DEATH OF CAPRIVI.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 31, 7 February 1899, Page 2

DEATH OF CAPRIVI.

(By Cable. —Press Association.)

ROME, February 6.

Count Caprivi is dead

Caprivi De Caprera De Montecuculi, Count George Leo yon, the German Chancellor, was the eldest of the i'oui sons of Julius Edward yon Caprivi, who was/a high legal functionary in the service of the Prussian State, General yon Caprivi was born at Charottenburg on February 24th, 1831. Entering a general regiment in his eighteenth year, he won rapid promotion and served with distinction in the campaigns of 1564 and 1566. In IS7O he acted as Chief of the Staff to the 10th Corps, of which he is now the Commander, and reaped fresh laurels 'in all the battles on the Loire. Swiftly ascending the other steps of the military ladder, he was appointed in 1883 to the command of the 30th Division at Metz; and next year, passing from the army to the navy, he succeeded to Herr yon Stosch, on the latter's retirement from the head of the Admiralty. In a short time naval men by profession were amazed at the mastery of their art and the perception of their interests which were displayed by a

mere landsman and soldier. Soon after the death of Count Monts, he reorganised the navy; the command of the Imperial fleet being vested in Admiral yon der Goltz, while something like a ministry of marine was created under Bear-Admiral yon Heusner; and it was on this occasion that General yon Caprivi, sharing in the redistribution of military commands, was rewarded for his loyalty to the army, no less than for his naval services, with the 10th or Hanoverian Army Corps, which is one of the finest in the whole army. During the manoeuvres of the autumn of ISS9, when the Hanoverians and Westphalians met in mimic warfare, with smokeless po-w----der and other innovations on their trial, the Emperor had opportunity enough anew to study the character of General yon Caprivi, and this general's character and ability to serve him in a political capacity mu6t have fairly convinced His Majesty, otherwise he'would never have asked him to assume the enormous burden of responsibility which Prince Bismarck had laid down. It was not without grave scruples and self-distruct that General yon Caprivi listened to the proposals of the Emperor; but His Majesty, it is said, had finally decoided'to have a soldier for his new : Chancellor, thinking, as he does, with Frederick the Great, that a general must be the surest conductor of a foreign policy, as knowing how far he can co with the army behind him. On March 19, IS9O, the appointment of General Caprivi as successor to Prince Bismarck was made public. The General received the title of Count from the Emperor in December, 1891. He gave up his position as Prussian Prime Minister to Count yon Eulenberg in March, 1892, but remained Chancellor and Minister for Foreign Affairs. In 1892 and 1893, despite of prolonged opposition, he conducted the German Army Bills successfully through Parliament. He unexpectedly resigned in October 1894. owing to friction with Count Eulenberg in the matter of the Agrarian League malcontents.