The Washington times., 1915-04-12
A MARVEL OF CLUMSlNESS

CIdJcS, CdIldud, diiu hoosioa -
book entitled "The Berlin Court Un-
der William H." A section of the
volume is given over to an. alleged
diary of German gentleman who
uses the pseudonym of Count Axel
Won Schewring. This diary pretends
to be the day-by-day account OF
Count Axel's talks with the German
Kaiser during the days of the lat
ter's cruise in Norwegian waters
just before the war broke out.
If it could be assumed to be truth
full, this diary would be marvel in
revelation of the vast and vicious
plot to which the Kaiser had given
himself over; deliberate plot to
drag the whole world into war,
simply because, after twenty-five
years of preparation, Germany was
exactly ready, and fully convinced
that she would win by striking in
stantly. There must be no delay; it
would be too expensive to maintain
complete preparedness until good
excuse for fighting should present
itself; therefore the excuse must be
manufactured, and if it's manufac-
ture were not easy, then the war
must be started without any real ex-
cuse at all.
Our mysterious Count Axel is rep
resented as lifelong intimate of the
Kaiser, who had been invited to take
the cruise with the latter on his
yacht Hohenzollern. During that
cruise the Emperor disclosed himself
as an utterly changed man. He was
manifestly expecting great happen
ings while he should be away; and
the diary works out to the conclu-
sion that the Emperor had deliber-
ately organized everything prelimi-
nary to the declaration of war, first
! by Austria on Serbia, then by Rus
sia and France against Austria, and
then by Germany against Russia and
France.
During this voyage the Kaiser
talked repeatedly to Count Axel,
who faithfully wrote down all he
said. These writings are so obvious
ly afterthoughts; so manifestly in
ventions put into the Kaiser's mouth
that the only wonder is that, if such
an audacious performance were to be
undertaken, little more skill could
not have been employed to preserve
the unities, the air of verisimiltude
The Kaiser is represented as admit.
ting that for twenty-five years he
had played part; pretended to be
the friend and advocate of peace
while in fact he was all the time
preparing for the great adventure
that was to make him the greatest
conqueror in history. and his coun
try the dictator of the world
Count Axel, increasingly horrifiec
at the unfolding revelation of hi!
royal masters duplicity and hi.
frank avowal of it, at times cate
chised the Kaiser severely, and ever
scolded him sharply. But the kaisel
was unmoved. He made plain tha
he had sailed away on the pleasur,
trip in order that nothing might in
terfere with the execution of plan
made in advance. Under those plans
the war was to be forced through tn,
diplomatic exchanges over the Aus
tro- SERBIAN crisis; and the Kaise
would get back home when it shoul'
} be too late for him to save the peace
There is not a few people in tn
world who believe this is a prett,
. accurate picture of what lay behin'
the diplomatic screen. But the diar,
of Count Axel is quite too complet
proof. The narration ends with
strong intimation that Count Axe
committed suicide in shame and sor
row over the revelation of his i'm
perial friends real character.
The difficulty with the diary a
b, published is that it does its work to
well. The Kaiser cannot be cor
! ceived as saying so precisely wha
}, his British enemies would wish hir
: to say; not even to his intimat
I friend. Moreover, the fake must b
exposed by reason of the fact ths
e so important parsonage of tn
y Kaiser's holiday party could not b
: concealed under a nom de plum
o Concealment would be useless; ther,
u fore why not use the real name? TT
IS ingenious device of having the write
e commit suicide only adds to the in
n preston that it is fake, and pa
e ticularly bald one. 1t is not worth
o of the character that British publ
l. ity and literary treatment of II
is war has to this time borne. 1t is
s. book that might very properly
II suppressed by the British COVER
ment for the sake of preserving
t repute for decency and somethir
l. l;l,a fairnasS II iS not ri1ht to g.,