OLD REGIME.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 263, 5 November 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

OLD REGIME.

BULOW'S LAST VOLUME.

PRELUDE TO TRAGEDY.

(By CYRANO.)

There is the sharpest contrast between the paucity of historical material relating to many past ages, and. the vast accumulation of data about our own time. Classical scholars and historians sigh for the lost books of Livy, and poets lament that so little remains of Sappho, "the supreme head of song."' Only a fraction of the Greek drama is extant. We have to judge Hannibal, one of the greatest soldiers of all time, wholly by the writings of his enemies. Even much later, in the age of printing; the authentic records of Shakespeare, outside of his play 6, are so scanty that tliey could be written on one side of a sheet of foolscap. But to-day! The historian may. well quail before the. immense body of written evidence —newspapers, magazines, Government publications, memoirs, and histories. A Huge Autobiography. What has made me think of this is the fourth and last volume of Bulow's Memoirs.* This statesman, who lived all his life in the centre of affairs, who fought as a young man in the FrancoPrussian War, sat at the feet of Bismarck, rose to be Chancellor, an<l in his old age saw the tremendous downfall of the edifice Bismarck had erected, has left the record of his life in four large volumes, which probably contain over a million words. There can be few memoirs as long in history. Attention has been drawn in this paper to the extraordinary interest of these recollections, despite the unreliability and vanity of their author. The reader watches and hears history marching by in crowded variety. He sees kings and statesmen in council; witnesses the

glitter of salons as well as the crash of Empires. Bulow was a born raconteur, with a prodigious memory, an eye for a situation, great power of description, and a close knowledge of about half a dozen literatures. By a curious inversion, liis fourth volume is the earliest; that is to say, we swing back from the downfall of 1918 to his boyhood and his early career. In some respects it will be the least interesting, ■ to English people at any rate, for it contains a vast amount of detail about friends and connections, and German and other royal families that has now little value. The man's vanity makes him reprint compliment after compliment, until one wearies, and his practice of quotation is' also seriously overdone. These weaknesses, however, do not detract much from' its value as a picture of European politics in the last forty years of the nineteenth century, including a close-up view of events that led up to the tragedy of 1914. Moreover, the old regime is depicted in greater detail here than in the other volumes—the Europe of autocratic monarchies and extreme nervousness about' royal opinions and royal touchiness. The old diplomacy had its virtues, but they are not so apparent here as its vices. Bismarck's Methods. On the main events Bulow perhaps throws little new light, but how they i stand out under his brush! Bismarck is his hero, and we see him most skilfully preparing for war with Denmark. Austria and France in turn. Bulow is lyrical over his greatness in these negotiations, and contrasts it with the Ger- | man blunderings in 1914. The falsification of the Ems telegram "was perhaps the most brilliant diplomatic move" ' in Bismarck's career. Foreign critics have employed very different language. Bismarck would not have made BethmannHollweg's blunder of admitting that the invasion of Belgium "as wrong. Perhaps not, but Bethniann-Hollweg had a conscience. How much Bismarck had you may learn in this book. Of the man himself, pleasant pictures are drawn. He could so charm Queen Victoria that the Queen wondered why her daughter the Empress Frederick (mother of, the Kaiser) could not get on with him. In his diplomacy, however,, the

end justified the means. Bulow helped him to deceive the old Emperor, when the- treaty with Austria was being pushed forward, by concocting letters in German newspapers purporting to' show that public opinion was behind Bismarck. In eulogising Bismarck, Bulow overlooked the important fact that Bismarck's methods were followed by victory, aiid those of 1914 were not. How much would have been heard of the stupidity of Berlin in 1914 if Germany had won the war? Lenin's Revenge. There are extraordinarily interesting pictures of society and politics .in France in the years following lier humiliation, in Rome, and in St. Petersburg. Bulow returns again and again to the theme that in their, unity and passionate patriotism the French can teach the Germans a lesson. A Russian incident stands out for its place in history. While Bulow. was lunching with a grand duke in St. Petersburg, his host arrived late to tell him of a plot against the Czar. The leader, who was hanged, was one lulianov. This man was a brother to him whom the world now knows as Lenin. Like Hannibal, says Bulow, Lenin swore revenge, and kept his oath. It was the greatest revenge in history. Bulow lias' a good deal to say of England. In his opinion—some grumblers may be surprised to learn — England has been for centuries the bestgoverned country in the world. Among his colleagues in the diplomatic service he always preferred the English. "Of all foreigners, I consider the English most reliable, the sincerest friends, and the easiest people, to get on with." Great- events march through the book at close quarters. We see the tragedy of the Emperor Frederick, the waywardness of the young Emperor William, the dismissal of Bismarck, the abrogation of the secret treaty of reinsurance with Russia, and the immediate result (as predicted) in throwing Russia into the arms of France. If Germany had kept Russia friendly (as Bismarck always intended), might she not have conquered Europe? Where would France and England have been in 1914 without the help of Russia? The trouble was that Bismarck over-domi-

nated the scene. When he was gone there was no successor, and the Kai6er was just the sort of ruler who needed a strong and wise counsellor. The most unbalanced man he ever knew is Bulow's verdict on the Kaiser, and in his Dutch exile "William has riposted by saying, referring to these memoirs, that Bulow was the only man he ever knew who committed suicide after his death. Character and Destiny. Character is destiny. Again and again the saying is recalled by. these volumes. Bulow himself is one of. those sombre and almost terrifying cases that make us wonder where qualities come from, and liow much home training and education can do to mould mind and soul. His parents' seem to have been, most excellent people — God-fearing, honest, industrious and humble-minded. He had every opportunity, and his career, at any rate until his fall from the Chancellorship, was a glittering one. Yet the man himself, despite his polish and suavity, his wonderful erudition and his power of painting scenes, is not attractive. He is too vain and malicious. There i 3 something feline, about him. He lacks imaginative sympathy and a sense of proportion. Just as he cannot see that the French had any great reason to feel humiliated after 1870 (at least that is the impression he gives), so he does not.realise that there is anything incongruous in printing pious remarks 011 one page, and on another retailing liio love affairs. But he had line qualities. lie was prepared to sacrifice his career to marry the woman he really loved. His trouble in the book is that he is on too good terms with himself. There is too much Ego in his Cosmos, which, however, might be said of many of us. From this highly interesting but melancholy book we may take, I think, this comfort, that in some respects Europe is a better place than it was in Bulow's day. The issue, peace or war, is not dependent upon the caprice of kings. Diplomacy is more open. There, is the League —with all its shortcomings, a very definite advance on the old system of checks and balances. * "Prince von Bulow: Memoirs, 1849i 597," fourth volume of.seiies (Putnam),