THE KAISER AND M. DELCASSE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 24, 29 January 1908, Page 6

THE KAISER AND M. DELCASSE.

So little has been heard of M. Delcasse lately that a foreigner might have been excused for supposing that he disappeared from French politics when he resigned his position as Foreign Minister in June, 1905. But after a long silence the fallen Minister has spoken and spoken with effect. Not only is his intervention in the dobate on Morocco in the Chamber of Deputies described as "dramatic" and as "the great feature of the debate," but it has also been the subject "of speculation of a highly dramatic and exciting character in both the French and tho German capitals. M. Delcasse's great work at tho Foreign Office was the cultivation of friendly relations between the Republic and Great Britain. To estrange both Britain and Italy from France had been a part of Bismarckism tradition which German statesmanship had maintained with great success, and on both points M. Delcasse set to work to break down tho tiadition. How remarkable was his success in the more important of tho two tasks will appear to anybody who remembers that in his first year of i office the Fa-shoda episode almost kd j to a war between France and Britain, and contrasts the mutual suspicion and bitterness then prevailing with the confidence which both nations now feel in the solid friendship since established. One great advantage which the Republic immediately secured by the good understanding was the recognition of her claims in Morocco, which was guaranteed by the Anglo-French Agreement of 1904, and the bitter resentment of the Kaiser only served as a baptism of fire to 'demonstrate at Alg«ciras the sincerity and the strength of the new combination. But before tlie assembling of the conference, the Kaiser had secured in the downfall of M. Delcasse what at first looked like a fatal blow at the Minister's policy, and the story of the coup, when it comes to bo fully written, will constitute one of the most interesting of international episodes. The story which is finding favour in Paris at the present time is the most and dramatic that has yet appeared. The Kaiser is said to have informed the | Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs that German troops would enter Lorraine if M. Delcasse succeeded in negotiating an offensive and defensive alliance with Britain. When the threat reached the ears of M. Rouvier, the French Premier, he^ at once demanded the Foreign Minister's resignation, reproaching him for not. having kept his colleagues informed of the negotiations. It was understood from the first that one cause of the trouble was that under M. Combes, the previous Premier, the Foreign Minister had been given practically a free hand, and that his new chief resented the somewhat autocratic methods which Ihe had adopted in consequence. It was [ also understood that the Kaiser's browI beating had come perilously near to a, threat of war, and the story now current in Paris merely adds circumstance, , which may or may not. be imaginary, to general outlines which were already familiar. The main thing at any rate for the French people is that they were 1 1 sore peril from the Kaiser, and that Britain saw them safely through, and this they are not likely to forget. "We have more than once in the last few years proved the unwavering loyalty and openness of English diplomacy," said M. Pichon, the present French Minister for Foreign Affairs, to an interviewer last month. "There exists now in Europe such a network of alliances and ententes that it would be difficult for any one to disturb the peace of the world." "Any one," of course, includes the Kaiser, and probably in the French Minister's opinion nobody else is worth bothering about. To show a bold front to the Kaiser in reliance on her friendship with Russia and Britain is as well-es-tablished a feature of the Republic's policy now as before M. Delcasse's humiliation. "Ministers fall but France remains," as M. Pichon is reported as saying to-day. In getting rid of M. Delcasse, the Kaiser only succeeded in passing on his policy to other hands and securing it a wider and firmer acceptance.