1896-1897
Telegram from William II to President Krüger--The Emperor Nicholas II
visits France--William II and Turkish affairs; he becomes Protector of
the Sultan--Why the condolences of William II preceded those of the
Tzar on the occasion of the fire at the Charity Bazaar--"Germany, the
Enemy": Skobeleff's word remains true--We have been, and we still are,
gulls--Peace signed between Turkey and Greece.
January 11, 1896. [1]
As the result of his telegram to President Krüger, William II has
recovered the popularity of the early days of his reign. The German
Emperor had undoubtedly very powerful reasons for making a chivalrous
display on behalf of the Transvaal, from which he anticipated deriving
the greatest advantages. He expected to produce a moral effect by
undertaking the defence of the weaker side (a rôle that once belonged
to France). He saw a way to flatter Holland, deeply touched by these
manifestations of German sympathy for Dutchmen, who were represented by
others as barbarians. He saw also an opportunity for acquiring and
keeping admirable outlets into the Transvaal, which had threatened to
become for ever closed to German emigrants. Finally, he expected to
produce a feeling of admiration for his magnanimous attitude, which
would divert the German people from socialism and make them forget the
Hammerstein affair. Truly, the Transvaal is for William II one of
those lucky finds from which all sorts of good things may spring.
The educated classes in Germany, as well as the lower orders, were
beginning to get very weary of the everlasting celebrations in memory
of 1870-71, which continually fed the flames of French hatred. A
Silesian journal had just informed us that the 25th anniversary of the
proclamation of the German Empire at Versailles would be celebrated by
a great fête in all the German schools. The German artillery of the
Siege of Paris had arranged for a commemorative banquet, to be held in
Berlin on January 5. The senate and the _bourgeoisie_ of Hamburg had
made a gift of nearly 200,000 marks on behalf of the regiment of
Hanseatic infantry which fought at Loigny on December 2, and for
distressed veterans of that regiment.
Germany was in great need of something to distract her attention by a
stroke of exotic brilliancy and by the creation of some new object of
hatred. Enmity for ever directed against France, was beginning
somewhat to pall. This continually living on the strength of one's old
triumphs, made Germany to appear like some much-dyed old dandy, seeking
to gain recognition for past conquests by means of art and cosmetics.
The time had come to create a diversion. The German Emperor, King of
Prussia, has found it with his usual headlong impetuosity, the quality
which impels him always to seize things on the wing, to display
alternately the capacity of a genius, and that of a stupid
blunderer. . . .
March 1, 1896. [2]
German opinion persists in expressing its severe criticisms on the
subject of the Transvaal business and continues to display its sympathy
for the Boers. There is every reason to expect that German interests
will now be able to create for themselves numerous outlets in the
Transvaal.
William II has made another speech on the subject of the war of 1870;
in this he is like the tide, which the waves carry away only to bring
it back. Lord, Lord, deliver us from this torture! I, for one, can
bear it no longer. My eyes are filled with tears of rage as I listen
and listen again, for ever, unceasingly and without end, to the tale of
our defeat and to the glorification of the army which conquered us, to
the tale of the German Empire born of these Prussian victories. Will
it ever be finished, this tale? When will they have done, once and for
all, with inscribing these cruel records of theirs in the golden book
of Germany, and shut the clasp upon it?
We know that William II either painted himself, or had painted, a
picture, which was all the rage in Germany and which represented Europe
invaded by the Chinese. It would look as if William II really believed
in the danger of this impending invasion, to judge by the inscription
on the engraving of this picture, reproduced by the thousand; "Nations
of Europe, take care for your most sacred treasures!--WILLIAM I.R."
But if this be so, how comes it that the German Emperor is sending
hundreds of military instructors to the Chinese, who are supposed to be
threatening his country?
June 1, 1896. [3]
William II believes that the victories of 1870 were due to Prussia
alone, and that it was she who made the Empire; and this explains why
he takes such complete possession of the Empire, and makes the
celebrations of these victories so personal a matter. The people of
Bavaria, Würtemberg and Saxony are herein exposed to humiliation of a
kind which they decline to accept. There is no doubt that all Germans
hate us with an equal hatred, and all have united with the same
enthusiasm to crush our unfortunate France; nevertheless, we may derive
some profit from the antipathy inspired in them by Prussia's grasping
claims to glory and authority.
September 1, 1896. [4]
Do you remember, my faithful friends, and you, my earliest readers,
what were the sentiments of hatred, love and fidelity, that inspired
the letters which I addressed to you nearly eighteen years ago--the
violence of my hatred for the most tyrannical, and at the same time,
the most dangerously vindictive, of European statesmen, viz. Von
Bismarck?
Have you not often smiled, when I then denied the strength of the
Colossus and asserted his fragility, when I used to say: "He must not
die with a halo of glory; let him witness rather the bankruptcy of his
moral estate and give proof of the pettiness of his character and
evidence of his unbridled lust for power. Let the effrontery of his
lies return to him in bitterness?" And together, you and I, we have
now seen Prince Bismarck, not hurled down, but slowly crumbling to
ruin; there has been nothing great about his fall, neither the shout
that he gave, nor his way of falling, nor the words which he said when
he picked himself up.
And at the same time when I showed you, in the far distant future, this
idol of blood-thirstiness broken, I preached to you the love of Russia.
I saw her freeing herself from German influence and drawing closer to
us. Hardly had the Emperor Alexander III come to the throne, than I
said to you: "He will be a popular Emperor, and the more he loves his
own people the more he will love ours." For a long time you thought
that my hatred of Prince Bismarck was blind, but from the outset you
regarded my love of Russia as enlightened. How many strengthening and
encouraging letters have I not received from you?
And now, Nicholas II, son of Alexander III, the well-beloved Emperor,
who represents in his own person the highest expression of great, holy
and mystical Russia, is coming to Paris officially, as the ally of
France, so that all the ambitions of our patriotism, all our dreams of
the last twenty-five years, are coming true together. Am I not
entitled to say to you, dear readers, "I have fulfilled the mission
that I set before myself, my work amongst you is accomplished"? But
there remains still a tie between us, our common fidelity to Alsace!
How could we forget those who have not ceased to remember? Shall it be
said that we failed those who rather than yield have suffered every
form of torture? Let us endeavour together to prove in a more active
manner our devotion to the brethren who are separated from us. Now
that Prince Bismarck has one foot in the grave, now that the Russian
Alliance is in the hands of the Government of France, let us devote all
our strength and all the resources of our advocacy, all our love of
justice, to the cause of Alsace-Lorraine. . . .
