HOW I CAPTURED THE BERLIN TREATY.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7359, 11 July 1889, Page 2

HOW I CAPTURED THE BERLIN TREATY.

One of the most astonishing and mysterious feats of modern journalism — one which, according to the man who did it, is by universal consent the greatest Oα record —was the publication in the Times at the very hour on the 13th of July, 1878, when tie treaty of Berlin was being signed in that capital, of the preamble and sixty-four articles. The hero of this achievement was none other than the great Dβ Blowitz, whose reverberations from Paris every morning swell the thunders of the Times. For some time the light of Mr De Blowitz'e achievement was hidden under the bushel of an anonymity, but he has decided that the time has come for the illumination of? an eager and expectant world. Accordingly he tells in the current Harper's Monthly the story of how it wan done. And a very interesting story it is. ■ . , ."..■•■ As a matter of fact, the way in which Mr de Blowitz got thft treaty was very simple. It was given to him by a friendly diplomatist, whose name he does not reveal. What he really did manage, with adroitness worthy of a detective, was the way in which he managed to be {kept a" courant with the deliberations as they proceeded, and the way in which he contrived to hood-wink the other journalists, and get the treaty safely away to be telegraphed by a collague to the exclusive ear of the Times. . The first of these objects he attained by having in his pay a young man attached in some secretarial capacity to one of the Plenipotentiaries—here, again, the name is-discreetly withheld. Not that he had recourse to the gross expedient of suborning a secretary; such a plan was unworthy a De Blowite. No; he first educated, so to speck, his man up to the part, and then got him made secretary, in order that he might play it. Acting under Mr de • Blowitz's instructions, a young man of good address, educated and intelligent, and anxious to turn an honest penny be. fore leaving the country, gradually approached the 'person of the unwitting diplomatist, and succeeded in getting en-, gaged by him before the Congress, during the course of which he then supplied the correspondent d*y by day with " straight tips," which, though necessarily scanty, gave a sufficient foundation for that fertile and ingenious mind to erect a superstructure. De Blowitz was closely watched, but by staying in the same hotel,' and regularly exchanging hats after meals —a most ingenious device, to which only the hat-rack was privy—the conspirators managed to interchange scraps of paper bearing messages. Thus primed, any journalist will know at once how Dβ Blowitz went to work to fill in his outlines. Having been promised a copy of the treaty by a " friendly diplomatist." Mr de Blowitz had still to face two difficulties. How was he, getting the treaty in advance, to telegraph it off* It was impossible in Germany or Austria: Paris he could not reach on Friday in time for the purposes of Saturday's Timet. By Monday it might have leaked out elsewhere. He chose Brussels, and extracted from Baron Nofccomb . (the Belgian Minister at. Berlin) a letter specially instructing M. YJnchent (telegraphic ; director at Brussels) in terms which would i cover Mb ' purpose. , But the other danger was far greater; it was that the German press would be able to forestall or at least equal hioa. This they could do by inducing Bismarck to give them the treaty on Saturday. ' To checkmate this, BloWlte hit on an audacious expedient. Presuming on "a complimentary phrase of Bismarck's about an interview with himself which Blowitst had written home during the Congress, he applied (through a friendly diplomatist) to the German Chancellor, asking as a favour a copy of the treaty which he actually had fn his pocket. Refusing him, Bismarck felt bound also to refuse the others. Having thus secured that they should not share the prise, the astute correspondent took measures to make them believe be was do better off than they. Ostentatiously angry at the refusal, he made his rivals believe that bis

preparations to depart were due to piqae, andheard with a sardonic pleasure their expressions of condolence. As a* l *** step, he secured the preamble from the diplomatist who had a*** behalf, and had been refused, the body of the treaty; and carrying the preamble to his memory and the treaty m his pocket, he passed through a crowd of spies and pressmen come to see him off. and stepped into the train, along with hie colleague, Mr Wallace, and his private secretary. Neither was in the secret, and the latter had an air of consternation which enchanted his dissembling, chief. And so they started. When we had passed the outskirts of Berlin, I said to my secretary, "Take pen and ink; lam going to dictate something ;" and I dictated the preamble. When he bad written this, I pulled out the treaty. There was a perfect outburst of delight— tbjß sweetest recompense which my efforts could obtain; for I saw two honest hearts affectionately and unreservedly sympathise with a success so anxiously achieved. " Now, we are not going," said I to Mr Wallace, "toread the treaty. Here are needles and thread ; open your vest; we will treaty and preamble in, so that yon will not have to bother about its safety, and we will append Baron Nothomb's letter to M Vinchent." This being done, I said to Mr Wallace : " We are evidently watched, especially I. At the first large station you will leave this compartment and go into one some way off on the left, for on the right I believe there is some one watching us. I pretend not to know you, and you do the same with mc. At'Colonge you will take the Brussels train, and you will arrive at five in the morning. You will go straight to the telegraph. If, as I expect, they refuse to transmit the treaty without higher orders, you will wake up M Vinchent, and present Baron Nothomb'e letter, and ask him for the order of transmission." Nothing more will ever be known, and if I have written thus much it is that the public may know by what efforts, sacrifices, and difficulties, and at the cost of what anxiety, one sometimes succeeds in satisfying their thirst for knowing and forestallinsr events.