A PORTRAIT OF THE KAISER.

Timaru Herald, Volume CVIII, Issue 1682, 31 May 1919, Page 9

A PORTRAIT OF THE KAISER.

lii'the first week of August 1914 on emiiioiilt member of the German General Staff went t-d dinner with a well-known American ffiia was then in Benin, and told him with, a very long face that tue position' was extrem-i.y serious lor Uerarid for two reasons. jeir&o, tiiao Jing.und nad unexpectedly cpme in; anu, second, that ion® Jiaistr aud Betli-nianji-Jlouweg iiad spo.it tilie (jeiierai Staff pian by temporising at ilie last moment ana delaying mobilisation. Tne first. catastrophe would have been less serious without the second, for t-hc British Army was of no great, consequence a:t that moment, and the swift stroke which German stategy had planned woud probably have finished ijie war betoro it could affect the issue. But if the rush to Bnr.s clitl Dot succeed and the French hold oil,, tlio bui-dog tenacity was a formidablo thing which- it was folly, to undertake. The .argument led up to a formidable denunciation, of the liaiser, whose weak badkward glances at pttace might possibly prove to lie the ruin of Germany. A!t t'lie same time, the story was current that the Kaiser, after signing tlhe mobilisation order oin the fatal Friday, iiung the p>: j n across the table and said: ''Gentlemen, yon will rue it." "Whether this is true or not, it is pretty certain that the Kaiser had a. moment of vaci'liition, if not of repentance, when it- became clear that lie had to Tenkon with Great- Britain, and his frequent protestations, that he "did not will the war" have been inrterprdted. as meaning that, if he bad been a free ag.snt and not under the compulsion of the' military clique which had planned the campaign. he would have stopped the war ao the' last moment. If the question ovisr comes ito trial there may possibly be a good deal of evidence to confirm this view, and though it would noil touch his final responsibility as War Lord—and tl'ie less so since be lias loudly claimed absolute powar iii the sphere of war —it would probably affect judgment on the narrow issue of his moral responsibility at this particular stags.

For this reason Mr David Jayne Hill does we!B to broaden the issue in lijs? extremely aible and closely reasoned hook. "Impressions of the Kaiser." This takes the Emperor William from the beginning to the end of Wis reip'U, and shows how, from first to last/ lie fomented the 'aggressive, swaggering, militarist spirit, which final-y exploded in 1914. He may lia.ro thought the exposion -untimely or have pianned.it differently or have shrank hack at the last momenlt from the injevifcabki catastrophe, but he was the generator-in-ch ie-f of t|he gases which made it inevitable. Mr Hill is one of the American Ambassadors to Germany wlio hava had an. opportunity of seeing the-Ka ser intimately, and he- bears his testimony w'tli reticence and good taste and a scrupulous cteaire to be fair wihicli make ix- more damning. The man present."d to us is by 110 means all-devil. He : is scarcely even JekyJl and Hyde, for HycVs was cons steatly villainous, and Jekyil consistently 1 tho Kaiser was consistently nothing;. He was alternately very clever and ' astonishingly stupid, versatile and attractive, I ke a gifted child, vindictive a-n'd ov'sr- ' bearing, like an ill-bred man. a fanatic lor absolutism and divine light with the manners a,-nd, methods oT a smart modern bagman. So far as lie Iwd any governing" idea, , it-. was - probably*- "to produce a unique comhinat un of »»«• and old, of mediaeval] sovereignty and twentieth-century commercialism, and thua to justify the Hohonzollernfc.vand their claims to the burghers and to tihfi world. The result was that commercial greed gave a new and uglier face to inil-uir.sm; and all parties- Enlperor, Generals, manufacturers, mQcnai.ts, and wmmon cit-a.Ms, started tpgether on the road to ruin, with: ; nrotecsorj and theologians applauding,,'in'tlbe "coil, victioi that war was good business as wc.i as glorious patriotism. '

Mr Hill's .auaiys.s of the process and of- the Emperor's indefatigable energy in beating the big drum and rallying the crowd ts» his martial standard iy both subtle aod.jnst. 'We need not «p over the ground, for if is. all- toe familiar, and ino royal onatory of tiios.s times : : s now but. a tragic nionumouu to human-vanity. Up"to.'a' poiiut. tfie Kaiser •• emed to his people to be enormous y s ccessi'uh lie 'bad kepi ths peaci—tfiaUks- to the wiKoJegomc , fear that he inspired of tho .German Michael —atid given tlicnr on amazing prosperity. Had he died in 1013...and the t.iken place under his son, ho woitd haV-eUndoubtedly lia\ r e been Wii.-am tlbe Great of affection::,!;.;, and lamented memory. But the crops were Oi h s sowing, and the harvest mevitab'e. As Mr Hill shows,- h : s i'le.TS of statecraft wore iatrinskaL.v shallow and stupid coordn,g to tlv'ir own premisses. E smartk had the wit- to see that no ration (otnd take on the world in arms. His three wars were mastei-pet.es in i,ne cunning tnat knows how to divide enemies and smash tin m in detail. His after-war diplomacy was all entLtess tohe'ming to keep possible enem.es apart to "remsuni'' with Russia, aga.jw; the risks the Austrian Aiiianc?, to keep lt.iy in tow, .to, keep Franco apart from Russia, to dive ow tO'erabio terms with Britain'. The Kaser nrtu only threw France into tne arms of Russia, but at tie same time challenged Britain at sea and- the colitis nee ot Italy, 'to eao.i turn no adniirns.tored some dip.omat.c" snuo or cutr, and then, when u\ey drew together iu, s.elf-pioteot on, eompuuned thalt he was being ••eaeirc.cd."- ivo on--' dea-lrb witli him long wrcaout having to eompmin of his nckieness, and woto who tin-ted witli him did so at tue.r peril, as trio unhappy "iV.cky" discovered o-i t'iie morrow : of their • etrusiwi correspondence, Tins was pirhaps n-.. j so much a persona, duplicity as the working in a shallow mind of-the vncyrrigile dodtrine that everything is lawful for the glory of th>- State. Tn Billow alone among h.s Ministers he found his match, and we almost sympathise witli him when that astute fox threw him over to save his own skill in the commotion that followed the publication. of the Telegraph int'rview. Tho last chapter of all this is still, to a certain extent, a matter of conjecture, and it wi"l be interesting to know for certain wheither, as one schori] maintains, he was a rhetorician, who was forced into action by his' war-psvtv, or whether, as another alleges, he definitely made up h's mind about the year 1*913 to break the pence. In either case Ilk responsibility for the cour.io of r-vents which led up to the catastrophe is bevortd dispute, and at almost auv time s : rc" be came to the throne he had it his -nower to order event, in Kuch a, wn.v as +o *»»o.ke for Gpvi-""'"v "n' l the world.—' ~V\~ezimmstcr Gazette."