Wilhelm's Solution

When great men go into eclipse they usually become writers or schemers, or both. During the 21 years of his exile at Doom, The Netherlands, Friedrich Wilhelm Victor Albert von Hohenzollern, once by the Grace of God Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia, has written millions of words in articles, memoirs (unfinished) and private correspondence. And he has never given up hope for a Hohenzollern restoration in Germany. As late as January 1930 he was quoted as saying: "The people will call back their Kaiser." Although Wilhelm II has had to be careful to obey the no-politics order of the Dutch Government, his ambitious wife, Princess Hermine, has worked consistently for restoration. She has traveled, given parties and charity bazaars, founded a society to help German Imperial Army officers and officers' widows. She reportedly helped the Nazis financially, talked to Nazi bigwigs in Germany. But she never got in to see Chancellor Hitler. Since Hitler made it plain that he wanted no Emperor in Germany, Wilhelm and Hermine have pinned their hopes to the monarchist faction of the German Army. No longer do they hope to get the throne for themselves, but want it for Wilhelm's favorite grandson, Louis Ferdinand, the onetime Detroit Ford worker who married Grand Duchess Kyra of Russia.

Since World War II began the former Kaiser's position has been ticklish. He is a good German, gets his income from Germany and has four sons and eleven grandsons in the German Army. But an Allied victory might restore monarchy to what the peace treaty left of Germany. A monarchist coup in Germany and a subsequent deal with the Allies certainly would. Gossip in The Hague has it that Princess Hermine's estate in Silesia is the centre of a monarchist movement.

Wilhelm has always hated & feared the Slavs * who got him into World War I, and Russia's invasion of Finland and push to the west in general have cleared up any doubts he might have had as to who his enemies are in this war. There was no better person to whom to state his position than his old friend Poultney Bigelow of Malden-on-Hudson, N. Y., who used to romp with him in a German school when Poultney's father was U. S. Minister to France. No war could break their friendship, which has extended to their families (see cut), and every year Oldster Bigelow goes to visit Oldster Hohenzollern at Doom. Last week, after having trouble getting a passport ("I told President Roosevelt I would ha'nt him"), Poultney Bigelow sailed from Manhattan. Before sailing he gave the press some quotes from a letter of the former Kaiser, explaining discreetly that he was not authorized to do so but was indiscreetly taking the chance. Wrote Wilhelm von Hohenzollern:

"The magnificent stand of the Finns has smashed the nimbus of Bolshevism and set people thinking, with the result that the wish for peace is gaining ground. The belligerents should stop fighting and join their forces to help the Finns. They should fight in one line to rid the world and civilization of Bolshevism."

* Granddaughter-in-law Kyra he regards not as a Russian, but as a member of a sort of supernational European royalty.

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