The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-09-18

followed, during which he visited me reg ularly for professional attentioIis I always Felt perfectly free to air my views and to answer the sentiments expressed by the prince without the slightest restraint, and he never resented my attitude.
 While had many interesting converse tions with Prince Von Press before the war, there was little of sufficient signifi- canoe in them to warrant their being in eluded in these pages.
 When war broke out. however, he con- tinued to come to me. and his remarks from that time on made a particular im- pression upon me, as Knew he was in almost daily contact with the high conn mand. The first time I saw him after the war started was on August 5, 1914. I had just got into Berlin from Frank, which city l had reached on a motor trip when hos tilities commenced. The prince was at- tired in the full uniform of high Ger man officer. I had never seen him thus attired before. He came in smiling and full of confidence. Indeed. I may say right here that while I never knew single one of his congratulations or prophecies, which he was very fond of making, ever to come true, his supreme confidence never left him.
 Well, the great war is on!' he de-
 
 at once for the great army headquarters in the field You will learn tonight that England is going to declare war on us'
 Great heavns." l exclaimed. "Is that possible?''
 ''Yes, pr. Davis the English ambassa- dor will ask for his pass today and it will probably be given him today or to- morrow. It's quite all right. We're only too glad to know where England stands. Az Irx.N f1fr out before England declared herself, 1t might have been cut off from its home base and then would have been lost. It is very fortunate for us that England showed her hand so early in the game"
 "But, prince," said. you'll be block adedI'
 NOT WORRIED ABOUT THAT
 ssWe're not worried about that. It is not so easy. There are many channels and many islands and our boats will al- ways succeed i'll getting through. Any way, the war will be over before England has chance to accomplish anything in that direction, and we have vast supplies of everything which will outlast tho war"
 "HOw long do you thing the war
 will last thenfr I asked.
 s'The war will be over by Christi
 mas! Yes, you may rest assured,
 I will be home by ChristmasW
 I asIxed him whether the country
 at large was behind the war.
 srTo n man! It's wonderful the
 way the socialists have come in.
 Many thought they would prove
 stumbling block and impede us.
 They came in man, without
 dissenting voice! Why, when
 came into your house today your
 porter's wife came out to ask mo
 to enlist her boy who Is not yet of
 military age, and enlisted him
 right here at your door! It's .
 most remarkable thing how read-
 fly the mothers of Germany are
 giving their boys to the wnr.''
 Just before Christmas of that
 year I saw the prince again and
 reminded him of his prophecy re-
 garding peace by Christmas.
 AYou promised peace by
 Christmas" said. "Are we going
 to have itr'
 "welI. not this Christmas, but
 next" he replied, with just n shade
 of disappointment in his tone.
 seThings have not gone just tho
 way we expected, but you may be
 quite sure 1t will be all over by
 next Christmas at any rate,
 On one of his visits shortly be-
 fore Christmas, 1915, I reminded
 him again of his prediction.
 sDavis," he replied, laughingIy,
 sI don't think the damn thing will
 ever endv'
 I saw him on February 2, 1917, and his old confidence was quite restored Many things had happened in the meanwhile. one would have thought to have affected his optimism, but he was just as certain that day that vic- tory was in plain sight as he had been when the war started that 1t would be over by Christmas.
 "Our unrestricted submarine warfare has just started,' he said,
 "and we're going to bring England
 to her knees within three months. That's positive. Some think that this will bring America into the war, but we nre sure it won't. We'll crush England and compel her to deliver her fleet to us. America would not then be so fool ish to go into the war and run the
 great risk of being disastrously defeated simply to fight the battle
 for France and Russia, because with England's fleet and our own We shal be able to attack New YOrk!o I5lis story struck me as so prepos- terous that couldn't help laughing in the Princes face. Very shortly after wards, however, the German papers an- nounced that 100000 tons of shipping had been sunk in a single day, and day after day from that time on the daily sinkings, according to the German pa- pers, aggregated anywhere from 5O,OO0 to 120,000 and at that rate I began to fear that perhaps for once in his life the Prince had correctly forecast com ing developments
 OF SAME MIND Later on, when read of the inter- cepted note from von Zimmerman to von Eckhardt in which the foreign secretary declared that "the employment of ruthless submarine warfare now promises to compel England to make peace in a few months" realized how high in the councils of the nation this | optimistic prince was, but whether he got his optimism from the Kaiser or i'm parted some of his own to that arrogant | monarch, don't know. It was quite evident though that they were of the same mind on most of the questions of the day, and the interesting part about it was that they were both almost sin- wrong!
 From the beginning of 1916 until about 1 the middle of 1917 the great army | headquarters was located in the Princes | palace at Pless and during most of that l period he was there too. Naturally he | came in contact with the Kaiser and was of the high command, and I felt | that at this time anything he said was merely an echo of what he had heard in the army councils. After the Kaiser issued his first peace note, which, because of it's obvious pur- pose was summarily turned down by the allies, yon Pless called to see me. and