William II is sick, nervous and irritable. He has lost all patience
with the question of the reform of military organisation; he did not
raise that question, it would seem, and has plenty of other things to
worry him. He is going to ask Parliament, on its re-assembling, to
vote large sums for the increase of the navy, his own particular care.
After all, he received the army triumphant from the hands of Moltke and
of Bismarck, but the navy is his own personal achievement; he believes
this, and says so repeatedly. But the German navy has no luck. This
year, besides the _Iltis_, the _Frauenlob_, and the _Amazone_, which
swallowed up a large number of junior officers of the Prussian navy, it
has lost the _Kurfurstin_ (as the result of an error of navigation)
with 300 sailors, also the _Augusta_, the _Undine_, and other vessels.
February 22, 1897. [5]
William II has announced himself as the enemy of Greece, and the prop
of the Ottoman Empire. At the subscription ball given at the Opera in
Berlin, did he not walk arm-in-arm with Ghalik Bey, the Turkish
Ambassador, and authorise him to telegraph to the Sultan that, under
existing conditions, he might count upon his sense of justice and his
good-will? Does not this constitute an insolent challenge to the
decision which the Powers are supposed to have taken for the
observation of neutrality?
When William II is insolent, he does not do things by halves; now, he
repeats to all concerned: "One does not argue with Greece, one gives
her orders," and on every occasion that has offered, he has displayed
sentiments hostile to Greece and favourable to the Sultan. For these
reasons, Abdul Hamid is devoted to William II. He is tied to him, and
bound by all his sentiments, by all his admiration and his fear, to the
Germans. Messrs. Cambon and de Nelidoff believed that they had
detached the Sultan from Germany, but illusions on that score are no
longer possible. Germany possesses his entire confidence. Did not he,
the most nervous and suspicious of men, allow on one occasion the
German military mission to take _effective_ command of his troops,
whereas no other military mission has ever been allowed anything more
than the right to put them through their drill? Germany, which in case
of need can count upon the Turkish army, is fundamentally interested in
preventing Turkey from being either weakened or divided up. A war in
the East, in which Germany might get Russia deeply involved, at the
same time that she kept her busy in Asia, is too great an advantage to
risk losing, without doing everything possible to protect it. . . .
April 28, 1897. [6]
William II, the God of war and of force, is in every way responsible
for events in the East. Only his friendship, and the many consequences
of that friendship, have given to Abdul Hamid the courage of his
massacres, of his resistance to all efforts at reconciliation, and of
his military proceedings in Greece. The German Emperor had been able
to persuade the simple-minded Government of France of his peaceful and
humanitarian intentions. It only needed a few of us to revolt and to
express our indignation, to unmask him, and to show in its true, lurid
light, the real nature of his actions, so as to enable the nations to
know him for what he is. To-day he is the master of Europe; but let
the power of the Kaiser be what it may (and it is a power no more
capable of honesty than that of Bismarck, who lied without ceasing,
forfeited without ceasing his honour, and accepted responsibility for
crime), whatever conquests hereafter William II may achieve, even
should we be defeated again, we shall be able to stand up before him
and to his face to say, "You will never achieve greatness!" Material
greatness turns again to dust, like all matter, but moral greatness is
eternal, an intangible thing, which surrounds men, invisible, and which
emanates from the best amongst them.
We will leave to history, which shall surely record it, the judgment of
_human_ men, of real peace-lovers, concerning William II, concerning
this protector of the Red Sultan, this renegade and denier of his
faith, who has sold his soul in order to govern the world through evil,
through trickery, through force and through war. You have only to read
the German legends, to analyse the souls of the traditional heroes of
Germany, to see that they are indeed much more closely allied to the
Turks (who have only understood Islamism under its aspects of conquest)
than they are to the traditions which Europe has inherited from Greece
and from her daughters, Rome and Byzantium.
The struggle of to-day lies between these two spirits: one the
barbarian spirit, the spirit of conquest, which knows no other law but
force, the spirit which subdues and kills, represented by Turkey and by
Germany; the other, the spirit of civilisation, of love, which knows no
other law than the right, the spirit which emancipates and vivifies,
the spirit of Greece, from which European civilisation is drawn,
excepting always that of the Germans and Turks. Either the East will
resist the Turks, and Europe will resist Germany, or else both will
relapse into barbarism, and be condemned to war without ceasing, to
butcheries, to the brutality of force and all its works.
May 27, 1897. [7]
At all events they have not yet won their bet in Berlin that they would
make us look ridiculous and hateful. Those very wise and well-bred
people, who have been advising us to revise our national education, so
as to welcome the Kaiser in 1900, have had but meagre success. As to
the golden stream, which brought us the 8000 marks of the King of
Prussia,[8] thank Heaven, it has not been able to drown our patriotism.
Brother Frenchmen, it is still lawful for lunatics and ill-bred people
like ourselves to remember Sedan, Metz, Strasburg and Paris, as well as
Kronstadt and Toulon. Then let us not forget either the first rays of
sunlight which reach us from Russia, or the darkness of 1870. [9]
There is not a single German journalist (_and I wish to emphasise this
fact most clearly_), even in the ultra-Prussian party, who would have
dared to put his signature to such an article as one of our greatest
newspapers has published concerning William II, whom it describes as "a
humanitarian thinker, a gentle philosopher, thinking only of the
happiness of the human race, of appeasing ancient hatreds and removing
old grudges. How joyfully would he not have restored Metz and
Strasburg had he not been prevented in performing this act by the
historical necessities of his position." In proof of all which things,
this article cites his telegrams of sympathy, the splendid bouquets
which he has sent to our illustrious dead, his wish to pay homage to
France in 1900, etc., etc.
