DROPPING THE PILOT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXV, Issue 8206, 2 August 1915, Page 2

DROPPING THE PILOT.

WHEN THE KAISER DISMISSED BISMARCK.

In the fierce maelstrom of war, with the wealth of new sensations, it is hard to get into reliable touch with our impressions concerning Emperor Wilhelm 11. as they existed before the war. But few of us who have attained years of maturity will fail to recall the stir produced in this country when it became known that the young Kaiser had shunted the great German statesman, Bismarck. The graphic incidents leading up to this historic denouement lose none of their piquancy by being narrated at this time —a few weeks after the centenary of the Chancellor's birth.

Tho New Broom. No act of tho Kaiser's mercurial life, excepting always his complicity in the present struggle, more profoundly moved the outside world than his " dropping the pilot." It was an act for which he'was immediately and personally responsible. Bismarck was not the only trusted old servant of • the country to go at tho time, for the Emperor was the new broom sweeping clean with a vengeance. He first set his mind on deposing General yon Caprivi, the Chief of the Admiralty, so that room might be made I for a younger, man after his own heart, but, with no sound excuse _ to offer for drastic a move, he attained his end by recourse to stratagem. In a quarter from whence tho tongue of scandal [travelled far and fast, he dropped the I remark that a soldier, however capable, was scarcely the man to bo at the Admiralty helm. When the Emperor's opinion reached the victim's ear, as ihe intended it should, the effect was 1 exactly, as anticipated; the proud spirit of the old general sought relief in resignation. But Bismarck was an infinitely stouter proposition. He was a pillar of the State, and he both knew it and ,'felt proud of it. Hints, some or them [uncommonly broad, were for a time quite lost on him. That the Emperor !should wish to get rid of him, or be (able to find a better man for the posi,tion, never entered the old Chancellor's 'head, or, if it did, he gave no sign. The very idea was preposterous ! But the grim, rugged soldier,, who had many excellent qualities despite his iron exterior, did have a glimmer of daylight when the great Moltke wrote a pathetic letter of resignation to the Kaiser. He, too, had received a hint, just the merest whisper, but to a sensitive man there was no evading its import. The master strategist whose wonderful craft crushed the Austrians in six weeks, and knocked all hopes out of French hearts in half as many months, had, in the opinion of the imnerious young Monarch, «oen his day. With f-nlm dismity Moltke took the onus of retirnl upon himself, nnd his Rirynl mnstcr ncccrfced the resignation, which he- himself. .had engineered, i'.'witha. sore .heart."

: Bismarck Reflects. '■Then, arid only then, did Bismarck look "back.-'-'reflectively' upon certain incidents, and thought hard and long, but still he clung to office—clung to it [ tenaciously despite tho growing austerity of the Emperor, feeling, no doubt, that in his undiminished strength of body and mind he might hold to what he had in defiance of even the Emperor himself.. For a time it was a silent fight, waged, in hidden channels, but none the less tremendous —a fight between youth and age, maybe, but also one between two inflexible wills, How to depose, this most '.predominant personage in Europe, this man of iron whose 10 years of triumphant diplomacy and unerring efiort had consolidated the German Empire, became the one obsessing ambition of Wilhelm 11. Most moriarchs would have shrunk in dismay from the task, but not tho Kaiser, t who became tho more determined as tho difficulties mounted up. He bided his time, and vyaited like a panther for the opportunity which he felt sure must come.

It came one day when Bismarck lent his countenance to a Bill which sought to put severe restrictions on the Social Democratic class. The Kaiser had less reason than his Chancellor to make life a bed of roses for the Socialists, but Bismarck had tripped for onco by associating himself with a measure too drastic. The Emperor turned Democratic champion with the rapidity of a | quick-change artiste. The gulf between the two widened till it was that somebody must go, and it could not be the Emperor. Bismarck was snared, a.nd the sturdy old veteran re- i cognised it, though lie sought like some caged lion for a way out. A Historic Visit. Now, by a law passed in the reign of his grandfather, the Kaiser could not himself dismiss the heads of departments, and this act he wished annulled; but the Chancellor showed no •great readiness to acquiesce in what would virtually be his death warrant, so far as continued power was concerned. The crisis was coming up at express speed, and it was just about this time that Wilhelm paid his historic visit to the house of the Chancellor, one of the most eventful private visits j surely ruling monarch ever paid. Be had come to demand of Bismarck by what right he held private conferences [with party leaders without his authority. It was still early on a wintry morning in March, and the Chancellor had to get out of bed and hurry into anything but court attire to receive his august visitor. His answer to the question thrown .imperiously at him jivas respectfully defiant, and told nothing. " Not even if I commanded you as I your Sovereign ?"■ said the Emperor. " The commands or my" Sovereign end lat the entrance to my wife's salon," 1 came the'unruffled reply. , 1,- The mask-was off; it was to be war to the knife. That very day Bismarck received '-a curt epistle from the Emperor that his resignation was expected by a certain hour, offering liirn at the same time a dukedom and a handsome allowance. Bismarck's reply was characteristic of the man. Almost contemptuously he declined the honour, thrust on him, he said, "like a.gratuity to a postman at New Year's time," an honour which he could have had years ago for the asking.

The Iron Chancellor Yields. Four days later he tendered his resignation in a remarkable letter t worthy of quotation here: — " In view of my attachment to the servico of the Royal house and to your Majesty, and after having accustomed myself by the habit of many years to circumstances which I had hitherto considered -to be permanent, it is very painful to me to abandon my old relations to your Majesty and to the whole policy of the Empire and of!

Prussia. But after conscientious consideration of the intentions of your Majesty, which I should have to be prepared to execute if I remained in office, I can but humbly beg your Majesty graciously to relieve me of the offices of Imperial Chancellor, of Minister-President, and, of Prussian Minister of Foreign Affairs, with the statutory position. I should have tendered the resignation of my offices to your Majesty long ago had I not been under the impression that your _ Majesty desired to utilise the experience and abilities of a faithful servant of your predecessors. Now that I know that your Majesty has no longer any use for these, I may retire from political life without any apprehension that my resolution will be judged inopportune by public opinion." Immediately the Kaiser had effected his long-sought purpose he became the gracious Sovereign again, accepting the resignation with " deepest regret," etc., etc., and bestowing upon his now ex-Chancellor certain titles whether he wished them or not, and also a fullsized portrait of himself (the Emperor). So passed grimly from the wheel of State one of Germany's greatest statesmen.