Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1918-06-26
Dr.. MuhIon's Consclence.

|
a case Of conscience. When the wal
began he resigned his position an q
director of Krupp's Works, at Essen
and retired to his estate in Switzer
land, near Berne. There he lived q
retired life. After time reports be.
gan to circulate of statements which
he had made to visitors, and he was
put under surveillance Of spies from
the German embassy at Berne. Later
members from the Socialist Party In
| the Reichstag visited him, and the
| German press reported that a retired
krupp official living in Switzerland
claimed to be in possession of certain
| secrets seriously compromising. the
honor of the German Government in
| the matter of the responsibility for
the war;" The newspapers began to
hint that this official was out Of his
mind. DR.. Muhlon's statements were
then published either as vindication
OF MIN or as an exposure which should
aid the democratic revolution in Ger.
many.
With Prince Lichnowsky it is a diff
ferent matter. He is a nobleman of
semi-royal lineage, "the sixth prince
of the princedom of Gratz in Austria
and Kuchelna in Prussia" His grand
father was one Beethoven's patrons.
Beethoven wrote many of his works
IN the Lichnowsky castle at Gratz,
where the piano that he used is still
preserved, and the present prince Karl
Max Lichnowsky has carried on the ira
dltlCn OF culture and liberalism which
ne inherited from his family. He was
brother officer Of the present Kaiser
in the Life Guard Hussars of Pots.
dam, but after brief army career he
entered the diplomatic service, and
held important posts in Stockholm,
Constantinople, Bucharest, and Wen
ma. He retired in 1904, being out CT
sympathy with the Junker atmosphere
Of the court. He was not Prussian,
nor even a German. His family was
Bohemian, and his mind has never
been militarism.
10 his "great SURPRISE" as he says,
he was offered the post of German am
bassador to London in October, 1912,
after he had passed eight years
among flax and turnips, on horseback
and in my meadows" amusing his
leisure with reading and with writing
occasional political articles. II do not
know" he says, Ito whom my appoint
ment was due-at all events, not to
His Majesty, as did not belong to his
immediate set, although he was al
ways gracious to me. l believe that
they agreed on me because no other
candidate was available"
Lichnowsky Made a Scapeaoat.
IN @f ~;
vent it, England was involved in war
against Germany, he returned to Ber-
lin and saw, as he says, that he was
TO be made the scapegoat for the cat
astrOphe which our Government had
brought down on us, despite my advice
and warning. 1t was deliberately CIV
en- out, from official quarters, that
l had let Sir Edward Grey hoodwink
me-" He retired to Gratz, smarting
with this injustice, and there he pre-
pared memoir, called my Mission
in London" for the private information
of his kinsmen and his intimate poll
tical friends.
OF this memoir he had five or six
typewriter copies made. One he sent
to Herr Balm, the head of the
Hamburg-American Line; a second to
Herr Gwinner, the head of the Deuts-
che Bank; and third to Herr Theo-
dore Wolff, editor of the Radical-Dep-
ocratic newspaper, the Berliner Tage-
blatt. A fourth copy went to a friend
an officer attached to the political de-
partment of the German General Staff.
ed it ON his own responsibility and
r. orio %n$0 @fE ;n1
and politicians. He did that, Herr
Theodore Wolff says, because "he felt
the longing to serve the dictates of
peace with complete devotion, and he
surrendered himself to pacifism which
is absolutely incompatible with a mill
tary uniform" He confessed to Herr
Wolff what he had done. 1T was i'm
possible" the editor says, ITO con-
vince him by any logic or on any
grounds of reason that his action was
wrong, senseless, or harmful He was
a Marquis Posa, or, still more, a Hor-
atius Coolies, who, out of love for
Rome or for mankind, sprang into the
abyss"
One of the copies of the memoir,
reached the socialist newspaper Poll
tiken in Stockholm and was published
piecemeal The German press took it
up. The Reichstag debated it. Lich-
nowsky was deprived of his diplomatic
rank, forbidden to write for publica-
tons, and virtually imprisoned on
his estate. The newspapers demanded
that he be courtmartialed. A typical
letter, printed in the semi-oficial Col
ogne Gazette, demanded that he ''be
held up to public contempt ruthlessly."
The writer argued: What will our
thousands of war cripples say when
this affair is brought to their out
ragged notice? Have these men joy
fully sacrificed their health only to
be told at this stage of the war by a
Prince Lichnowsky that it was not
necessary.
ITO be continued next week.