The journalist grown old in harness, who has dared to write such
monstrous things as well as such nonsense, will no doubt be greatly
astonished when I inform him that no foreign reporter, however
inexperienced, of any nation great or small, is ignorant of the fact
that William II is relentlessly determined to achieve the
re-establishment of absolute autocracy as it was conceived by certain
Emperors of Rome and Byzantium. His motto is _Voluntas Regis Supremo
Lex_, which, on the occasion of his first visit to Münich, he wrote
there with his own Imperial hand. On the first occasion of the opening
of the States of Brandenburg, he declared that he counted on their
fidelity to help him to crush and destroy everything that might oppose
his personal wishes. Is it necessary to say once more for the
hundredth time that he never has the oath taken by his recruits without
telling them that "they must ever be ready to fire on those who oppose
his rule, even though they should be their own fathers, mothers and
brothers"? The other day, did he not make his brother Prince Henry
read a letter to the sailors of his war-ship the _Wilhelm Imperator_
(the vessel appointed to attend the Jubilee of Queen Victoria), in
which letter he held up to the execration of the army and navy those
"unpatriotic" Germans who refused to provide him with millions for his
wild scheme of increasing the navy, that is to say, about nine-tenths
of the Reichstag? There is in Germany one institution which commands
very general respect, and enjoys traditional liberty, viz. the
University. For the last year William II has opened a campaign against
the liberties of University education, and the scandalous manner in
which he has attacked the professors at Berlin because of the dignity
with which they have defended their rights of scientific research, are
known to every one except "this brilliant Chronicler of the Boulevards."
From one end of Germany to the other they go into ecstasies whenever,
either before, during, or after his acts of politeness to France,
William finds some new pretext for humiliating, humbling, or
threatening us. [10]
A German pamphlet published two years ago, entitled _Caligula; a Study
of Caesarian Madness_, by Mr. Quidde, achieved such a success, that
hundreds of thousands of copies were bought up in a few days by the
faithful subjects of the German Emperor. This pamphlet, ingeniously
compiled by means of quotations from Suetonius, Dion Cassius, Philo,
etc., gives a marvellous analysis of the character of William II. I
cannot resist the pleasure of giving a few extracts from this little
work, for it would appear that William II is endeavouring, since its
publication, to emphasise the resemblance between himself and Caligula
and Nero.
"The dominant feature in the actions of Caligula lies in a certain
nervous haste, which led him spasmodically from one obsession to
another, often of a self-contradictory nature; moreover, he had the
dangerous habit of wanting to do everything himself. Caligula seems to
have a great fondness of the sea. The strolling-player side of his
character was by no means limited to his military performances. He was
passionately devoted to the theatre and the circus, and would
occasionally take part himself on the stage, led thereto by his
peculiar taste for striking costumes and frequent changes of clothing.
He was always endeavouring to shine in the display of eloquence; and
was fond of talking, often in public. We know that he developed a
certain talent in this direction, and was particularly successful in
the gentle art of wounding people. His favourite quotation was the
celebrated verse of Homer--
There is only one Master, only one King.
Sometimes he loved the crowd, and sometimes solitude; at other times he
would start out on a journey, from which he would return quite
unrecognisable, having allowed his hair and beard to grow."
Just as the names of Caligula and Nero are daily affixed in Germany to
the name of William II, Herr Hinzpeter is called Senecus, General von
Hahnke is known as Burrhus; there is also an Acté and a Poppea at
Berlin. Frederick III is Germanicus and Prince Bismarck is called
Macro, after the powerful prefect of the praetorium in disgrace. Like
Nero, William II has been cruel to his mother; he is cruel to his
sister, the Princess of Greece. He hates England, just as Caligula
hated Brittany. With a mind like that of Nero, William II derives the
greatest pleasure from the thought of degrading the French people by
making them receive him with acclamation. What a triumph it must be
for this grandson of William I (who defeated us but left us our honour)
thus to bring us to dishonour: us, the descendants of the France of
1789, republicans in the service of a Prussian Caesar!
June 10, 1897. [11]
It should have been to the interest of France and, of Russia, and a
policy of skilful strategy, to oppose Turkey when supported by the
Triple Alliance, and to create around and about her, in Greece as in
the Balkans, such a force of resistance as would have put a stop to her
schemes of expansion, resulting from those of the Powers of the Triple
Alliance. By so doing, France and Russia might have taken them in the
rear and upset their plans. We were already in a position of
considerable advantage, in that we could leave to the King of Prussia,
the German Emperor, all the responsibility for the crimes of the
Sultan, observing at the same time all those principles which would
have maintained, in their integrity, the moral and Christian traditions
of France and Russia. But our policy has been that of children
building castles in the sand. Confronted by a triumphant Turkey,
leaning on the Triple Alliance, and by a Sultan suffering from the
dementia of blood-lust, certain of the faithful friendship of William
II, and confident in his victorious army (already 720,000 strong, and
commanded by a German General Staff); confronted by such fears and
threats, we have chosen to place all our hopes upon the balanced mind
of William II, the generosity of the Sultan, and the loyalty of
oriental statecraft! I have said it so repeatedly that I may have
wearied my readers, but I say it again; "_To their undoing, France and
Russia have sacrificed their policy to Turkey, protected by Germany_."
They are now confronted by German policy, evasive and at the same time
triumphant, that is to say, in full command of the situation which it
has brought about. William II is at last revealed, even to the
blindest eyes, as the instigator and sole director of everything that
has taken place in the East since his visit to Constantinople. He
takes pleasure in advising the Sultan day by day, for he makes him do
everything that he himself is prevented from doing, and he enjoys the
satisfaction of being a tyrant in imagination when he cannot be one
actually.
June 25, 1897. [12]
The Sultan's million of armed men, organised under a German General
Staff, in a country where Germany is making every effort to possess
herself of every kind of influence and every source of wealth, is not
this the chief danger which Russia has to fear, and whose imminence she
should clearly foresee, in dealing with a Sultan like Abdul Hamid, a
man of nervous fears and bloodthirsty instincts, bound to furtherance
of the sudden or premeditated schemes of William II?
July 27, 1897. [13]
Although Germany has commemorated her victories for the last
twenty-five years, and will doubtless continue to commemorate them for
the next six months and then for evermore, it seems that we are to be
compelled, in deference to "superior orders" revealed at the Council of
Ministers, to postpone the official consecration of a monument intended
to prove our devotion to our mutilated country, and our incurable grief
at the defeat of Sedan. It seems that we have not the right, a free
people, to give to sorely oppressed Alsace-Lorraine (which never ceases
to give proofs of her fidelity to France) a proof in our turn, that we
remember the disaster which has separated us, that we lament this
disaster, and hope one day to repair, if not to avenge it. Our pride
is being systematically humiliated in every direction! The nature and
consequences of victory have indeed been cruelly modified, if one must
submit to the law of the conqueror after having been delivered from him
for twenty-five years. The glorious resistance of the past thus
becomes an ignominious surrender and makes us shed tears of shame, even
more bitter than those which we shed over our saddest memories.
