CROWN PRINCE OF GERMANY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10440, 20 April 1912, Page 1

CROWN PRINCE OF GERMANY.

THE HEIR OF THE WAR LORD. AMBITIOUS YOSTE "WHO LOO TO TSROW A FffiBBRAND INTO THE ETOOPEAN POWDBR-BARREL.'

(By CHARLES EDWARD RUSSELL. Taking him by and largo, the Crown ( Prince of Germany is easily the most , extraordinary figure in Europe. I . am not sure he is not the most porten- . tous, but of that you shall be the ; judge The Imperial Press agents, . best and ablest of their tribe, send out . from time to time eulogistic portraits, wherein this amazing youth is limned ■ as a'sweet, wise, gentle, studious arid ; virtuous prince, deeply sensible of his hituro responsibilities and extremely nopular with the German people. Well know the agile Press agents how to utilise these things for the edification of the open-mouthed; but when it conies to really liking Frederick Wil- . Ham Victor August Ernst, Kronpnnz and heir apparent, nobody likes him because nobody understands him. ( • " Dubist-yerrucht. Come home, wrote to him once his puzzled and terrified father when the young man was a student at the "University of Bonn. He wrote it in lead pencil on the back of a letter from his son, and.seemed to have no strength to write more, being , probably in an advanced stage of ner- ( vous prostration. Frederick William ( Victor and the rest had calmly informed his honoured parent that he was in iove with the daughter of a pi-ofessor ' at the university and had definitely , and forever resolved to renounce his

titles, abjure the succession, become a plain subject, and marry the choice cf his heart. The paternal hand, when the young man came obediently v thin its reach, seems to have regained, enough energy to knock that dream into bits, but the Kaiser is deemed never to have recovered from the awful shock and even now to stare with wonder and amazement at his eldest born, as who should say, " Can this be a Hohenzollern ?" He is an odd-looking youth for a Hohenzollern—tall, slender, not of robust appearance, with a strange Icrig face, a head as long as a horse's, powerful, determined underjaw, clear, resolute, and rather wicked-looking blue eyes, and an expression that in some inoods is certainly wild and in others is cynical and daring. " Dubistverrucht," said his disgusted father whose favourite ia his second son, Prince Eitel, and who looks upon his first-born as weak and unstable. "Weak he certainly is not; ho has, so far as one mav judge, a most unusual capacity—for things strange and startling, no"doubt, and for great enterprises as well. Slender as he seems, he loves out-of-door life and athletics, is a good oarsman and yacht sailor, and delights in daring deeds of horsemanship. Courage he has in superabundance, resolution in spite of his wild starts and pccentricities, and of ambition no lack if all tales are true. One of his characteristics, most singular in a Gern'tn, ia a profound admiration for N-n.ro-leon. His study is adorned with portraits and relics of Napoleon; his bookshelves contain nearly everything ever written about Napoleon; over Nanoleon's achievements he hangs with insatiable delight. You might make a mental note of this peculiarity; it seems to have significance. A STICKLES FOR THE "DIVINE EIGHT." There is no democratic nonsense about this young man; lie cherishes a notion of the Imperial dignity, importance and prerogatives even beyond that of' his father. He. is to rule by divine right, and is impatient lor. his turn to begin. Some very odd letters of his, written-to an intim.iee mend, came out two years ago. They conferred no exhilaration upon the advocates either of democracy or of peace, for they revealed a man of ambition, force and skill, eager to rule and full of the snirit of arbitrary power. When he was at Bonn he used to insist that every detachment of soldiers passing in the street should halt before him and present arms. Failure in this obeisance was a dangerous matter to the officer that happened to be in charge. As tho prince was with difficulty distinguished in tho crowd of other students, two couriers were employed to run, one on each side of the street, m advance of each detachment. These looked for the prince, and gave warniug when he was discovered. He had also a habit of insisting that whenever he entered a room, no matter where, all persons present must rise and remain standing until he had signified his imperial pleasure that they might sit. Sometimes he appeared to find a malicious joy in withholding for ten or fifteen minutes the signal of release, he. meantime seated at his ease and conversing while the others stood and observed the cooling of the soup. Once a foreign-born student, not much impressed with this, got tired of standing and sat down. The wince flew into an unprincely rage,"but as the offender was m.t a subject no punishment could be meted out to him except the enduring hatred of Frederick William Victor and the rest, which he stood to the end of his school dai's. THE SPARK OVER THE POWDER BARREL. Much of the world's Press (outside of Europe) electddto be amused by the recent doings of the Crown Prince ut the Reichstag and his pu.u.shmeiit therefor; the cartoonists_ and merry men had much mirth of it; but to a certain class of seasoned observers

neither transgression nor penalty seem-

Ed funny, but only ominous. To understand this, which is a thing well worth understanding, we must take a look at Germany as it is and uot as represented by the Press agents and Press valets that the German Go-

vernment knows so well how to handle,

The average German sees clearly enough that Germany is to be the final world power and German the language of all mankind, but ho is quite content to let Providence in !ls c-wn

