SAVING THE KAISER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 229, 28 September 1931, Page 10

SAVING THE KAISER

GUARDIAN OF MONARCHS EYES OF SCOTLAND YARD A detective with one of the most romantic records in the world is about to retire from Scotland Yard. If his clever organisation had not led to a detective clutching an armed anarchist by the arm in the nick of time, the Kaiser might have been shot before the war. Owing to the rigid regulation that a K police officer must leave the force when he reaches sixty years of age, the Metropolitan Police are losing the services of Superintendent E. Parker, chief of tho Special Branch, Superintendent W. Fair, of the Record Office, and Chief Inspector J. Berrett, of the Criminal Investigation Department. Mr. Parker is probably one of the best known police officers in all countries. With nearly forty-two years’ service to his credit, ho has guarded three British monarchs—Queen Victoria, King Edward and the present King. Another duty of trust which fell to Mr. Parker’s lot was the care of eminent visitors. For the past twenty-five years practically everybody of note going to Britain was protected by Mr. Parker—the Tsar of Russia, the German Emperor, the Dowager Empress of Russia, several Presidents of the French Republic, the King of the Belgians, the ex-King and Queen of Spain, to name only a few. Although the visits to Britain of notable people have passed off without disaster, there have been cases where ugly situations have been warded off by the watchfulness of the special branch. On one occasion, when the German Emperor was visiting England, a member of one of tho anarchist societies which then flourished in London swore to I shoot him. The officers of the special branch hoard of the report and made a frantic, search for the would-be murderer, hut the man had vanished. He was eventually found in the centre of a ring of spectators who had gathered near Trafalgar Square to watch the German Emperor ride by. The visiting royalty was only a few yards away when a special branch man’s hand fell heavily on the shoulder of the anarchist, who obeyed the detective’s whispered command: “Gome out of it at once.” Later it was discovered that the anarchist was armed with a loaded weapon, and it was believed that had the detective been one minute later the Kaiser would have been shot.