Gentlemen of the Government of France, I would ask you to read the
German newspapers; go to Berlin, go wherever you like in Germany or in
Alsace-Lorraine, and you will find there hundreds and hundreds of
monuments which have been inaugurated by the Imperial German
Government. For these, the smallest event, ancient or modern, affords
sufficient pretext. [14]
In all things and in every direction we yield today to the authority of
a monarch who emphasises our defeat more severely than those who
actually conquered us. Our strict national duty towards him who did
not overcome us with his own sword, was to hold ourselves firmly
upright before him and to protect our brethren, victims of the war.
Alas! we have been obedient to Bismarck, and we shall be submissive to
William II. But why, and to what end? Had we met the liar and cheat
with honesty, had we remained calm in presence of this nerve-ridden
individual, we should have been able to recover, morally at first and
then actually, all the advantages that Prussia gained by her victory.
The Imperial victim of restlessness, whose nerves are so unhealthily
and furiously shaken when he goes abroad, has a craving for disturbing
the nerves of others; this in itself makes him the most dangerous of
advisers. William II never allows to himself or to others any
relaxation of the brain; like all spirits in torment, he must needs
find, forthwith, to the very minute, a counter-effect to every thing
that confronts him. With him, even a sudden calm contains the threat
of a storm, excitement lurks beneath his moods of quietness. The
bastard peace which he has authorised Turkey to conclude, conceals a
new revolution in Crete: such is his will. No sooner is there evidence
of an improvement in our relations with Italy, than he invites King
Humbert to be present at the German military manoeuvres, in order to
create dissension between the two countries. And so it is in
everything. He makes it his business to inspire weariness and vexation
of spirit, to destroy those hopes and feelings which restore vitality
to the soul of a people. He is for ever stretching out a hand that
would fain control by itself the rotation of the globe, and he sets it
all awry.
The glorification of William II at Kiel is founded upon shifting sands.
Schleswig remains Danish and resists the Germanising process with a
force of energy at least equal to that of Alsace-Lorraine. The Danes
of Schleswig are still Danes, they have not bowed the knee in
admiration of German _Kultur_, any more than the Alsatians, Schleswig
says: "Let them ask us by a _plébiscite_ and they shall see what we
want, what civilised men have the right to ask: light and air and the
right to dispose of themselves." The people of Alsace-Lorraine say:
"If you would know what Alsace-Lorraine, which was never consulted,
thinks of the Treaty of Frankfort, ask her."
I blush, and my soul is filled with shame, when I think of the
degradation of French patriotism contained in the utterances
of . . . ., of those words which, to our lasting sorrow, evoked in _the
Centre_ of the Chamber an outburst of enthusiasm. May our patriots
never forget this cowardly session of the French Parliament! Thus,
then, twenty-seven years after the war, when we have spent countless
millions on the remaking of our army and navy, when every Frenchman has
bled himself to the bone to make France so strong and independent that
she might cherish the brightest hopes, a President of the French
Council has the unutterable weakness, from the tribune, to threaten
France with the German cane, should she dare to follow any other policy
than that desired by Berlin!
And French deputies have applauded these shameful words, that are
reproduced, with such joy as may be imagined, by the whole German
Press! That Press has every reason to be delighted and to find in
these words clear proof that the official class in France has always
looked upon the Russian Alliance as a show-piece, never relying upon
it, and that since the Berlin Congress (how often have I said it!) this
official class has never ceased to gravitate towards Germany.
And I, a Republican, a fanatic for the Russian Alliance, such as it
might and should have been, a Frenchwoman, blind worshipper of my
vanquished country--how can I hold my head up in the face of such a
shameful collapse!
In placing his services at the disposal of the Grand Turk for the
persecution of Christians, in supporting those in Russia whose policy
it is to urge their country into war with Japan and China and to divert
it from its natural sphere of action in Europe, our Minister for
Foreign Affairs has ruined one of the finest political situations in
which France has ever found herself. If the conduct of our foreign
affairs had been entrusted to a real statesman, France might have
recovered her position in Europe instead of going, with giant strides,
down the path of hopeless decadence.
Are not the intentions of Germany plain enough now and sufficiently
proved? They must be stupidly foolish who cannot see that a great
German war is being prepared against the Slavs and Gallo-Latins, under
most disastrous conditions for us and for Russia. It needs all the
blindness of King Humbert, of Leopold II and of the Hungarian
Centralists, to believe that if and when it comes, a German victory
would confer any benefits on anything that is not German.
September 8, 1897. [15]
The mind of Germany is everlastingly concerned with the toasts proposed
by William II. We know the toast proposed after his review of the 8th
Army Corps. First of all, come his remarks on the subject of foreign
policy. "It rests with us to maintain in its integrity the work
accomplished by the great Emperor and to defend it against the
influences and claims of foreigners." On such an occasion, after the
remarks on "justice and equity," which he made on board the _Pothuau_,
the hot-headed Emperor was bound to deliver himself in some such strain.
The next toast was that which he proposed at Hamburg in honour of King
Humbert and Queen Marguerita. This one is emphatic and at the same
time gracious, for William II cultivates every style and all the arts.
On this occasion the King of Prussia, Emperor of Germany, referred as
usual to the solidity of the Triple Alliance and to the mandate which
it has assumed for the preservation of peace. He spoke as the grandson
of William I. King Humbert replied as the grandson of Victor Emmanuel
(_sic_), skilfully gliding over the question of the indissoluble nature
of the Triple Alliance and reminding his hearers that Germany has no
monopoly in the pursuit of peace, but that all the Governments of
Europe are equally concerned in endeavouring to attain it.
A movement is taking shape in Italy, full of danger and of promise, as
events will prove. The clericals and the republicans have sketched the
outline of an understanding, which looks as if it might be approved by
Leo XIII. The danger of this union between the parties will lead King
Humbert back to a more national, a more peninsular, policy. The strong
opposition that it has to face is useful, in that it will oblige the
country's rulers to pay more attention to home affairs and to the
nation's interests than to the glorification of the dynasty.
September 28, 1897. [16]
"Germany is the enemy," Skobeleff used to say at Paris in 1882,
speaking to the younger generation of Slavs in the Balkans. These
prophetic words were inspired in the hero of Plevna by Germany's
intrigues at the Berlin Congress, intricate intrigues, full of menace
for the future of the East. They should have haunted the spirit of
every chancellery ever since, and become the formula around and about
which European diplomacy should have organised its forces to resist
Prussia's invading tendencies.
