“ENGLAND IS MAD”

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIII, Issue 19, 24 January 1919, Page 5

“ENGLAND IS MAD”

KAISER’S DECLARATION IN ■ 1908.

A “CONVERSATION” RECALLED

A London daily newspaper, in October, 1908. published! from what was described as an “unimpeachable source,” substance of a conversation which a

correspondent had had with the Kaiser. How much justification there was for the suspicions of the English people, which- he so greatly resented, was proved by the events of six years later. The Kaiser, in 1906, speaking with “impulsive and unusual frankness,” said: “You English are mad, mad, mad as March hares. What has come oyer you that you are so completely given over to suspicions quite unworthy of a great nation ? What- more can Ido than I have done? I declared with all the emphasis at my command, in my speech at Guildhall, that nay heart, is set upon peace, and that- it is one of my dearest wishes io live on the best of terms with England. Have 1 ever been false to my word? Falsehood, and prevarication are alien to my nature. My actions ought to speak for themselves, but you listen not to them, but to those who misinterpret and distort them . That is a personal insult which I feel and resent. To be for ever. misjudged, to have my repeated offers of friendship weighed and scrutinised with jealous, mistrustful eyes, taxes my patience severely. I have said time.after time that I am a friend of England, and your press—-or,, at least, a considerable portion of it—bids the people of England refuse my proffered hand, and insinuates that the other holds a dagger. How can I convince a nation against its will? is commonly believed in England that throughout the South African war Germany was hostile to her. German opinion undoubtedly was hostile—bitterly hostile; private opinion wad hostile. But what of official 'Germany ? Let my critics ask themselves _ what brought to a sudden stop, and, indeed, to absolute collapse, the European tour of the Boer delegates who were striving to obtain European intervention? They were feted in Holland; France gave them a rapturous welcome. They wished to come to Berlin, where the German people would have crowned them with flowers. But whs* they asked me to receive them—l refused. The agitation immediately died away, and the delegation immediately returned empty-hand-ed-. Was that, I ask, the action of a secret enemy? “Again, when the struggle was at its height, the German Government was invited by the Governments of France and Russia to join with them in calling upon England to put an end to the wkr. The moment had come, they said, not only to save the Boer RepubJics, but also to humiliate England: to the dust. What was my reply? I said that so far from Germany joining in any concerted: European, action to put pressure noon England and bring about her downfall', Germany would always k(/s«p aloof frdm politics that _ could bring her into complications with a Sea' Power like England). Posterity will one day read the exact terms of the telegram—now in the archives of Windsor Castle—in which I informed the Sovereign of England of the answer I had returned to the Powers which then sought to compass her fad. Englishmen who now insult me by counting my -w-ord should know wlißt wGI'C tny actions in the hour of their adversity, “Nor was that all. Just at the time of your Black Week, in the December of 1899, when disasters followed one •another in rapid succession, _ I received a Tetter from Queen Victoria, my revered grandmother, written in sorrow and affliction,.arid -bearing manifest;, traces of the anxieties which were preying .upon her mind and health i at once returned; a sympathetic rcpiv. Nay, I did more/ I bade one of my ofceri procure for me as exact an account as he could obtain of the number of combatants in South Africa on both sides, and of the actual position oi the opposing forces. With the figures before me, I worked out what I com sidered to be the best p an of campaign under the circumstances, and submitted it to my general staff for them criticism Then I despatched it to England, arid* that document, likewise, is among the State papers at Winder Castle, awaiting the serenely impartial \eidnct of history. And, as a matter ed curious coincidence, let m e add that the WTan which I formulated ran very much on the same lines as that which was actually adopted by Lord Roberts and carried by him to successful operation. Was that. I repeat, the act of one who wished Eng’and ill? Let Englishmen be fust arid say ' “But you will say, what of the t»erman naw ? .Sin*eTv. ili-at is a to England ! Against whom but England are mv squadrons being prepared. If England is riot in the minds of those Germans who are. bent- on creating a powerful fleet, why is Germany asked to consent to such new and heavy burdens of taxation? My answer is clear. Germanv is a young and growing Empire She has a world-wide commerce, which is rapidly expanding, and- to which thd legitimate ambition ot patriotic Germans refuses to assign any bounds. Germany must have a powerful fleet to protect that commerce, and her manifold'interests in even the most distant seas. She expects those interests to go on growing, and she must be able to champion them manfully m anv quarter of the globe. Germany looks ahead! Her horizons f retch fa f away. She must be prepared for any eventualities in the Far East, “Who can foresee what may take place in the Pacific in the days to come, davs not so distant as some believe, hut days, at any rate, for which ab European powers with Far Eastern interes fc ought fteadily to prepare? at the accomplished rise of Japan; think or the possible national awakening of China; and then- judge of the vast problems of the Pacific. Only those Powers which have great navies will be listened to with respect, when the future of the Pacific come® to be solved ; and if for that reason only Germany most have a powerful fleet. It may even be that England herself will be glad that Germany has a fleet when thev speak together on the same Side in the great debates of the future.