duchess Anastasia, who has made repeated efforts to separate her beloved daughter from a man who has violated every principle and promise of the marriage tie, has told me of this disgraceful episode and of occasions when the ex-Crown Prince used actual violence towards his wife, disfiguring her face with blows. I am convinced that long ago Cecilie would have divorced her husband had it not been for the sake of her children, the birth of which, however, made no difference to their father's immoral life. Because of her babies, Cecilie had \m recognise that she must tolerate the conduct of her husband if she was to do her duty to them. So matters drifted on for several years, the ex-Crown Prince continued his life of dissipation, while his wife sorrowfully made up her mind to carry out her duties as a mother by remaining in Berlin for the sake of her children. LOOT AND LADIES. The war brought matters to a climax. The ex-Crown Prince, miles behind the lines, still pursued his dissipated life. i "Loot and ladies," to quote the words of one of his staff, seemed to be his mania. For a time the stories of his fbehaviour were kept from his wife. The accidental discovery, iiowever, of a photograph showing him with one of his charmers strained her forbearance to breaking point. "Even if Germany had won the war," I the Grand Duchess Anastasia lias told me, "my daughter would have broken definitely away from her husband. Today she is only waiting the necessary legal formalities to commence the proceedings which will dissolve the marriage that has ruined her life's happiness."