Until 1870 the liberal, philosophic, learned and federalist genius of
Germany, was spreading all over the world through its literature,
science, poetry and music, a genius whose attitude and equilibrium were
the fruit of an equal fusion of the mind of North Germany with that of
the South. By the victories and conquest of 1870, this genius became
suddenly and entirely absorbed in Prussian militarism, and has now
grown to be a force hostile to all other races. The power of the
intellect in all its forms, recognises reciprocity and scientific
research; the power of brute force only recognises the idea of
predominance and the subjection of others. The genius of Prussianised
Germany to-day combines the lust of conquest and power with the
shopkeeping spirit, but even in this last, there is no idea of
reciprocity but only of exclusive encroachment. Her international
misdeeds are past all number; she saps and undermines all that has been
laboriously built up by others. Germanisation carries with it the
seeds of disintegration; it is a sower of hatred, proclaiming for its
own exclusive benefit the equity of iniquity, the justice of injustice.
Only less extraordinary than the audacity of Prussia is Europe's
failure to realise these truths. In 1870 Napoleon III was deluded,
fooled and compromised, led into war by means of lies. Nameless
intrigues set our generals one against the other. At a moment when
victory was possible, the treachery of Bazaine made defeat inevitable
for France, whom the so-called genius of Moltke and Frederick-Carl
would never have vanquished. Having overthrown the Empire, the King of
Prussia, who had declared that he was fighting against it alone, made
war on France, well aware that sufficient vitality remained in the
broken pieces to enable them to come together again, and that, under
the threat of a French _revanche_, Prussia would be able to keep
Germany exercised in such a state of mind as would reconcile her to
remaining under the military yoke of the Hohenzollerns. And Europe,
without protest, accepts this condition of things, fatal to her
interests and security, created for the sole profit of the lowest of
nations. By her self-effacement, indeed, she increased fivefold the
influence and power of that nation.
September 31, 1897. [17]
You and I, all of us, we French people in particular, who think that we
were born clever, we are all a pack of credulous fools. Let any one
take the trouble to put a little consistency, a little continuity, into
the business of fooling us--especially about outside matters whose
origins we ignore, or people whose history we have not closely
followed--and we will swallow anything!
All of us Republicans, all the Liberals of the Second Empire, Edmond
Adam, our friends, our group,--great Heavens! how we swallowed German
republicanism and liberalism! With what brotherly emotion did we not
sympathise with the misfortunes of those who, like ourselves, were the
vanquished victims of tyranny! We, Frenchmen and Germans alike, were
defending the same principles, the same cause; we were fighting the
same good fight for the emancipation of ideas, for the levelling of
intellectual frontiers, etc., etc.
How well I remember the friendly _abandon_ of Louis Bamberger in our
midst! Truly these Prussian Liberals and ourselves held the same
opinions concerning everything, far or near, which bore upon
intellectual independence, upon progress and civilisation. And since
we were united by such a complete understanding, such identity of
ideas, it was our duty to work together: our German friends for the
triumph of liberalism in France, and we, for the triumph of liberalism
in Germany. As to such questions as those of territorial frontiers, or
the banks of the Rhine, Bamberger used to ask, "Who thinks of such
things in Germany? No one! They had other things to think about!"
The heart's desire of the sons of the German revolution of 1848-49 was
a universal republic, universal brotherhood, and nothing else. We
believed him, but for what an awakening! Hardly were the Germans in
France, than all the orders dictated by Bismarck were translated into
French by Louis Bamberger.
A book by Dr. Hans Blum, which has just been published in Berlin under
the title of "_The German Revolution of 1848-1849_," throws even more
light on the "brotherly" sentiments of German republicans. In this
book Dr. Blum recalls a speech made in the Palatinate on May 27, 1832.
This is what the orator said: "There can only be one opinion amongst
Germans, and only one voice, to proclaim that, on our side, we would
not accept liberty as the price of giving the left bank of the Rhine to
France. Should France show a desire to seize even an inch of German
territory, all internal dissensions would cease at once and all Germany
would rise to demand the retrocession of Alsace-Lorraine, for the
deliverance of our country."
That is how German Republicans thought, as far back as 1832. In
1868-69 they made us swallow once again ideas of brotherhood from
beyond the Rhine, by lulling our perspicacity, by enervating the
courage we used to display towards _foreigners_, and it was several
weeks before we realised in 1870 that _all Germany_, from one end to
the other, was of the same type of honesty, the same character as the
Ems telegram.
We are nothing but fools, credulous fools, if we believe that any
German can think otherwise than as a member of united, that is to say
Prussianised, Germany, or if we imagine that Prussia is anything but
the complete, total, unique, fully accepted, assimilated and admired
expression of German patriotism. Prussia is the fine flower, the ripe
fruit of German unity. A few Bavarians, a few so-called German
liberals, may pretend to be restive under the despotism of the King of
Prussia, but they accept unreservedly the authority of the German
Emperor. And what is more, it is just as he is, that they wish their
Emperor to be, thus they have imagined, thus they have made him. He is
like unto them in their own image, he governs them according to their
own mind. There may be some who, as a matter of personal inclination,
might prefer to have more liberalism, but whenever Germanism is in
question it is personified in William II, King of Prussia. Berlin is
the capital of all the Germans upon earth.
During these past few days, in the Vienna Parliament, whilst an orator
on the Government side was singing the praises of the Emperor Francis
Joseph, a German Austrian exclaimed--an Austrian, mark you--"_Our_
Emperor is William II."
The credulous fools of the moment in France are the Socialists. Just
as we believed in the liberalism of German Liberals before 1870, so
French Socialists now believe in the internationalism of German
Socialists. With greater sincerity than anything displayed by the old
German Liberals of before 1870, the Socialists of Hamburg have taken
the trouble to enlighten their French brethren with regard to their
real sentiments. Herr Liebknecht himself has explained their attitude;
his words may be summed up as follows: "The Socialists of France are
our brothers, but if they wanted to take back Alsace-Lorraine, we
should regard them as enemies."
There is nothing more remarkable than these German Socialists and their
congresses, these fellows who always preach to other nations against
patriotism, and never come together except to make speeches about the
Fatherland. At the Hamburg Congress, Auer, the socialist deputy,
looked into the future and saw "the Cossacks trampling underfoot all
the liberties of Western Europe." What tyranny of barbarians could be
more cruel than the tyranny of Germany which, wherever it extends,
oppresses the racial instincts of mankind, ruins and absorbs a people,
reducing it to servitude by the assertion of the rights of a superior
race over its inferiors.
