October 25, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
political motives docs not decrease tlie value of its success. 
W'hv Ciermany did not attack the Gulf of Riga earlier in the 
season is not clear. It may be that the (ierman agents in 
Russia, who control the Soviet, which controls the Provisional 
Government, considered that the right moment had not yet 
come. Or Germany may have preferred to wait until the 
-season was so far advanced that military op'^rations. involving 
the e.xtension of lines of communication and a diversion of 
force, being imoracticable could plausibly be postponed ; 
while in the meantmie tne threat to the capital might in- 
timidate Russia towards the acceptance of that separate peace 
for which the German conspirators in the Soviet are intriguing. 
But these are matters of speculation. The substantial facts 
are that Germany Imis gained a valuable naval position, and 
that so far as immediate action is concerned, the Russian 
Baltic Fleet has shown itself to be useless. 
(]erman\' has once more proved herself to be never more 
dangerous than when she is talking peace. 
Prince Henry of Prussia 
By J. Coudurier de Ghassaigne 
PRTN'CE HENRY of Prussia belongs, like the Baron 
von Kiihlmann, to that little group of Pan-Germans 
who circulate round the Kaiser. Some of them are in 
the confidence of their Imperial master, and are 
ven on occasion consulted by him, though the advice they give 
; rarely e\-er followed by thatVapricious genius who invariably 
resents any apparent encroachment upon his All-Higl*st 
authority. Like the majority of His Majesty's intimate 
iriends, these secret counsellors are almost unknown outside 
their own country, though, as the hour of victory for the Allies 
draws nearer, it is possible that one or two of them may emerge 
from the twilight frf Court intrigue if only to repair some of the 
irrors committed by the Party of " f rightfulness." And in 
\ iew of this contingency it is important that we should under- 
stand something of the character and capabilities of these 
wolves in sheep's clothing. , 
The most remarkable among them are the Baron von 
Kiihlmann, whose psychology 1 have already tried to analyse 
in vhese pages, and Henry of Prussia, the only brother of 
Wilh.'^Jm II. 
Still in the prime of life at 55, Prince Henry is certainly, 
one of the most sympathetic personalities at the Prussian 
Court. As Baron von Kiihlmann symbolizes the virtues 
and vices of the middle-class magnate recently ennobled, so 
Prince Henry is the incarnation of the qualities and defects of 
the Prussian aristocracy. He possesses that unaffected 
simplicity of manner which renders him easy of approach to 
men of all classes, added to a fine physique. His keen eyes 
indicate both vigour and jjenetration, and seem to fi.\ themselves 
'xipijn the person to whom he is speaking as if to read the 
thought Ix'hind the words. But in spite of his amiability, 
Prince Henry has none of the impulsive enthusiasm so 
characteristic of his brother the Kaiser. He gives one the 
impression of a man who never lets himself go beyond the 
dictates of a cold and clear intelligence. Briefly, that Germart 
expression richtige Mensch Fuhrer (a real leader of men) 
admirably describes Prince Henry of Prussia. 
It may be that this austerity of life and character is the 
result of rigid discipline imposed by the Empress Frederick 
upon her sons during the days of their youth. A daughter 
of Queen Victoria, their Imperial mother had the strict views 
on the subject of education which were then prevalent in 
ICngland. The two boys responded very difierently to this 
somewhat drastic moral training. The elder, William, 
violently rebelled against it ; indeed his hostility towards his 
mother was so marked, both before and after his accession to 
the throng, that he scandalized even the enemies of the 
English Princess, and they were many. The younger Prince, 
Henry, was on the other hand a model son, and seems to have 
adapted himself with comparative ease to the austere habits 
if his parents. By nature he was ready to accept that ordered 
existence, and that sacrifice of self which is the basis of 
military and also of naval discipline. Being the second son, 
the Imperial Navy was his lot. Energetic and endowed with 
a great capacity for work, his heart has always been in his 
profession, and to become by his own merit the best offtcer 
in the German Navy has been his principal ambition. To-day 
Prince Henry may he said to have realised that ambition, for 
he is undoubtedly one of its most remarkable engineers. For 
him the art of navigation has no secrets. He is acquainted 
with its theory as well as its practice. His hands with their 
spatulate fingers are in fact the characteristic hands of a 
m.'inual worker, strong, nervous and amazingly dexterous. 
