THE KAISERS AID TO MONARCHS IN DISTRESS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 13937, 20 December 1905, Page 2

THE KAISERS AID TO MONARCHS IN DISTRESS.

(By_ “ EX-ATTACHE, in the Now

Orleans “ Times-Democrat.”)

Old Emperor William’s djdng injunction to his grandson was to maintain amicable relations with Russia. Friendship with the land of the Czars has been the keynote of. the policy of Prussia not only throughout his own reign, but also during those _ of his elder brother, Frederick William IV., and of his Father, Frederick William 111. It had originated in the eighteenth century, and had been strengthened by the marriage of Nicholas I. to Charlotte, daughter of King Frederick’ William 111.

Her brothers were devoted to her, and throughout her husband’s reign were almost as much at home on the banks of the Neva as at Berlin, not merely ties of kinsmanship, but likewise friendship of the most intimate character uniting them to Nicholas I. How close were the relations between the courts of Potsdam and of St Petersburg may be gathered from the long list of German offenders who were consigned to Siberia by the Russian authorities in the early' part of last century just to oblige the Prussian Government, in instances where it would have been difficult or awkward to deal with them in the ordinary courts of law, while when Nicholas needed masseurs for rheumatic affections between his shoulders he called upon his brothers-in-law in Potsdam to send him a few lusty Prussian non-commis-sioned officers for the purpose on the ground that while he could trust his lieges as long as he had them face to fac©,\ and under the piercing_ gaze of his eye, he did not have sufficient confidence in their loyalty to turn'his back towards them. > Old Emperor William’s for everything _ Russian, and his sincere affection for his kinsfolk on the banks of the Neva, were' still further increased by the friendly neutrality observed by the Muscovite Government during Prussia’s war with Denmark in 1864, with Austria in 1866 and with France in 1870. These conflicts, in spite of all that may be said to the contrary, taxed the resources of Prussia—and in 1870 of all Germany—to the utmost limits, and there is no doubt that had Russia concentrated her troops on her western frontier in 1866 and in 1870 both Austria and France would have FARED FAR BETTER AT THE HANDS OF THE VICTOR.

Indeed, the promises which Field Marshal Count Manteuffel obtained from Alexander 11. on the occasion of his visits to the court of St Petersburg at the commencement of the wars of 1866 and 1870, that Russia would abstain from all intervention, virtually assured success' to Prussia. Emperor William realised this, and during the war between Trukey and Russia in 1877, all his sympathies were with the latter, so much so, that he ended by regarding every Russian defeat as a German disaster, and each Russian success as a Teuton victory, lavishing the highest orders of knighthood in his gift upon Russian grand dukes and officers. It was not his fault that at the Berlin Congress of 1878 Russia was shorn of the fruits of her victory. He was ill' at the time, confined to his bed, suffering from the serious injuries inflicted upon hire by his would-be assassin Nobiling Emperor then only Crown Prince, was acting as Regent, and did not love Russia, while Prince Bismarck had always deeply resented what he denounced in private as the subordination of Prussian interests to those of Russia. He was delighted at the opportunity of getting even, with her, and played a very prominent, part in engineering the humiliation to which she was subjected by the Congress. Bismarck all his life long secretly detested Russia, and was at heart bitterly hostile to her. Knowing, however, the predilection for Russia on the part of the old Emperor, and realising that the latter would not hesitate for one moment either to bend or to sacrifice him to these Muscovite sympathies, he professed a friendship for St Petersburg which he did not' feel, and at the same time never lost an opportunity of damaging her interests when he could do so, either unnoticed or in a roundabout manner, as, for instance, in the Bulgarian imbroglio, of nineteen or twenty years ago. Alexander 111., although reputed a dull-witted man, realised this. In European court circles it is alleged that

HIS EYES WERE OPENED TO ' BISMARCK’S DUPLICITY

with regard to Russia, by his French sister-in-law, the witty and brilliant Princess Waldemar of Denmark, at Copenhagen, who was actually able to place under his eyes documentary proofs of her argument, in the shape of photographic copies of confidential correspondence between King Charles of Roumania, his sister, the Countess of Flanders, his mother/s the old Princess Josephine of Hoheifisollern, and the equally aged Princessfplementine o'f Coburg—copies of whiclf had been put in her hands for the purpose. It was that which caused Alexander 111. to cut himself adrift of the .Three Emperor Alliance, and to turn his face towards France, He could not quite absolve his grand-uncle, old Emperor William, of all complicity in Bismarck’s underhand work with regard to Russia, but still, out of deference for his aged relative, he abstained from actually joining hands with France until William 11. had succeeded to the throne.

