ON THE VERGE OF WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12931, 29 July 1905, Page 2 (Supplement)

ON THE VERGE OF WAR.

STARTLING- STORY OF M. DELCASSE'S RESIGNATION.

An article in. the World on Prince von Billow contains the startling declaration that way brooded over Europe in the first week of June.

We are told how the Imperial Chancellor, ias built innumerable golden bridges, over yhicli the German Emperor lias retreated rom ill-considered positions, and how he ad twice declined the title he now holds. But'on the wedding day of his eldest son the Emperor, it is stated, would brook no refusal.

•"He could not be dissuaded, under the guise of a family festival, from marking his joy at the fall of M. Delcasse," says the writer of the article. "For more than a year the Emperor had regarded M. Delcasse with the. .most- profound resentment. Convinced that it was the deliberate policy of that statesman to flout Germany, lie had more tljan once threatened France with war.'

" He had intended to issue another threat on his return early in May from his -Mediterranean tour. But just before the arrival of the monarch at Gravelotte, where on M'ay 9 he was bent on delivering a speech which might have set Europe in flames, Count von Bulow succeeded in convincing him that Deleasse could be annihilated by peaceful means. He persuaded the German monarch to curb liis impatience, and to wait quietly until • the wires which 'liis diplomacy had carefully laid should explode beneath the feet of M. Deleasse. The Emperor yielded to the advice thu* administered to him. . CRITICAL situation. ■" But the state of Franco-German relations did not immediately improve as a result of the restraint exercised by William 11. Indeed, at the moment when the Duchess Cecilie was making her State entry into Berlin, news of a most disquieting description was arriving by wire from the German Embassy in 'Paris and from other sources. The French Government, it was reported, was moving troops towards the German frontier. For two days the situation remained - highly critical. An unofficial intimation was conveyed to Paris that any further movements of troops by France would be regarded ai> an unfriendly act by Germany, who did not care to be menaced.

f •".All night- 011 Monday the Emperor sat' up, waiting for despatches from the French capital. They, arrived early an Tuesday morning, and assured liiir that the retirement of Delcasse was a mere matter of hours. Exultantly the Emperor ordered his carriage, and drove post-haste to the palace of the Chancellor, whom he dragged out of bed in order to greet him with the title of Prince. A more impulsive act even William 11. lias nevei committed. But appearances were preserved by the fact that it was the wedding day of the German Crown Prince, and that only the previous week Count, now Prince, von Billow had inherited a slim of money sufficient *o enable him to support his dignity with financial ease."

Reference it/ made to the story by the Paris correspondent of the World, who says: "Prance, according to the alarmists, was on the brink of mobilisation last week, and the car of State, to quote the words of that immortal bungler and mixer of metaphors, M. Joseph Prudhommc, was sailing on the marge of a volcano. The car was steadied by throwing overboard M. Theophile Delcasse, who was supposed to have offered a mortal 'affront to Germany, and to whom the Kaiser was alleged to have disdainfully referred as' that little man.'"