UNWRITTEN LETTERS TO THE KAISER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11254, 7 December 1914, Page 4

UNWRITTEN LETTERS TO THE KAISER.

(From Albert, King of the Belgians.)

Sir ? > —This comes to you from France. Hospitably received and nobly treated by tho groat and chivalrous French nation I must yet remember that 1 am an exile on a foreign soil, that my country has been laid waste and that my people, so laborious, so frugal and so harmless, have seen their homes destroyed and have themselves been driven ruthlessly forth to cold and huuger and despair. Yes, your designs on Belgium have boon accomplished—for the time. A people of sixty-five millions has prevailed against a people of seven millions; a great army has overwhelmed a little army: careful schemes long sineo prepared have outmatched a trustfulness which you and your Ministers fostered in order that in the dark you might be able to strike a felon's blow with safety to yourself No considerations of honour hindered you. Indeed, I do not know how 1 can bring myself to mention that word to one who has acted as you havo acted. If I do so it is in order that I may tell you that for an Emperor (or any other man) to bo honourable it is not enough that he should havo great possessions, glittering silver armour, and armies obedient to their War Lord's commands. It is not enough that ho should make resounding speeches and call God to witnoss that he is His friend. It is not even enough that ho _ should succeed in carrying through his plans, and earn the applause of those flatterers who, agreeing with you, believe that an Emperor crowned with success and capable of bestowing favours can do no wrong. No, there must be something more than this. What that something is I will not discuss with you. To do so would be useless, for, since you will never possess it, you can never satisfy yourself that I am right. And oven in regard to thus "Sueres* " with whir-h you comfort yourself fire von so perfectly sure of it!' llou' do you feel"whet.; you call Vou Ale-like

to you and question him about the progress of the war? . . " How goes it," you say to him, m the East?" , ~ , " We hope," he replies, " to hold the Russians in check, but they are very numerous and very brave." . "Presumptuous villains! And m the West?" ■. , " In the West the French and English," he says, "still bear up against us. They nave trust us back day after day." "May they perish! But, at any rate, there is Belgium. Yes, we have crushed Belgium and taught the Belgians what it means to defy our Majesty." And Von Moltke, no doubt, will murmur something that may pass for approval and will withdraw from the conference. I believe you admire Shakespeare. Do you remember what Macbeth says ? "If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly s if th' assassina~ tion Could trammel up the consequences, and catch With his surcease, success ; that but this blow Slight be the be-all and the end-all here." But that it cannot be. Blows have their consequences, immediate anl remote. You first, and then your memory, will be stained to all generations by this deed of treachery and blood. How have you excused it? "With necessity, the tyrant's plea." You had to hack your way through, you said, and it was on my people that your battle-axe fell. So when Louvain was burnt and its inhabitants were shot down you assured the President of the United States that your heart bled for what "necessity" had forced yon to do. President Wilson is a man of high principles and deep feelings. I wonder how he looked and how he felt when he read your whimpering appeal. You have destroyed Belgium, but Belgium will rise again; and, even if fate should ordain that Belgium is to be for ever wiped away, so long as one Belgian is left alive there will bo a heart to execrate you and a voice to denounce your deeds. Albert R. —From "Punch." *