It riiay be the present" Kaiser at the time of his accession was believed, in Germany as well as abroad, to be completely dominated by the influence of Prince Bismarck, and to see everything through the eyes of the great Chancellor. Alexander 111. shared this impression, and when William 11., only a few weeks after becoming Emperor, visited the court of St Petersburg with the object of endeavouring to fulfil the promises which had been extorted from him by his grandfather just before his death he was not merely RECEIVED WITH THE MOST CHILLING COLDNESS, but subjected to slights and affronts of a well-nigh inconceivable character. William treated the black looks and the antagonism which he encountered at St Petersburg as non-existent, persisted in ignoring all manifestations of illwill, and continued to show himself superior to petty sentiments of personal distaste where great interests were concerned, with the result that to-day it is to him among all the monarchs and princes of the blood in Europe that the Czar turns for counsel, friendship and moral 7 support in his hour of direst anxiety and trouble. True, it lias taken Emperor William years to accomplish this end. Alexander 111. died full of distrust and hostility for the Kaiser, in spite of the latter’s dismissal of Bismarck, and during the first six or seven years of the reign pf Nicholas 11. he gave frequent and public evidence of the fact that ho had inherited his father’s prejudices by resisting all the advances of the German ruler. But the latter has at length ■prevailed, and the war in the far Orient has afforded him an unrivalled opportunity of demonstrating his friendship for Russia at a moment when the sympathies of all Western nations, oven those of France herself,

have been overwhelmingly in favour of Japan. No other Government has availed itself to such an extent of the elasticity of the laws of neutrality to lend a helping hand to Russia, and it cannot have escaped attention that whereas the French nation took its Ministers seriously to task for permitting the Russian fleet to coal and irevictual in French colonial waters public sentiment in Germany had no fault to find with the Kaiser for GIVING TO RUSSIA INNUMERABLE PROOFS OF HIS GOOD- / WILL.

Emperor William may now he fairly said to have made the conquest, not only of the Czar, hut also of the reigning family and governing classes * of Russia. It must never be forgotten that not only all the married princes of the blood at St Petersburg save one have German princesses as wives, but that, moreover,, the dynasty itself is, strictly speaking, German rather than Russian. Its members to-day are Romanoffs only on the distaff side. In the male; line they form part of the German house of Holstein-Gotthorp. Moreover, an immense number of the principal dignitaries of the court, of the Government, of the army and of the aristocracy . are of _ German origin, have Teuton blood in their veins, some of them even having retained the Lutheran faith of the Fatherland. All this weighs in the<balance. Then, too, it must he homo in mind that nearly all the factors and' managers of the estates of the great nobles, the men upon whoso honesty and efficiency they depend _ for' the revenues constituting their income, are Germans or of German descent, that the principal foreign trade of Russia is with Germany, and that while the Germans have manifested a disposition to loan money to Russia, and to furnish her with supplies, France, on the contrary, has not only closed her purse to Russia, but has opened to the latter’s enCmy, namely, Japan. Moreover, in the eyes of Russia, France has committed the altogether unpardonable mistake of negotiating a conventionvery much akin to a treaty of alliance with England, the ally and supporter of Japan, at the very moment when the latter is engaged in war agaipst Russia. y

With regard to the masses in Russia, the 98,000,000 of mostly illiterate peasants that constitute the bulk of the population, they have no sympathies one way or another in the matter of foreign' powers. When I was last in the land of the Czars there was not /an orthodox church in any part of the Empire where the officiating clergy did not offer up on Sundays and saints’ days prayers as part and parcel of the liturgy, CALLING DOWN THE WRATH 0F HEAVEN' and ©very conceivable curse upon the French, these prayers, dating from the time of the invasion of Russia by Napoleon I. ; , in 1812, when the holy city of Moscow was consigned to the flames by its inhabitants to preserve it from Gallic desecration.

