The Washington times., 1919-01-13

tight on wieringen as long as the
Dutch will let him. =
officer he was not free to 60 back to
Free enough. he answered, but
1t would not do me any good. Ger
many would give me up quick enough
to the French. The present govern
ment was in such a kowtowing:: boot
licking frame OF mind that tteyTwould
readily fulfill any demand made on
them by. the entente, including the de-
mand for my head or my person. :
Was kings swilIie Dear,
. "If I were alone and nobody else
was concerned could tell a whole lot
Of things. But must. be loyal to my
father. mustn't I? At heart I stin
feel like a Prussian officer and regard
my father as my Highest War Lord"
The ex-prince' asserted that he had
no hand or voice in starting the war.
He had been continuously squelched,
not allowed to have anything to say
in the imperial councils. and he had
been repeatedly told to mind his own
business. ..i l. {. O., =
When 1 asked how he explained the
worlds opinion that he was one of
the principal moving figures in pre-
cipitating the war, he answered: "Be+
cause I was always in favor of q
strong army. King, Edwards Fin
keisungspolitik' was the real begin
ming of the war. He told me-not
once but several times-that Britain
couldn't put up with Germany's tre-
mendous economic and commercial
development and that he intended to
isolate Germany and squeeze Ger
many hard.
king Edward didn't like my father,
but for some reason he liked me very
much. He used to call me Willie,
dear and talked freely and frankly
to me-" he continued.
"worked For Peace.-
T was at tho seashore with my
family, playing tennis, flirting and
indulging in the other usual summer
pastimes, when the news Of the muir
der of the Archduke Francis Ferdi-
nand came. l knew at once that that
meant world war. Unlike many 9TH
ers, / knew that England would come
in. l knew the British character toe
well to misjudge them.
after the first battle of the Marine
I steadfastly worked for peace, bu,
was baked by a military clique.
"Ludendorff was the driving power
Of the war, and, as such, principally
responsible for it's prolongation.
Before our great offensive reacted
in March, / knew we could not win
And my Bavarian cousin (P-ince
Rupprecht) held the identical views
that 1 did.
1.-The highest leadership closet it:
eyes and ears to everything unplea$
ant and believed only what it wanted
to believe. The highest leadership
went badly wrong about America, fol
instance. 1t refused to believe thai
there was a large American force ir
France and pooh-poohed every report
to that effect
Ignored Reports.
Before our offensive at Rheims ir
July, ! reported to great headquar-
ters. on the basis of the reports ol
the Intelligence officers of my army
group, that there were forty Ameri.
can divisions in France. Great head
| me:
Nonsense. Impossible. There are
only fourteen American divisions In
France, and five Of those are no good
and can't fight
I'm the same way the highest
leadership closed its eyes to thu
Truth about our own troops. Il
| wouldn't listen when l reported thai
my divisions were worn out, tired
| used up, cut up. must be drawn out
| OF the line. At great headquarters
they didn't want to know the truth
Some OF my divisions were reduced
to GOO and 500 rifles. Think Of that
And l was ordered to keep them ir
| line!
Neither my father nor would eveI
have given orders to sink the Lusl
tania. knowing that there were WON
en- and children aboard. My father
and are gentlemen. after all"
l asked the ex-prince why he lef
his troops and fed to Holland. AfteI
few seconds Of thought he an
| swered:
| Because our government (meanins
the Ebert government) had deposeG
me from the command Of my arm!
/ CORDS"