GERMAN SECRET RECORDS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 14 June 1930, Page 14

GERMAN SECRET RECORDS

DUPLICITY SHOWN WILHELM UNMASKED ONCE MORE LONDON, Ist May. If judgment on the ex-Kaiser is based on official records in his own country, it will go heavily against him. In tne third volume of “German Diplomatic Documents,” covering the years from 1898 to 1910, it is he who is the archmonger of mischief. He reveals himself (in records intended to he secret) as fussy, interfering, conceited, double-dealing, vindictive and often vulgar. In July, 1899, Chancellor von Bulow

sent him a memorandum on British relations with the Transvaal. A SNEER AT LORD SALISBURY On this tho Kaiser made a long comment beginning with a reference to “the fat English' Premier” (Lord Salisbury) who was supposed to be less favourable to Germany than lie had been a few weeks before. “I assume it is a sign that his old woman is regaining her strength, for she directs him, and the .British petticoats seem in general to house a. wind which blows contrary to me and my attempts.” Well, lie would bo polite to the French-and “see what sort'of impres-

sion it makes among the promenaders of Europe -when -wo greet Madame Gallia on'parade and'slio puts'hcvo'piu'asol on the oilier side and nods, and even stops a moment and talks to us.” “That will do more for the peace of Europo than ten Hague Conferences and some dozens of peaco-tribunal-privy-j udicia 1-chief - arbil ra l ion-appea I -con fer-enee-shcep's heads.” A WARNING IGNORED When, in 1908 and 1809, the. German Ambassador in London, Count von Motternich pressed, in many letters, for a naval understanding with England, the Kaiser was very angry. The Ambassador was “under the thumb ol tho British scaremongers,” and must ho “informed of my serious displeasure.” Von Mettornieh reported that Mr Lloyd George had suggested an exchange of notes on tho reduction ot naval expenditure. “I should reply with grenades,” \vas the Kaiser’s marginal comment. These British suggestions, he wrote at the end of the letter, were “impertinence without limit and a deep insult tho German people and their Emperor.” “As soon as other States are allowed, Under any pretext whatever to interfere in one’s armaments, one abdicates, like Spain and Portugal.” That outburst gives some measure of the progress which, this very month, has made possible the Three-Power Agreement to regulate the size of tho greatest navies in the world. A H YPOCRITICAL BOAST

An episode typical of the Kaiser’s lack of morals in State policy is related in the second chapter. There had been murder and robbery at a German mission station in Shantung. It was joyous news. He chortled over it. The incident “so long desired,” he said, in a long telegram to Yon Bulow. Of course, German Catholics must he .shown that he could protect their missions. German Christians would then breathe again. German merchants would rejoice. “Hundreds of thousands of Chinamen will tremble when they feel the iron fist of the German Empire on their necks; and the whole German Empire will rejoice that their Government has done a manly act.” The murder of the missionary, I so long desired,” and so opportune for designs on Kiao-chau, cheered his Majesty’s heart. The impish quality in him comes out

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when lie tills Von Bulow (December, 1904) a really tasty hit from St.. Petersburg.' ' •' RO YA L SCANDALMONGER “The affair of the English nurse in the Tsar’s palace is glorious,” he writes. “His Britannic Majesty works with the old-fashioned weapons of the Rococo period.” Reading, later in the same month, a letter which speaks of Russian bitterness against England, he comments: “Not lessened by the English nurso being caught in the Tsar’s study.” The silly suggestion was that his undo, King Edward, had planted the nurse in tho Imperial palace to steal the Tsar’s private papers! For those who lived through the years covered by this book and remember the public form of tho Kaiser, Von Bulow and the rest of them, it is intensely interesting to read the record of what they said to one another in secret. The Ministers make a much better show than thoir master. Of our own politics and political leaders, there are many shrewd delineations in the letters from German Ambassadors in London to the Chancellor in Berlin. Salisbury, Balfour, Joseph Chamberlain (tho Kaiser’s “impudent Joe”), Lausdowne, Rosebery, lialdano and Grey appear most frequently in these pages.