"A Very Succeseful Apologia"
"Mumorres op Tus Crown Prixce or Qs. net. (Thornton Butterworth.) sornd parti in recent public affairs should write his memories. The epidemic has raged as furiously in Germany as in this country, and the politicians and generals there, having stated theft cases, are now followed by the ex-Crown Prince. It may be granted at once that he presents a very successful apologia. No one during the war was such victim of malignant and unworthy misrepresentation as he He was the main target of the hysterical propagandists who with a beautiful unity pictured him at one and the same time as an abnormal decadent, a seduce, of women, a thief ever in search of loot, and "the: Laughing Murderer of Verdun" in his capacity of a commanding officer. To sane minds these accusations were out of all proportion to the importance of their object, for the Crown Princa was never of much importance and lie was ignored by the ruling men in Germany, as his own book shows.
Ths Crown Prince of Germany had mally fault, as he himself dentonstrates., He was egotistical, frivolous and lacking in the sense of dignity due to his high position. But on the other hand he was genial and accessible to all, a very good sportsman (in both the actual and temperamental sense of the word), a loving husband and father, and his soldiers were devoted to him to the bitter end. according to his own account, which there seems no reason to doubt. Also: his relations with his mother were fine and beautiful. He says:—"As far back as I can remember, the centre of our existence has been our dearly-loved mother. She has radiated a love which has warmed and comforted us. Whatever joy or sorrow moved us, she always had understanding and sympathy for it.. In many a difficulty that has arisen in the course of years between my father and myself, she has mediated with a calming, smoothing and adjusting hand.
Between the Kaiser and his sons there was of course never this same affection and confidence "He was always friendly and, in his way, loving towards ts; but by the nature of things, he had none too much time to devote to us. As a consequence, in reviewing our early childhood, I can Qiscover scarcely a scene in which he joins in our childish games with unconstrained mirth or happy abandon.... It seem to me as though he were unable so to divest himself of the dignity and sup-priority of the mature adult man as to enable him to be properly young with us little fellows. Hence, in his presence, we always retained a certain embarrassment, and the occasional laxity of tone and expression adopted in moments of humour, with the manifest purpose of gaining our confidence, rather tended to abash us."
The Crown Prince is critical of his father on many points, and the two were not in accord on personal questions of ceremony. The sou advances the theory that under the mask of monarchy the Kaiser was by nature simple in his character, and that he was the victim of his inheritance. He also protests his Dulief in the mora} purity of his father in a passing reference to the Eulemburg scandals of 1907. In the same year came the great. storm in the Reichstag concerning the famous "interview" with Kaiser which appeared in the "Daily Telegraph." (This was not "written up," as stated in the book, by Mr. Harold Spender.) From this date the KRaiser's character changed. For 20 years he had imagined himself an ideal ruler and the idol of his people. His eyes were now opened, and he realized he had become the object of amazing suspicions and that his imperial ys found no approval. His ie telegrams eased to flutter the Chancellorics of Europe, and the mailed fist remained quiescent with the rest of the shining armour. He became reserved and vacillating. The latter failing is well illustrated in one of the most vivid pictures in the Crown Prince's book—tho last scene at Spa when, with grey and twitching face, the Kaiser was faced with the demand for his abdication from Berlin. At first he vowed ho would only resign the Imperial dignity and that he would ever remain King of Prussia and stay with his army. But "swearing he would never consent, consented"'—and the Kaiser fled to Holland. The Crown Prince does not approve of his father's action ai this juncture, bitt be felt con strained to follow the same road two days later. Whether they were night or wrong docs not much matter now. For the sake of their historical reputations it would have been more gallant to have stayed with their brave and sorely stricken, troops—the victims of Imperialism—and faced capture and possibly. death; but no doubt the residue of life has a stronger call in such emergencies than posthumous glory.
Many other scenes of interest occur in the Crown Prince's book. He draws a very acute and accurate portrait study of his guand-uncle, King Edward VIE. He is critical of tha German Chancellor, Beth-mann-Hillweg, whom he frankly disliked, and to Generel von Moltke he ascribes the loss of the Battle of Marne. Finally, he is not without a saving senso of humour, for in his miserable and lonely exile, amid the storms and mists of the island of Wieringen, he can write of his visit to the dentist on the mainland "T could never have- believed it possible for anyone-to enjoy so much the modest little pleasures a dentist can provide with all his small instruments of torture. I felt thoroughly comfortable as leaned back in his swivel chair—a rather different kind of furniture from our Wieringen appointments.""
_-This book will certainly conduce to a more favourable appreciation of the Prince's nature and character, says the "Bookman."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.