THE KAISER’S MOTHER.

Waipawa Mail, Volume L, Issue 43, 28 December 1928, Page 4

THE KAISER’S MOTHER.

EMPRESS FREDERICK'S LETTERS. A TRAGIC LIFE. THE NEMESIS OF BISMARCKISM. LONDON, November 11. It makes one’s heart ache to read the Empress Frederick of Germany’s letters on the day of remembrance of that Great War which has so deeply scarred the world’s history, for here again are we shown some of those springs of action out of which it grew. It is a bitter record of the life of a woman who saw her son deliberately ruined—there is no other word for it—primarily through Bismarck in his medievalism, and secondarily through the first of the German Kaisers, Wilhelm I. For the ex-Kaiser, as these letters of his mother show, was, until he was removed from the influence of his father and mother, an attractive, lively, and intelligent youth who might, if well guided, have been a worthy grandson of Queen Victoria and Albert the Good. In 1871 the Crown Princess—as she was then —wrote to her. mother, Queen Victoria; “I am sure you would he pleased with William if you were to see him—he has Bertie’s pleasant, amiable ways—and can be very winning. He is not possessed of brilliant abilities, nor of any strength of character or talents, but he is. a dear boy, and I hope and trust will grow up a useful man.” But it was not to be. The old Kaiser lived too long, the seeond reigned but 99 days, and William 11., already arrogant, stepped into place and power in 1888 to go unheeding to his doom in 1911. The letters of the Empress Frederick which have now been published by Kir Frederick Ponsonhy (Macmillan and Co.), were handed over to him in dramatic circumstances and carried out of Friedrichsof by two footmen in two cases, under the very eyes of Wilhelm himself, while Sir Frederick was saying good-bye to “All-Highest.” The Empress had confided them to Sir Frederick for safe-keeping because she knew she was surrounded, even in her own house, bv spies, the creatures of her son. Kir Frederick says: ‘ 1 The most probable theory is that when BisJmarck’s ‘Reminiscences’ was pubjlished and other contemporary mem?oirs appeared she writhed under the criticisms of her conduct and objected to the part she was depicted as having played in German politics. She therefore was determined that her side of the question should at, least have a hearing, and she intended to select certain letters and edit them for publication, at the same time obliterating any pasasges that were indiscreet and which time had proved to he inaccurate. Her terrible illness made this impossible, and she was nn 1 v +n ornsp portniri rifhKcno’oc

able only to erase certain passages. Finding that her end was approaching, she determined to confide her intentions to me, hut circumstances prevented her from doing more than giving the letters to me. It seems quite inconceivable that if T was merely to hand them hack to the King nr put them back in the archives she should not have said so at once, or spoken to her brother on the subject,'more especially as she saw him daily during his visit. After her death in 1901 T eaine to the conclusion that it was not in her interests that these letters should then be published. Even assuming they had been entrusted to me for this purpose, I felt that these wishes had not been expressed with sufficient clearness to warrant my attempting- any immediate publication. These letters have therefore remained untouched during the latter twenty-seven years, and it was only the continual reference to, and criticism of, the Empress Frederick in recent publications that led me to reconsider my responsibility in the matter. These dritieisms have been so hitter and so unjust that in the interests of historic truth, to say nothing of the memory of the Empress Frederick, I came to the conclusion that these letters should now he published.”

I The letters and other recent English memoirs completely refute the j ideas rampant in Germany and repeated by Ludwig with emphasis, that she hated her son from his birth and that she had upheld mistaken medical views about her husband’s , fatal illness simply because they were those of an English doctor, and opposed to those held by the Germans , in attendance on him. These letters show the Empress Frederick to have been a woman no less remarkable than . her mother Queen Victoria. It was a wretched fate which robbed her and Germany of her husband at the moment when he came into power and when the iron rule of: Bismarck was being- more firmly riveted on the German nation. They show abundantly that “the Englishwoman” so hated by Bismarck had a statesmanlike grasp of affairs. Imbued as she had been by her father the Prince Con- - soit —of whom she was the favorite child and close confidant —with liberal views, she and her like-minded husband might have helped to create in Germany a constitutional monarchy on English lines, a thing which Bismarck swore would never happen with his consent. Sir- Frederick Ponsonbv’s summing up of this tragic life with which he and his wife were so long associated conveys a most sympathetic and yet judicial analysis. “It is difficult in the retrospect to attempt to allocate (he blame or praise for those events in ins. lif e which caused so much contemporary controversy. Certain it is I hat in any summing up her complex character cannot he « <i regarded. As her mother’s daughter she na j. u _ ially had from her earliest n pride in her British birth, hut when she married and went to live in Germany no woman could have thrown herself more thoroughly into the life and feelings of the German people than she did. Khe spoke their language perfectly and had no difficulty in understanding their point of view. Her pride in the Germany army, her love of the German people, her intense desire that Germany should lake the lead in everything were traits in her character that might have been expected to endear her to all Germans. Although married to one of the great heroes of Germany, an impeccable wife, a warmhearted friend and a charitable Prin-

cess, she was yet unpopular, and the main reason was that she remained ‘die Englander’ in German eyes, a phrase that, in the German of the nineteenth century, bore as much scornful acerbity as the term “Bolsehevist ’ in England to-day. A truer conception of her outlook is perhaps contained in the description which her son the Emperor William, gave. in his book: ‘She was always most German in England, and most English in Germany.’ And that was the main cause of her unpopularity. “Another of the principal stumbling blocks was that, despite her sex, she was supposed to interfere in politics, and this was anathema to Bismarck and the Junkers. . . ‘Then she was Liberal. In those days, while the intelligentsia of Germany were in great part Liberal, the reigning families and practically the whole aristocracy gave the cold shoulder to anyone suspected of even the mildest form of Liberalism. Bismarck had succeeded in making- the Liberal party thoroughly unpopular, and therefore it required persons of some character to allow themselves to be ticketed as Liberals. To have openly found fault with the Crown Princess’ Liberal ideas, or to have condemned her because she was a woman interested in polities, might have had dangerous repercussions and led to unforeseen results. Therefore the safest accusation to bring against her was that she was an Englishwoman intriguing against Germany; this brought together all patriotic Germans, no matter what their polities might he, and created a feeling of distrust for the Empress. Further, in order to give some plausible explanation of the fact that the Crown Prince himself held Liberal ideas it was said that he was entirely under the domination of his wife. For these reasons the Crown Princess’ unpopularity grew, and, unfortunately, she was not gifted with the necessary tact for so difficult a situation. Aide, intellectual and talented, she particularly wished 1 to be of service to the country of her > adoption, but she had been brought I up to express herself with perfect ■ frankness, and she never hesitated to i state her point of view, and somei times with tactless honesty.” The following is attributed to Bismarck in a statement to a friend: — t “I, too, think Germany would he . better off without a colonial policy, but - I must have it as a means of stirring . up German indignation against Eng- > land whenever I want it, because | the Crown Prince (Fritz) will be too . prone to form a friendship with Eng- . land, and I must he able to keep him , in cheek by ‘German patriotism.’ I t want. England’s co-operation often, , but I will not have the influence of , British ideas in Germany—the constitutionalism and liberalism to which Ihe Crown Prince is given. I must I also have a means of bringing Eng- . land to terms when 1 want her sup- . port, and therefore I must stimulate German colonial enthusiasm.”