way and its own good time to achieve these inevitable destinies. Looking upon the rapid growth of Germany's power and influence, the rising tide of its wealth, its expanding commerce, its colonial treasures, its visible triumph over Great Britain in the world's commercial fields, the certain promise of still greater 'triumphs at hand—looking ui)on all this. 1 say, the average German feels satisfied that Providence is doing its best and all is well with the national motto. JSut there exists also a certain element, not very large as yet, but noisy, cutermined, ' and "influential, that insists upon helping along tho good work with anv sudden and violent means, areieiablv with the great German army. Geography happens to give to this (lenient an extremely plausible argunti.t. The most serious handicap to expanding German commerce is the lack of an Atlantic port. On tho North Sea a>e harbours like Cuxhaven and Bremerhaven. but these point to the North Pole and are out of the way. If Germany onlv had a port on the Atlantic! That is, and long has been, the rirst thought of the German patriot, looking upon the map of his country's activities. ' I? Holland were only a part of the emnire, Holland with the mouth of the Rhine, the natural- highway of German commerce! ilany Germans believe the day is up.fc i&x distant wheo

~in the " Cosmopolitan Magaaine.") j little Holland will find its place as a German State, though the Hollanders have a verv different view of the matter. Of late years the bellicose in Germany have taken on much more radical views. "Annex Holland?" say these fiery persons. " What's the matter with annexing northern France? Holland has one-port; northern France has five Dunkirk, Boulogne, Havre, Cherbourg, and Brest. Holland will fall in of itself, and the growing interference of Germany in the affairs of Belgium shows which way that little morsel is to go. Meantime, if we have a war with France, we can annex as spoils what we please, and if we please to take these five Atlantic ports, how about Germany then?" At this distance the idea resounds of the wine cask and nothing else, but to a certain order of youth in Germany it seems not chimerical nor unreasonable, and I have heard even grave German officers not heated with libations discuss it seriously. The prizes won by the war of 1870 whet the appetite for further increment. Of the outcome of another war with France no German soul entertains a doubt. "This time we shall take everything down to and including Brest,"-said a German officer to me last winter. " Anybody can have the rest."

So think th© hotheads. And now the Crown Prince goes to the Reichstag and records in the face of Germany his dissent from the Chancellor's speech that • declared a peaceful arrangement with France about Morocco. With one step, therefore, he makes himself the leader of the war-hungry element, and for the first time gives dignity and weight to its utterances. i The Kaiser wants none of that. For all his reputation as the war lord and the wielder of the '' mailed fist," few European rulers really desire war les3 than he. The huge army, yes; the swelling navy, yes; but these things to get advantage for Germany by the mert whiff of their fame. So he locked ap his son to stamp with his disapproval all the loose talk of aggressive war. I Ijut suppose the Kaiser should be called from the scene of his earthly labours, what might happen? Given a young man tremendously ambitious, buoyed with belief in his own destiny, dreaming of great conquests and glories, clothed with all but absolute power over a great, proud and warlike nation, commanding the great German' army and navy, and he might in a moment toss : into the European powder-house a firebrand such as would rock continents. No wonder nervous souls in the chancellories fail to be reassured when the Crown Prince has been silenced for thirty days. When he rules, what? Many a painful reflection goes with this. On a war footing the matchless German army consists of 4,000,000 men with some reserves still to call upon. Tho population is 64,000,000. Suppose the Kaiser to live ten years. The population will then be 75,000,000 and tho organised army strength 5.000,000 or more. These facts are sufficiently disquieting to tho chancelleries without the dream, that upon the death of Francis Joseph will come tho long-predicted disruption of Austria and a vast United Germany stretching from the North Sea to the Adriatic will have 100,000,000 population and 10,000,000 troops perfectly trained and marvellously equipped. Before that spectre the coolest" statesman in Europe falters, for it may be doubted if all the rest of the Continent together could withstand a Power so colossal. It could eat up not only France, but anything else for which it had appetite. You might even see in verity the horrible red nightmare that rides the British jingo. You might see tho German flag flying over St Paul's! But as a matter of fact you are extremely unlikely to see any of these things for one good reason if for none other. At the present rate of progress the day is appreciably near when the Socialist party will have a majority in tho Reichstag. Tho Socialists are utterly committed against the whola imperial programme, war, militarism, aggrandisement, and the rest. If they gain a majority, Frederick William Victor August Ernst will have enough to do at home to engage his attention. Nevertheless the Kaiser, who knows all this, too, is taking no chances. He has no idea of being swept into a war by the perfervid youth of the cafes. Still less has he an idea that his longfaced, ram-chinned son shall pose as the leader of the fire-brand cult. But unless that fair-haired youth belies his looks, the perplexed father is not yet done with his troublesome offspring. A dose of Danzig is not much of a febrifuge for one that sees a world-wide Germany beckoning him. I notice that many observers abroad do not believe we have heard the last of this curious incident.