When on a tour of inspection he insists on examining every 
corner of the ship. Clad in the over-all of the simple sailor 
he verifies himself every detail of the machinery. 
When on land he consecrates a great part of his time to the 
study of those patents which either directly or indirectly 
affect ocean or aerial navigation. Thanks to his wide 
technical knowledge, he is able to understand and to appreciate 
the possible importance of any new discovery. In order that 
no invention of potential \alue to the l-'atherland mayescape 
bis control, Princ;e Henry used to spend hours in questioning 
-jn'1 'n'ouraging any inw^ntor who soueht his help and pat- 
ronage. He made himself in effect, a kind of Minister of 
Inventions. 
In this connection it may be worth explaining the German 
policy in regard to patents, which served so well the economic 
expansion of that country before the war. With the object of 
persuading inventors, all the world over, to take out German 
patents, they were offered advantages such as no other State 
gives them. In England as in F'rance, when an invention is 
patented, only a superficial examination is made of its claim 
to originality' Our patents are in reality scarcely more than 
a record stating, that upon a certain date the formula of such 
and such a contrivance has been deposited. It is only when 
this patent is infringed or stolen that the inventor is called 
upon to prove in a Court of Law the absolute orrginality of 
his idea. 
The German Patent office, on the contrary, refuses to re- 
gister a patent uiitil the inventor has demonstrated that his 
machine can do what no machine has ever done before. This 
established, Germany will guarantee him protection against 
any plagiarist. But this policy is in reality designed to obtain 
such practical and technical details as will enable the Berlin 
Inventions Bureau to pick the inventor's brain. As a result, 
the latter gets his patent, while the experts in the pay of 
the Government get not only a new idea, but also its prac- 
tical realization, which in a modified or even an improv^ed form 
can lx> materialized by a German engineer for the benefit of 
the (ierman Empire. Herein lies both the value and the danger 
of a German Patent. One can understand moreover why 
Prince Henry, always keen to keep pace with the discoveries 
of modern science, should have specialised in this study. 
In justice to this scion of the Hohenzollerns, one must 
admit that he is not only an accomplished technician, but also 
a man of parts and imagination. Was he not the very first in 
Germany to comprehend the importance of the patents taken 
out by Count Zeppelin when he started to make the conquest 
of the air ? 
At the time when the Kaiser, and all the experts in Germany, 
as well as in France and in England, dismissed the Zeppelin 
airships as useless and expensive gas-bags. Prince Henry had 
the courage to declare himself the champion of the old in- 
ventor. Even then he realised that, apart from the military 
uses to which these air-ships could be put, they might become 
instruments of international blackmail as well as the eyes 
of the High Seas Fleet. 
In 1903, when Count Zeppelin terminated his first diri- 
gible destined for the (ierman Marine, Prince Henry exclaimed 
.as he went on board at Friedrichshafen : " This is not a 
balloon, it is a real airship." So saying, he at once took 
command of the new monster on its trial trip round the 
Lake of Constance. Though a thick fog made its navigation 
extremely difficult. Prince Henry accomplished the journey, 
including a passage over the Alps, in a little more than seven 
hours, and guided by the sound of a bell attached to the 
landing place, he brought the airship to earth close to Count 
Zeppelin's shed. That this feat demanded courage, as well as 
skill of no common order, is undeniable. 
The spirit which inspired Prince Henry on this occasion 
is the spirit of patriotism which has directed every act of his 
life, for he is above all a patriot, and a Pan-German, to whom 
no effort is too painful, and no risk too great, which may hasten 
the realization of the national idea. 
Prince Henry has, like all real workers, a horror of "pomp 
and circumstance." With his brother's passion for theatrical 
display, he has no sympathy whatever, preferring the laborious 
and methodical existence of a naval officer on active service. 
He lives in the Palace at Kiel, in the bosom of his family, 
going earlj' to bed and rising with the sun to work in his 
library. His table is frugal as becomes a sailor who enjoys 
perfect health, and he prides himself on keeping in the pink of 
condition. 
The value of the submarine as a destructive weapon to 
be used equally with the airship for threatening Germany's 
economic rivals, was apparent to the Grand Admiral ten years 
ago. About that period one of my friends, who is an inventor. 
