WHAT DIDN’T HAPPEN

Gisborne Times, Volume LV, Issue 6202, 6 October 1921, Page 5

WHAT DIDN’T HAPPEN

I AMERICA TALKED PEACE IN | 1913 TO GERMANY’. I KAISER OBSESSED WITH | YELLOW PERIL. I AVAR LEADERS CYNICAL. I (United Press Association—Copyright.) ! (Received Oct. 5, 9.40 p.m.? i v LONDON, Oct. 4. ; The letters of Mr F’age, ex-Aiuen-can Ambassador, which are being • published in the World’s AA'ork, rei veal an attempt the United States i made in -May, 1914, to prevent war, |Mr Page in August 1913, wrote to ! Colonel House who had the close ; confidence of President Wilson, ! suggesting that the land-stealing ! business should be ended for ever | and Europe should be invited to I co-operate in cleaning up the back- { ward lands of Africa and elsewnere. i After Mr Churchill’s naval holiday ! speech Colonel House wrote to Mr Page saying that he (Colonel House) : was going to see the Kaiser in tiie ; spring and try to win him over to the thought which was uppermost in ' the English mind and in ours. ; When Colonel House arrived all | tlie German leaders except Von ! Tirpitz gave the proposals a re- ! spectful but cynical hearing. Von j Tirpitz was openly hostile in de- | nouncing England. When Colonel | House spoke to the Kaiser he found i the Kaiser obsessed by the Yellow | peril. The Kaiser said there could ibe no question of disarmament, i while this danger to civilisation ex isted. Mr Burston Hendrick, who compiled the life and letters of Mr ■ Page, says the Kaiser walked vntn ; Colonel ftoiise on the terrace at Potsdam for half an hour while the German generals stood -it respectful distance apart. From the yellow peril the Kaiser was alarmed abcut ' Russia. He spoke contemptuously •of France and Britain as enemies. ! hut the size of Russia and tlie exposed eastern frontiers of Germany appalled him. He discussed with derision Air Bryan’s Arbitration j Treaty. It- is curious to recall that if the Kaiser had accepted it the United States would not have been able to enter the war until April 1918. and Britain might have been starved into surrender and Germany might have crushed Europe with her armies.— A. and N.Z.C.A.