Has the Hamburg Congress disabused the minds of French Socialists on
the brotherhood of their German brethren? Let us hope that it will not
be necessary for them, as it was for us, to hear the thunder of German
guns to understand that all parties in Germany are included in the
_German party_, and that those who believe anything else are nothing
but poor deluded dupes.
October 26, 1897. [18]
Those amongst us who, hour by hour, have devoted their lives to the
service of our mutilated country, have for their object, each within
the humble limits of his individual efforts, the glorification of
France and that of Russia, the greatness of the one being dependent on
the greatness of the other. This twofold devotion, and dual service
keep our fears perpetually alert in two directions; how great are those
two commingled sources of fear when patriotic Frenchmen, like patriotic
Russians, come to consider the bewildering development of Prussian
power--a veritable process of absorption.
German policy knows no laws except those of which Prussia is sole
beneficiary. Only that which is profitable to Prussia is good; the
rest, all the rest, is a negligible quantity. Moral precepts,
religious brotherhood, higher education by force of example, a sense of
justice applied to the fair apportioning of influence, vested rights,
and a reasonable idea of reciprocity--all such things are moonshine for
Prussia. The sole object that Prussian Germany pursues is brutal
conquest in all its forms. By all conceivable means to get a footing
for herself, here, there and everywhere; by the most energetic and
methodical diplomacy possible, by military science, by trade and
manufactures, by emigration and the race-spirit, and at the same time
by subterranean methods of allurement and by insolent threats; these
are her purposes and she accomplishes something of them every day.
When one reflects what Germany's objects were, and what she has
achieved in the Eastern question, to what humiliations and cross
purposes she has exposed and reduced Europe, to what contempt for her
own interests, what bewilderment and impotence, then, I repeat, the
stoutest heart may have good cause for fear.
Turkey, galvanised by Germany, has become a force to inspire terror
amongst Christians in the East and throughout the whole range of
European civilisation, where it comes into contact with Mussulmans, in
all parts of the world. All the slow-moving patience of Russian and
French diplomacy for centuries, all the long struggles of the Crusades
have been robbed of their garnered fruits in a few months. German
policy has overthrown all their influence, destroyed all their approach
works, released Europe's vassal from all his promises and obligations.
The Sick Man, cured by a quack who holds his health in pawn, has bound
himself body and soul to his healer.
Greece, frequently hesitating in her policy between British and French
sympathies, has nothing to hope for in the future from Turkophil
Germany. William II will make her recovery a matter of limitations and
bargaining. And who knows but that the strange proceedings of Prince
Constantine and of the royal princes, his brothers, may not be
explained by secret promises for the future--promises made by the
German Emperor in return for blind submission to his will?
William II holds Turkey in the hollow of his hand. Byzantium and Rome
are vassals of a German monarch. If Rome is threatened with ruin by
her alliance with the King of Prussia, Byzantium is restored by a new
Caraculla. William II is, therefore, twice entitled to wear the sphere
with the Imperial crown atop, as the emblem of his sovereign power and
as the imitator of the Roman Emperor. And notwithstanding the
Anti-Christ protection which he extends to the infidel, he can also
affix the Cross to his sphere. Is he not about to take possession, in
theatrical fashion, of the Holy Places?
Turkey has been restored by the Kaiser of Berlin. He is her Emperor,
her Khalif, Master of the Holy Places, for the reason that his most
humble servant is Emperor, Khalif and Master of the Holy Places. So
long as all these titles and powers lay in weak hands, the dangers of
Turkish policy, if not the anxieties it created, might be disregarded.
But today the military strength of Turkey is firmly established and it
is supported by another tremendous Power. Russia and France have never
committed an act of graver imprudence than to allow these two forces to
unite. Germany, Germany, ever and ever greater! The German song is no
longer a dead letter.
It was by guile that simulated liberal and democratic ideas, that
Bismarck prepared public opinion in the German Confederation for union
with Prussia. We, too, believed in the liberalism of Germans and of
Bismarck before 1870, and herein we proved ourselves to be just as
easily gullible as French socialists are to-day, who believe in the
genuine internationalism of German socialists.
For those whose interest lies in this direction, the Imperial
Statistical Bureau of Berlin provides information of an astounding
kind. Germany's exports in 1896 reached the value of 3754 millions of
marks. German exports to England and her colonies amounted to 808
million marks, whilst England and her colonies supplied Germany with
produce to the amount of 931 million marks. [19]
Henceforth William II knows that he has at his command the tools with
which to bite into England, industrially and commercially. He has
already had a large bite, and he looks forward to eating up proud
Albion, slowly but surely.
November 26, 1897. [20]
We must always remember and incessantly repeat: Germany's paths
throughout the whole world are widening and lengthening horribly. The
latest Roman invader profits at the same time by all the headway that
Carthage and Athens lose. England and France, alike responsible for
their spoliation, are the more to blame in that they allow themselves
to be smitten with blindness at a time when they are not yet smitten
with impotence. In the East, both might have done what they liked,
with the help and the interested support of Russia. But what have they
done? Less than nothing, since they have worked in servile
fashion--one for the greater glory of her military conqueror, the other
for the glory of her commercial conqueror. The European Concert,
whether it retreated or advanced, whether it took up a question or
discussed it, has done all things under the exclusive direction of
German interests.
With a haughty contempt and disdain for the dignity of all Europe
outside the Triple Alliance, which should have been met by emphatic
protests, William II has compelled Russia, England and France to give
public sanction to the crimes of the hyena of Stamboul, to build up
with their own hands the supremacy of Prussia in the East and that of
Austria in the Balkans.
Baron Marshal von Bieberstein, Germany's new Ambassador, has been
welcomed at the Court of the Grand Turk as the envoy of his chief
counsellor, his only friend, as the sacrosanct representative of the
Emperor-King, over-lord of the East. Thus all the delays, evasions and
subterfuges of the Sultan are sanctioned by William II.
The King of Prussia, Emperor of Germany, takes pleasure in a
self-contradictory policy, whereby he misleads and confuses the world.
He is the same to-day as he was when, as prince heir to the throne, he
declared that he "would never have any friends, only dupes." Through
him the Sultan, whom he delights to honour, becomes a conqueror, his
crimes are condoned and cynically absolved before the outraged
conscience of all Europe. Yes, all these things have been done by
William II; Abdul Hamid looks upon the German Emperor as the main
pillar of the temple of his glory!