Possibly, and probably, these prayers continue to be offered up to this day, and as all the little education which the peasants receive is of a religious character, derived from the village priest, it will readily be understood that the latter, by dinning into their ears curses against the French from the altar day after day,, have caused the French to be regarded by the moujiks in the light of the spirit'of evil. On the other hand, the peasant hates the German, not only because the latter usually fills the role'of the overseer and taskmaster, but also because the thrift, the industry, the cleanliness and the culture of the German settlers, and of their families, is a standing reproach to the dirt, the improvidence, the ignorancp and the laziness of the moujik. To what extent the Germans are detested by the Russian peasants is shown by the fact that the Muscovite word used to designate a German is “ Nemetz,” which also stands fer the contemptuous expression “the dumb fool.” It was Peter the Great who first introduced colonies of German settlers into his Empire, and, not knowing the language, and being unable to make themselves understood, they were set down as “dumb foals,” and have been thus designated ever since. If I draw attention to this, it is merely for the purpose of showing that the people at large in Russia are equally averse to both German and French, and that an alliance" with Germany would leave nine-tenths'of the population as indifferent as

THE NOW VIRTUALLY .DEFUNCT ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE. ’ Neither Emperor William nor. Nicholas 11. is likely to take the public into his confidence just at present with regard to the matters which they bavo had under discussion during their interviews on board' their x'cspectiv© yachts in the Gulf of Finland. One thing, however, may safely be taken for granted, namely, that the influence of Emperor William will have been ©xei'cised in the favour of peace, and that all his efforts will be bent in that direction. This is fortunate. For tbs action of the Czar in seeking of him an interview on the high sea® just at the present juncture, indicates more eloquently than anything else the weight which he attaches to the Kaiser’s recommendations. Now that Russia is convinced of his friendship—of the fact that Germany is Russia’s only friend in her hour of need —it is not to his inborost, nor to that of his people, that the Czar’s prestige should bo further damaged, or the power of the Muscovite empire additionally weakened by further defeats at the hands of Japan. That is why ho will have need all his powers of persuasion to induce the Czar to come to terms with Japan, so that with the restoration of peace Germany may reap in an economic sense the fruits of having shown herself to be in moments of crisis the only friend of a country which in its industrial and commercial possibilities, and latent wealth of every conceivable character, awaiting development by means of foreign enterprise and capital, is the richest of all Europe, perhaps of the entire Old World.

Emperor William has repeatedly proclaimed that the principal aim of his reign is to promote the economic grandeur of his /empire, which he declares to be the keynote of his entire policy. He is prepared to subordinate everything else to this. Peace, however, is indispensable thereto, and a war, no, matter how victorious, WOULD SPELL THE RUIN OF HIS , IDEALS, and would prove disastrous to the trade and industry of Germany. That is why the rattle of his sabi'o in its scabbard must' never be taken too seriously. The laurels which he seeks are not those of war, but of peace, and any alliance which he may make will have that object primarily in view". And it is impossible not to admire his cleverness. - Ho showed himself the friond : and the protector of the Sultan when the latter’s empire was threatened with disintegration, and to-day his influence is predominant throughout Turkey, while Turkish foreign trade is rapidly passing into German hands, Germans enjoying the preference all along the Ottoman line. He has latfely done tho same in the case of Morocco, where new Germans monopolise all government concessions, and are far and away tho most favoured of foreign nations. At present the Kaiser ’is pursuing an identical policy in the case of Russia. _ There, too, he or rather his people, will reap the reward of his timely, yet not wholly disinterested,' friendship. Unjustly credited with being a creature of impulse, he shows here again that be is’ singularly far-sighted and level-headed, with a thoroughly American eye for business—for the main chance.