MRS Goodrick (Letters, October 1) is outraged that the German Kaiser, a “much-hated foreigner”, had walked alongside the new King Edward VII in Queen Victoria’s funeral procession.
The Kaiser was Queen Victoria’s eldest grandchild. King Edward was his uncle. The First World War lay more than a decade ahead.
Mrs Goodrick recalled that after the war, she and her playmates used to delight in chanting about “how we had beaten the Kaiser’s army”. The children’s exultation was innocent, but the harsh reparations imposed on Germany by their elders, the victorious allies, helped to create the discontent that led to the rise of the Nazis and the tragedy of the Second World War, in which Mrs Goodrick’s husband lost his life.
Wiser counsels prevailed among the allies after that war. Seventy years on, is it too much to hope Mrs Goodrick may let go her hatred of Germans, and accept that, sadly, war causes loss of life on all sides?
Mary Machen, Neville Street, York.
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