One cannot speak of the East without feelings of shame and heartfelt
indignation. In Turkey's stolid resistance to reform, in her
massacres, in the Cretan revolt, and in the war between her and Greece,
William II has seen only an opportunity of gain for himself. He has
cynically pursued his policy of profit-snatching. Just as certain
quacks demand a higher fee when they prescribe for a patient whose life
is in serious danger, so William II exacts heavier payment from his
client. His demands are exorbitant: trade, finance, armaments,
concessions, sale of arms, renewal of munitions of war, rebuilding of
the fleet, etc., etc.
The King of Prussia continues, without ceasing and at his own sweet
will, to utter defiance to common sense and to the general direction of
civilised opinion. Whilst by his policy he supports the foul murderer
of Christians and prepares the way for fresh butcheries on the return
of the victorious Turks from Thessaly, William II has addressed these
astounding words to the recruits of his Royal Guards: "He who is not a
good Christian, is not a brave man, nor a worthy Prussian soldier, and
can by no means fulfil the duty required of a soldier in the Prussian
army."
December 10, 1897. [21]
Germanism, which up till 1870 had a certain sense of decent restraint,
and took the trouble to disguise itself skilfully under Bismarck, no
longer knows either limitations or scruples. It displays itself
without shame, secure in the hesitancy of the Slav and the weakness of
the Latin peoples. Who could fail to be roused to indignation by the
display of German fanaticism which has taken place at Vienna? To think
that in the capital of an ally of William II, a faction, relying on
advice publicly given in Berlin should shout in the Reichsrath,
overthrow a ministry, disturb the public peace in the streets, and
accompany these manifestations with Prussia's national song, "Die Wacht
am Rhein," and the display of the German flag! If scandalous
proceedings such as these make no difference in the relations of the
Triple Alliance, why wonder at the audacity and pride of the Teutons?
Everything is a matter of exclusive right for the German. There are no
other rights but German rights, and when Germany claims the exercise of
a right, neither numbers, nor nationalism, nor races have any
existence, confronted by the individuality, the nationalism, of the
German race. Mommsen, the leading historian of Prussian Germany, wrote
in the _Neue Freie Presse_ of Vienna, "Pummel the heads of the Czechs
with your fists," whereat all the Austrians of German race applauded,
loudly declaring that if it came to a question between the Germans of
Prussian Germany and Austrian subjects of Slav extraction, their
sympathies would not be in doubt, for they, although Austrians, saw on
the one side their brethren of a superior _Kultur_, and, on the other,
barbarians only fit to remain for ever oppressed.
On another occasion, Mommsen wrote: "We are twin brothers; we became
separated from you in former days, but soon we must be united again."
The linguistic map of Germany, widespread wherever German is spoken,
reveals very clearly what are the ambitions of "Alt-Deutschland." The
lion's maw of the "Slav-eaters" is always wide open. Sometimes the
devouring beast walks delicately, at others he hurls himself savagely
on his prey.
The opening of the Reichstag has provided us with a very important
speech from the throne by William II, for it emphasises the lack of
agreement which prevails between Sovereign, Parliament and people. The
Emperor-King has announced his plan for a seven-years' period for naval
service, similar to that in force in the army. The Bill will come
before the Reichstag during its present session. As William has
declared more than once, he intends that the naval strength of Germany
shall equal that of her army. As for the German people, while ready to
accept all the sacrifices required to maintain the supremacy of its
military forces, it has no hankerings after naval supremacy. Its
proudest hopes lie in the direction covered by the "Drang nach Osten"
formula. It wants to advance upon Austria, while retaining the ground
already won. Mommsen and the Duke of Baden between them sum up
Germany's ambitions.
In Germany at the present moment, public opinion would appear to be
satisfied with preserving the work of William I and pushing on towards
the East; but how little will these things satisfy William II! It is
the will of the German Emperor, King of Prussia, to be a law-giver to
the East, to dispute with England the sovereignty of the seas, to take
bites out of China, to display the ever-victorious flag of Germany all
over the world. It is true that, to accomplish this will of his, will
require an additional 500 millions, and it will require, in particular,
that the Reichstag should vote them in one lump sum. William II is
like his teacher Bismarck in the matter of dogged obstinacy. Like him,
he will present his scheme in a hundred different guises, until its
opponents become weary and give in.
Germany has just been giving the European Concert a lesson in the
policy of energy. She displays as much bluntness in her sudden claims
as she displayed skill in having the Concert brought to ridicule by
Turkey. Haiti and China have yielded on the spot to her direct
threats. If they reflect, will not the Powers of the Concert realise
that Germany's every act is either a challenge or a lesson? The German
expedition to Kiao-chao, 4000 strong, is so greatly in excess of the
requirements of her claims to compensation for injuries suffered, that
it reveals a definite intention on the part of William II to take
advantage of the first plausible pretext to acquire a naval station in
China.
Peace has been signed between Turkey and Greece, but let us not regard
it as a settlement of outstanding questions, for the Ambassadors were
only able to come to an agreement by eliminating questions in dispute,
one by one. Germany now appears to dominate the Eastern question to
such a degree that, in his Speech from the Throne, William II did not
even allude to it. What would have been the good? Turkey is already a
province of Germany! William II and his Ambassador are the rulers
there and govern the country as sovereigns. The flood-gate of German
emigration, secretly unlocked, will soon be thrown wide open; 200,000
Germans will be able to make their way into the Ottoman Empire every
year. Before long their numbers will tell, they will assert their
rights, and the Slav provinces in the Balkans and in Austria will find
themselves out off by the flood.
Is Russia beginning to realise that it would have been better for her
to protect the Christians against Turkey rather than to allow them to
be slaughtered--that it would have been a more humane and far-seeing
policy to defend Greece and Crete instead of abandoning them to the
tender mercies of Turco-German policy? It is over-late to set the
clock back and to challenge the pre-eminent control which William II
has established over everything in the East.
December 25, 1897. [22]
None but the author of _Tartarin_ and his immortal "departures" could
have described for us the setting-forth of Prince Henry of Prussia for
China. The exchange of speeches between William and his brother makes
one of the most extravagant performances of modern times, when read in
conjunction with the actual facts, reduced by means of the telegraph to
their proper proportions, which may be summed up as follows: Taking up
the cause of two German missionaries who have suffered ill-treatment in
China, the Emperor of Germany sends an ultimatum to the Son of Heaven,
who yields on every point and carries his submission so far that he
runs the risk of compromising his relations with other Powers.
