COUNT YON HATZFELDT'S DEATH.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7377, 1 February 1902, Page 3 (Supplement)

COUNT YON HATZFELDT'S DEATH.

By the death of Count yon Hatzfeldt both England and Germany lose a potent personality for the preservation of amity between the countries. The late Ambassador, whose death followed so close upon his resignation, was a diplomat from the university onwards, and whenever relations were strained or ticklish negotiations had to be carried through, j Hatzfeldt was considered "the best horse in the stable." After serving as secretary to the Legations in Washington and Paris, he was called to the Berlin Foreign Office. During the war of '70 he was one of Bismarck's diplomatic aides-de-camp, drew up the King of Prussia's reply to Napoleon's "parlementaire" after Sedan, and took a prominent part in the negotiations of peace at Versailles, when he was sent to Spain in 1874, when the Carlist Revolution called for a strong representative. After a brief term at Constantinople Hatzfeldt was summoned back to Germany as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. In 1885 Germany began to seek her "place in the sun," i and Bismarck, against his own private judgment, joined in the' scramble for Africa. The German occupation of the Cameroons and Angra Pequena, and German policy with regard to Zanzibar and Samoa, led to very serious friction between Berlin and London. Lord Granville and Prince Bismarck indulged in public recriminations, and the situation became strained. Count Herbert Bismarck was sent to London to smooth over the incident, and in 1888 Count yon Hatsfeldt was selected to represent Germany in London. He succeeded in restoring cordial relations. The Samoan, the Manchurian, and the still secret African agreements were negotiated by him. In the South African affair he, and more especially his subordinates in his absence, .adopted a tone against -which Lord Salisbury entered a dignified protest. Personally Count Hatzfeldt always maintained cordial relations with the British Foreign Office. In consequence of indifferent health, His Excellency -was rarely seen in London society, and beyond attending" the official receptions the Ambassador took, no part in the public life of the metropolis.

In the relations between his father and mother arid himself and his wife there were romantic circumstances. Countess Sophie was divorced from her husband in 1851, and had been mixed up in a celebrated cause celebre in 1846, when a certain casket was much talked of belonging to her husband's mistress, and containing documents which her counsel considered of great importance to her. The abstraction of that casket brought Countess Sophie into close relations with Lassalle. the bright particular star of* German Socialism. To Lassalle's views and the Socialist cause the Countess Sophie devoted herself, after her divorce, until Lassalle's death in 1864. The great mass of Lassalle's unpublished writings, and his voluminous correspondence, including- the letters of Karl Marx, were retained by Countess Hatzfeldt, after Lassalle's death, and upon her own death they passed into the keeping of her son. The Social Democrats have long been anxious for the inspection of these papers, with a view to th° publication at least of some of them, which must contain a rich quantity of important memorials of the early history of the Social Democratic movement. The late Count was asked whether he himself intended to publish any of them; and a strong appeal was made to him, as he was in his seventieth year, to provide for the confiding of the Lassalle correspondence to the keeping of some trustworthy expert who would know their extreme value.

The Ambassador's wife was Miss Helena Moult on, of New York, who became a favourite of the Empress Eugenic,, and was invited to court festivities in Paris. Here the Count met her and married her. When he went to Berlin he was compelled, by court influences, under the pressure of the Empress Augusta and Bismarck, to divorce her in 1886. But though not his wife in name, the Countess remained so in his heartShe continued to reside in his villa at Wiesbaden, and devoted herseli to the care of their son and two daughters. In 1888 they were remarried, the Empress Frederick being present at the ceremony. The marriage of their daughter Helene to Prince Max Hohenlohe-Oehrinsren furnished a reasonable excuse. The Countess remained by her husband's bedside for the last twenty-four hours of his life.