WILLIAM THE HOTHEAD.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 226, 23 September 1922, Page 11

WILLIAM THE HOTHEAD.

NEW GERMAN DOCUMENTS. A CHAPTER IN SECRET HISTORY. The sixth volume of German diplomatic documents, covering the correspondence of the German Foreign Office between 1871 and 1914. has just been published in Berlin under the title of 'Die Grosse Politik dcr Europaischen Kabinette." It contains the original documents that were the cause of Bismarck's fall on March 20, 1800. most of which have never before been printed; and it proves that Bismarck fell because he refused to be scared by reports that Russia meditated immediate war. The trouble between Bismarck and William 11. began with a report from the German Consul at Kicff of an alarming character, stating that four Russian | army corps were to be concentrated for manoeuvres not far from the Austrian frontier. It was dated March :S, 1800, and was accompanied by twenty other I documents which were for the most, part 'of trifling importance. Bismarck received the whole mass of documents nn I March It! and picked out five of the I twenty, which were of real importance. i for immediate transmission to the I Kaiser. FURIOUS KAISER. I William IT. read the Consul's report and made on it excited notes': 'Besides four cavalry divisions and two Cossack ; divisions, 180 battalions and 400 guns" I are to be concentrated. "A greater I menace was never directed by one State jin peace against another! This is the beginning of a. concentration ror war: I Let the Consuls take precautions! The [point at which tlie concentration is to ! I take place is tho weakest and remotest on the Austrian frontier! With such a force it would bo possible by a surprise attack to push as far as "Vienna without being beaten back." His Majesty wrote a furious note to j Bismarck, which has been published in i that statesman's third volume of ! "Memoirs.'' issued after the wg,r, declaring that ''the reports most dearly show the Russians to be engaged in the'fullest i strategic concentration witn the purpose of war. And 1 must regret that so few of the KiefT reports hnve reached mc. . Tliey might long before have drawn my attention to the fenrfu] danger that I threatens! It is high time that we warnvd Austria to take counter- • measures." Bismarck replied to his impulsive nnd : | excitable Sovereign in a tart letter which :is given in full in the volume. He told him that in 1887 the elder Moltke had hastily concluded that Russia was cmiccntrating for war on much the same • grounds but peace bad none the less been preserved for three years. BISMARCK'S FALL. He added that the old Emperor William had kept calm and refused to >>ci lieve that there was any real danger. ■ | and that "warnings" which the German • | Stan* had sent to Vienna on that occa--1 j ?ion had caused frreat mischief and irriI tated the Czar Alexander lU. The conI trust between his grandrather's calm and ' j his own hasty misjudgnicnts exasperated ; William 11., and three days after tbis letter was sent Bismarck was curtly dis- ' missed. It is curious to find that the situation which occurred in July, 1014, when the Kaiser, under military pressure, precipitately concluded that war was inevitable and so caused the great catastrophe, was anticipated in 1800. On tnat occasion Bismarck was right and William 11. was wrong. If Bismarck hail oecn alive and i in power in 1014 it Is safe to conclude that William ll.'a hothcadedness would , have received another cold bath from the icy common sense of the old Chancellor.