An Emperor in Exile
Days in Doom. By the Empress Hemline. (Hutchinson. 21s.) IF the reader finds the opening chapters well written but commonplace he should persevere, for the excellent reason that there is here set forth what one must accept as the con- sidered opinion of three people who know more than a little of Germany's tragic days immediately preceding and immedi- ately following the dObacle.
The prologue is an interview with the ex-Kaiser -by Mr. George Sylvester Viereek, whom I have known in peace and war, and whom I believe to be completely honest. The book itself is obviously written largely by the same hand ; indeed, the royal authoress admits as much.
Mr. Viereck was perhaps the most successful, or at all events the least unsuccessful of the German-American propagandists in the United States ; hence one is watchful for the propagan- dist flavour in perusing this volume. Mr. Viereck has spent a week or two every year at Doom House, and no doubt the manuscript of this book has-been approved by his royal hosts. In spite of. prophecies_to the contrary, the fact is that after five years of- married life the Kaiser and Empress. Hermitic are amazingly happy. I quote Mr. Viereck's own words The Emperor is a changed man. His gloom has gone. He takes an interest in life. The world attributes to Wilhelm II. a statement confining women's activities to three K's—Kinder, Kiiche and Kirche (children, kitchen and Church). Asked whether he still held to his dictum, he smilingly replied : ` No, I have added another " K. It stands for Kamarad—Comrade.' " The Empress tells a pretty story of how she first came to visit-the Emperor—a visit that soon after led to her marriage. Her little boy; living with her in Silesia, was overcome by the sad story of the Emperor's lonely life and wrote a letter of sympathy to the exiled sovereign. Thereupon the Emperor invited Princess Schonaich-Carolath to visit him and bring her children to Doom. But years before this she had enter- tained a youthful schwarmerei for the Emperor of Germany, having first met him at the time of her sister's wedding to Grand Duke Ernest of Saxe-Weimar when she was a girl of sixteen.
The second half of the book is deeply interesting. In spite of its echt deutsch flavour there is little bitterness or malice. The Empress refers to the war as an assault by twenty-eight nations upon peace-loving Germany, and describes graphically the terrible internal conditions of her country after three years of war. Bootlegging in foodstuffs had begun. It grew in dimensions as the famine increased. The terrible " turnip winter," when turnips were practically the only food for the civilian population, was a nightmare. Life was an inferno of turnips, morning, noon and night. The very thought of turnips produced nausea. Here is the Empress on the blockade
We have heard much of war atrocities, but what could be more atrocious than the war against women and children through the medium of a blockade shutting off articles of food never before classed as contraband in civilized warfare ? And yet they call us Huns ! "
The good lady appears to forget that the Germans sought to do this very thing to their enemies from the first day of the War ; sunk thousands of ships and drowned hundreds of men, women and children,- neutral and otherwise, in the effort to starve Britain and France into submission.
One learns, too, of the monstrous peril that Germany herself at least helped to create by aiding Lenin and Trotsky with German funds to reach Russia and there eat away the supports of that unhappy country
" Mysterious travellers, whose names and origin no one knew, somehow succeeded in intensifying the general irritation. Some mischief-makers were undoubtedly Communist agitators and enemy emissaries. The soil was ripe for them. Suddenly a crimson glow appeared in the Eastern sky—the Russian revolution ! To many it seemed the dawn of peace. What a cruel delusion I Soon the red sea of anarchy was to inundate Germany. Our bloody sacrifice was in vain ! The fruit of victory became the Dead Sea fruit when the home front crumbled under the assault of Bolshevism. Poor Germany ! Poor Russia ! "
Poetic justice, after all ! According to Empress Hermine the German revolution began at the top. Her story is that after General Groner returned from Berlin with his pessimistic report of revolutionary outbreaks, the Emperor realized the necessity of instant peace, not to save Germany from the Allies, because Germany was in no immediate danger, but to save all Europe, Germany included, from Bolshevism. But the Government in Berlin did not want to restore order just then. Their object was to convince the Kaiser and the army com- mand of the reality of a revolution. They coloured the news and fomented sedition. Faced with this situation both Hindenburg and Groner reported that no resistance to revo- lutionary force was possible. Any attempt to employ troops would lead to bloodshed within the army itself. The Emperor did not wish to shed German blood. He resolved to await the conclusion of the Armistice; then to lead his troops back to their homes in orderly formation. But Groner insisted that " the Army will return home peacefully under its generals, but not under the command of Your Majesty." Hindenburg could no longer assume the responsibility for the loyalty of the army. At this crushing announcement from his most trusted chief, the Kaiser grew pale. His universe seemed to crumble about him. Only Count Sehulenberg remained stalwart. " Shall we sacrifice the glorious achievements of centuries to an hour's confusion ? " Prince Baden in Berlin warned him that immediate abdication would alone prevent bloodshed and civil war.
The picture drawn by the Empress is very, similar to that
depicted by Karl Rosner in his book, Der ICdnig. We are told that the Empress had the assurance from Hindenburg's own lips that he believed the Kaiser's sojourn in Holland would be only temporary ; that within a few weeks he would be recalled to Berlin, just as in 1848 Emperor William I., then Prince William, had left the German soil until tranquillity was
restored.
The Empress appears to be an omnivorous reader. Apropos of Herr Oswald Spengler, she says that the Kaiser (unlike the
Spectator) agrees in the main with Spengler, but excepts Germany from the general doom, insisting that " Germany is the face of the East turned' towards the West," and that
the Germans are an Eastern nation. NORAIAN TIIWAITES.
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