Evening Star Newspaper, March 6, 1932, Page 77

x-Kaiser Happy In Exile at Doorn Old Friend of Germany’s Erstwhile Royal Ruler Finds Him “More Content in the Evening of His Life Than He Ever Was in the Glamorous and Dangerous Days of Court Life and Intrigue. BY THE REV. J. LLEWELYN THOMAS LONDON. OME to lunch,” said the Kaiser. ll “We shall be happy to welcomne you at Doorn.” I packed a bag and went. Wilhelm II, once German Emperor and a marked per- sonality of Europe and the world, now an exile in Holland, still intrigues the curiosity of the public. The old eagle has been transformed into a sphinx, and little enough percolates from Doorn House to the outside world. Doorn village has profited by his presence. Droves of tourists invade the wooded hamiet, hotel rates locally have soared to incredible heights and every tiny store does a thriving trade in glossy picture postcards of the ex- monarch and his family. Doorn House is a showplace and the rosarium in the grounds is thronged with sightseers dur- ing visiting hours. To see the rosarium it is necessary to obtain an admission ticket from the official at the gate house, who satisfies him- self thoroughly as to the peaceful intentions of the applicant before granting the permit. ND so, there in the quiet little Dutch vil- lage of Doorn, the Kaiser is living the evening of his life. It is nearing its close, in contentment. One of the answers is his wife, the Princess Hermine. She is making it a life of comfort for the aged ruler who left Germany. She is sprightly and pretty at the age of 44. In common their tastes are iden- tical—outdoor life, books and music. Hermine, the wife, knows his every whim and anticipates his every desire. She closely follows his daily routine and has everything in readiness when he so desires. She is a good conversationalist, intelligent and companionable friend. Time has erased much of the ideals of pomp and e The Kaiser and his wife, Princess Her- mine, frequently eat their lunches in the beautiful gardens surrounding Doorn. Surrounded by a moat and beautiful gardens, the Kaiser’s home at Doorn stands as one of the show places of Holland. ceremony and made him a scholar, a phil- osopher and a historian. The manor house in which he lives contains a vast library, and the former German ruler spends much of his time in it. Doorn is a small country town situated amid & large, lovely woods, a resting place for the well situated in life who are willing to sacrifice all the enjoyment of a big city to nature. It is off the main road and, therefore, can main- tain its tranquillity. The Kaiser's home is considered one of the finest villas in that part of the country. After its purchase for the Kaiser a great many changes were made in the old house. It has a moat around it and the grounds are screened from the highway by high hedges. When the Kaiser settled in the place he was able to have sent him many of the furnishings, paintings, books and art objects from his former home in Berlin, and these give him a peace of mind that he otherwise would not have were he housed in a place completely barren of the things he en- joyed in his former life. The Empress Hermine received me on arrival at Doorn House, and I had the pleasure of the society of herself and her two daughters (her sons being away in a German university) for some time before the Kaiser appeared. How graciously she made me, unused to courtly ways, feel perfectly at my ease! The room in which we sat was unique in having so many portraits of the Kaiser's ancestors on the walls, notably those of Frederick the Great and the Great Elector, of whom the Kaiser is prouder than he is of Frederick, and whom he regards as the real founder of the Hohenzollern dynasty. We had been conversing on various subjects when, to my surprise, the Empress said: “Come, Mr. Thomas, let me take you to the room in which the Empress Victoria died.” I knew of the room and had been told that it was kept in the very state in which it was when the Empress died, but had never heard of any one except the family being allowed to enter it. She handed me a beautiful little bouquet of flowers prepared for me before I arrived and asked me to lay it on the bed. I found the bed covered with flowers, with a large cross at the head. How little did I think that when I met the Empress Victoria Augusta in all her beauty some 30 years ago that the time would come when I should stand by the side of the bed on which she had died in exile! O sooner had we returned to our seats in the drawing room than the Kaiser came in. “Ah, Thomas, my friend,” he said, and as we clasped hands the years reeled by and I thought of when we first met in the old days under the blazing sun of Jerusalem. The Kaiser was always a strong religionist and during the early part of his reign gave a great deal of attention to the problem of set- tling difficulties between certain denominations that arose within the German Empire. While of Protestant faith and belief, the Kalser main- tained the strongest friendship with Pope Leo XIII after his first visit at the Vatican. The Kaiser in his memoirs told of that meeting at the Vatican. He was received there in pomp and splendor and learned afterward that his absolute frankness with the Pope led to the establishment of cordial relations. Twice in later years the Kaiser again visited Rome and was cordially received at the Vatican. The Just a happy family group—the Kaiser Princess Hermine shortly after their marriage, and one of her daugh- ters, outcome of these visits and other efforts on the part of the former German ruler led to his building a remarkable church in Jerusalem. This church was erected on a site the Kaiser had acquired from the Sultan in 1898. It was on his visit to Jerusalem after completion of the church that I met him. The Kaiser has always been a protagonist for a union of the Protestant churches, not only in Germany, but also in all of Europe. Notwithstanding the years that have elapsed since I last saw him and the terrible experi- ences he has gone through, he still looks every inch an Emperor. His fine bearing has in no way altered, the only difference being that his hair is gray, he has grown a short beard and the ends of his mustache are no longer turned up. “Come, let us eat. You will be ready for a bite, I know,” he said, and we passed into the dining room. T table I found myself seated on the right of the Empress Hermine, between her and her daughters, the Kaiser sitting facing us. Others at the table were the marshal of the court, the private secretary and the doctor. It was a simple meal, but very enjoyable. The Kaiser smiled as he saw me glance at his glass of grapefruit juice. “As a general rule, I eschew alcohol. Whisky is an abomination to me. My favorite drink is the juice of grape- fruit or lemon.” The talk veered round to Oxford University, where I gained my degrees. “Ah,” said the Kaiser, looking up from his plate, “Oxford! From my own memories of Ox- ford I can agree with what the late Lord Birken- head said, ‘that on the whole it was the fairest little city of the world’ A very pleasant place. I remember I spent some enjoyable days there on more than one occasion as the guest of Dean Liddell, whose wife was once a maid of honor to my grandmamma, Queen Victoria. Dean Lid= dell was a pompous man!” “What do you mean—pompous?” I asked. “I'll tell you,” he said. “I call him ‘pompous,’ just as most people call Dean Inge ‘gloomy.’ On one occasion Dean Liddell was calling a boisterous young undergraduate to account for some offense and said to him: ‘You have not only endangered your immortal soul, you have gone further—you have incurred my displeas- ure!” That's why I call him pompous.” I laughed. “Perhaps he had good cause. Did you know that one of Dean Liddell's daughters, Alice, was the original of Lewis Carroll's fas- cinating heroine, ‘Alice in Wonderland’'?” The ex-Kaiser was greatly interested in this, not having been aware of it before, and men= tioned it to the Empress Hermine, who told me she had read the book as a little girl and it gave her much enjoyment. From mention of the American collector who acquired Carroll’s original manuscript for a large sum of money, the talk veered again, this time to the financial a.ndldeconomlc crisis now hanging over the world. l'ENGLISH tourists are belng greatly inconw venienced by the fluctuating values,” told them, “since my country came off the st%rn:ea.rd and the pound fell.” ex-Kaiser said he though —— ught it would soog The Empress Hermine and I talked of mabs t:;sk;ibemry. She is an avid reader of English rks. “Bernard Shaw is my bete noir,” she said. “It Continued on Tenth Page -