THE EMPEROR FREDERICK.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11595, 13 January 1916, Page 7

THE EMPEROR FREDERICK.

FATHER OF THE KAISER

Twenty-seven years ago there was published a translation of the diary of the Emperor Frederick of Germany, father of the present Kaiser. It was written when the short-lived Emperor was Orown Prince of Prussia, and covers the date of the Austro-Germnii war of 1866 and the more titanic struggle between Germany and France that made for ever memorable the year IS7O-1. Tho little book has long been out of print, but the "Scotsman" has discovered a. copy, and tells us that a page in tho Crown Prince's diary written during the Austro-German war shows what he thought of the game that delights his son and 'successor, "it is a shocking thing." he wrote, '' to ride over a battlefield, and it is impossible to describe the hideous mutilations which present themselves. War is really something frightful, and those who create it with ,n stroke of the pen at a green cloth table little dream.what horrors they are conjuring up.' On January 27. 1871. Prince Frederick wrote: "This is William's thirteenth birthday. May he grow up to bo an able, honest and thorough' man. a true German, prepared to continue without prejudice what has now been begun . . It is really a painful reflection when one realises wimt hopes have already been placed on ihc head of this child, and how groat i-; cur responsibility to the nation for h>s education, which family considers fions with tho Court life at Berlin and ether things will tend to make so much more difficult." Happily for him, the dnr'p' had no opportunity of realising the possibilities latent in the idolised