KAISER'S PEACE PLAN

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14712, 29 July 1921, Page 2

KAISER'S PEACE PLAN

INDEMNITIES PROPOSED IN 1917. Tlie Berlin correspondent of the Manchester Guardian, writing on April 10, said: It has become known here that a document lies in the archivies of the Foreign Office written by. the exKaiser in tho spring of 1917, stating Ids peace terms. Apparently it is another of the amazing Kaiser epistles and transcends in importance as a key to the mentality of the War Lord of Germany even some of the marginal remarks published by Karl Kautzky. "We have been at war more than two years, and my Government, still failed to inform me what the war was being fought for" is the gist of the introduction, "so now in the name of my army and navy I announce my peace terms." Precisely what these were in full detail my information does not stale, but they included the following points:— Germany to have Longwy and the Briey basin. Belgium to be divided, Germany to have ttie coast. The Kaiser to be Duke of Sourland. Germany to have Lithuania. Germany to have the Azores and Malta. The I'nited Stales to pay an indemnity of -'iO billion dollars (£8,000.000,000). France one of ?■» billion dollars ( £0,000,000,000) England an indemnity in money and material. A series of documents on the question of the throne of Rourrania shows the Kaiser to have been absorbed in 1917 by the notion of having one of his sons appointed. (lis own candidate was Joachim, who, tic writes, had been at the east front, and had written excellent, reports, and whom lie remembered also for his ability to make good public addresses. Apparently the court clique favoured Prince Oscar, and the archives contain a reporl from that Prince's advocates slating lliat tie rdso had been at the front and had written good reports, anrl to his qualifications were lo be added those of his wife bv morganatic marriage, Countess de Bassewitz. The nature of this marriage, it was argued, should not prove an obstacle with such a country as Itoumania. The chief concern of these Prince "scar conspiralors were that his children should hi' accepted by the llohenzollern family as members.

There is also in the archives' a letter written early in 1917 by fterr Hiiro Stinnes, protesting aaainst a separate peace with Italy, which at lhal time seemed not. improbable. The luwumeiil ill' Herr Slinnes reveals witti whal ardour he believed in the success of Hie suhmariiic war.