THE KAISER'S POLICY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 201, 23 August 1905, Page 4

THE KAISER'S POLICY.

It is becoming more and more difficult to keep up with the rapidity of the Kaiser's "lightning changes." Only a few days ago he was addressing France in the most truculent tones, intent, apparently, on coercing her into submission to his will. Then we hear that the Kaiser has given a solemn undertaking that while negotiations over the proposed Morocco Conference are pending Germany will refrain from asking for any concession or offering any loan to Morocco; and within the same week we learn that Baron yon Tattenbach has arranged to lend Morocco a very large sum, of course, in exhange for some substantial "benefit received." But at this moment the ill-suppressed indignation of France and the unbending courtesy with which England received the Kaiser's hints for further discussion of the Morocco question seem to have warned the Kaiser that he was going too far. This week the capture and imprisonment of an Algerian chief by the Moors has given France an excuse for remonstrating vigorously with the Sultan, and Germany ha 3 seized the opportunity. The German Ambassador has been instructed to make it clear that Germany is ready and eager to support France's claims; and though it might have been expected that by this time the French people would be familiar with the Kaiser's eccentricities, the bait seems to have taken. So respectable

and patriotic an organ as the Paris "Temps" has actually described thi_ palpable diplomatic trick as "an act of courtesy that France cannot fail to appreciate"; and the Kaiser is probably congratulating himself upon his own ingenuity. But it needs very little experience of German diplomacy to interpret this magnanimous offer. At all costs, the Kaiser is bent upon finding a plausible excuse for interference in Morocco; and it is essential to tbe success and even to the safety of Germany that France should be alienated from England. If the French people can only be persuaded that Germany is their natural ally in Africa, the AngloFrench Convention may yet go by the board, and the Kaiser and the prophets of the Pan Germanic League may once again breathe freely and cherish high hopes of what the future may bring forth.

For the great obstacle to German ambition to-day is not only England and | her naval supremacy, but the amicable feeling that now happily unites England and France. Germany, as the Kaiser knows well, is practically isolated in Europe. For in spite of the Triple Alliance, it is very doubtful if either Austria or Italy would fight for Germany against either France or England. Ita!y'a friendship with England is of old Jate, and has been happily confirmed by King Edward's tactful diplomacy. Austria ' has never recovered from the shock of discovering that Bismarck, after signing the Triple Alliance, had sold ths Dual Monarchy to Russia. But in spite of this, when Russia had failed so lament ably in the task which, urged on by Germany, she had set herself to accomplish in the Far East, the Kaiser believed that the hour had come for Germany to act alone. Russia could now neither menace Germany nor aid France; and the Kaiser's threats and denunciations speedily showed that he considered France as almost at his mercy. But Germany had not calculated upon the fact of tbe Anglo-French agreement— still less upon the strength and endur ance of the friendship which now fortunately joins together the two nations for so many centuries rivals and enemies. Consequently the Kaiser has had to spend the last six months in desperate attempts to adapt his policy to this new situation. The attitude taken up by Germany toward the proposed visit of the Channel Fleet to the Baltic is a case in point. There need be nothing ominous to German eyes in Admiral Wilson's cruise. The Kaiser certainly cannot have forgotten that within the last three years the German fleets have three times cruised in British coastal waters and been entertained at British naval ports, where they have had unrestricted opportunities for examining our defences and estimating our chances of resisting a sudden attack. No allied nation could have behaved to Germany with more unsuspecting frankness or greater generosity. But as soon as Admiral Wilson's expedition was announced it was treated by the German official press as a demonstration of direct hostility. Now, however, the Kaiser feels that it would be wiser to conciliate both France and England. The "entente cordiale" is too strong to be broken by mere bluster; and so we find the Ger man policy of last month in Africa and Europe has turned a rapid "right-about face." The British fleet is to be welcomed in the Baltic t»e Jrench are to be supported in Morocco; and the Kaiser thus hopes to disarm the suspicions of his rivals. Bat it ia hardly to b« tx-

Jpected that the world.will be so easily induced to forget the many proofs that j the Kaiser has provided of Germany's | bitter and unchanging animosity toward | both England and France.