Consequently, there is an end of the dispute. The facts, you see, are
simple. But Prince Henry has made him ready to receive his solemn
investiture at the hands of his brother, the Emperor, by going to kiss
Prince Bismarck on his forehead and cheek ("forehead and cheek," as
Prince Henry unctuously remarks, "so often kissed by my grandfather,
William I"). Next Prince Henry goes to seek the blessing of General
Waldersee; then he has himself blessed by his mother, and by his aunt,
and later he will go and get blessed by his grandmother, Queen
Victoria. Slowly and solemnly each act and formality is accomplished
in accordance with the rites prescribed by William. The Imperial
missionary, the sailor transformed into a sort of bishop, sets forth.
The quest of the pirate-knight is to conquer all China, to become its
emperor, to fall upon it, inspired by the God of battles. What matters
it that the Chinese will not resist, that they will fall prostrate
before him? The grandeur of Tartarin's setting forth has nothing to do
with his getting there.
At Kiel all was prepared. Germany trembled with impatience and this is
what she heard:--
"Imperial power means sea power: the existence of the one depends upon
the other. The squadron which your ships will reinforce must act and
hold itself as the symbol of Imperial and maritime power; it must live
on good terms of friendship with all its comrades of the fifteen
foreign fleets out yonder, so as energetically to protect the interests
of the Fatherland against any one who would injure a German. Let every
European over them, every German merchant, and, above all, every
foreigner in the land to which we are going, or with whom we may have
to do, understand that the German Michael has firmly planted on this
soil his shield bearing the Imperial Eagle, so as to be able, once and
for all, to give his protection to all those who may require it of him.
May our fellow-countrymen out yonder be firmly convinced that, no
matter what their situation, be they priests or merchants, the
protection of the German Empire will be extended to them with all
possible energy by means of the warships of the Imperial fleet. And
should any one ever infringe our just rights strike him with your
mailed fist! If God so will He shall bind about your young brow
laurels of which none, throughout all Germany, shall be jealous!
"Firmly convinced that, following the example of good models (and
models are not lacking to our house, Heaven be praised!), you will
fulfil my wishes and my vows, I drink to your health and wish a good
journey, all success, and, a safe return! Hurrah for Prince Henry!"
Prince Henry's incredible reply was as follows--
"As children we grew up together. Later, when we grew to manhood, it
was given to us to look into each other's eyes and to remain faithfully
united to each other. For your Majesty the Imperial Crown has been
girt with thorns. Within my narrower sphere and with my feeble
strength strengthened by my vows, I have endeavoured to help your
Majesty as a soldier and a citizen. . . .
"I am very sincerely grateful to your Majesty for the trust which you
place in my feeble person. And I can assure your Majesty that it is
not laurels that tempt me, nor glory. One thing and one only leads me
on, it is to go and proclaim in a foreign land the gospel of the sacred
person of your Majesty and to preach it as well to those who will hear
it as to those who will not. It is this that I intend to blazon upon
my flag and wherever I may go. Our comrades share these sentiments!
Eternal life to our well-beloved Emperor!"
Such gems must be left intact. One should read them again and again,
line by line. Ponderous eloquence, fustian bombast, and mouldy pathos
combine with the display of pomp, to excite world-wide admiration.
This play of well-rehearsed parts is given before an audience of
generals, high officials and politicians, and the scene is set at Kiel,
that moving pedestal which the King of Prussia inaugurated when he made
all the fleets of Europe file past him.
William II looks upon history as a vulgar photographic plate designed
for the purpose of "taking" him in all his poses and in such places as
he may select and appoint.
A crusade is afoot: they go, they are gone, to preach "the gospel of
the sacred person of William II." A holy war is declared, to be waged
against a people which declines to fight. Never mind, they will find a
way to glory, be it only in the size of the slices of territory which
they will seize.
The two great conceptions of our Minister of Foreign Affairs are to act
as the honest broker in China between St. Petersburg and Berlin, and to
put the European Concert to rights. How often have I not told him that
all he has to gain by playing this game is a final surrender on the
part of France? Alas! my prophecy, already fulfilled in the East, is
very near to coming true in the Far East. If it should prove
otherwise, it would not be to anything in our foreign policy that our
good luck would be due, but to the fact that all Russia has come to
realise that she is likely to be Germany's dupe in the Far East, as she
has been in the East.
During the reign of the Emperor Alexander III and the Presidency of M.
Carnot, the Franco-Russian Alliance possessed a definite meaning,
because both these rulers understood that any pro-German tendencies in
their mutual policy must have constituted an obstacle to the perfect
union of the national policies of their two countries. France had
ceased to indulge in secret flirtations with Germany when the latter
was no longer Russia's ally. The plain and inevitable duty of our
Government was to promote an antagonism of interests between Germany
and Russia and to prove to the latter that France was loyally working
to promote her greatness above all else, on condition that she should
help us to hold our own position. If France had been governed as she
should have been, had we possessed a statesman at the Quai d'Orsay, our
diplomatic defeats at Canea, Athens and Constantinople, though possibly
inevitable, might have found a Court of Appeal; and France would
finally have been in a position of exceptional advantage in securing a
judgment favourable to our alliance.
Germany's brutal seizure in China of a naval station that the Chinese
Government had leased to Russia for the purposes of a winter harbour
for her fleet, foreshadows the sort of thing that William II is capable
of doing, under cover of an _entente_, so soon as Japan comes to
evacuate Wei-hai-wei, upon China's payment of the war indemnity.
Germany's scruples in dealing with "sick men," remind one of the
charlatans who either kill or cure, according to their estimate of
their prospects of being able to grab the inheritance.
[1] _La Nouvelle Revue_, January 15, 1896, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[2] _La Nouvelle Revue_, March 1, 1896, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[3] _La Nouvelle Revue_, June 1, 1896, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[4] _Ibid._, September 1, 1896.
[5] _La Nouvelle Revue_, March 1, 1897, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[6] La Nouvelle Revue, May 1, 1897, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[7] _La Nouvelle Revue_, June 1, 1897, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[8] William II had just sent 8000 marks to the fund for the victims of
the fire at the Charity Bazaar.
[9] Since Parisian journalists have dared to sing their cynical praises
in honour of the German Emperor, no considerations need restrain our
pen in defending the Tzars from the charges that have been brought
against them. These people ask: How is it that _your_ Emperor of
Russia has delayed so long in expressing to us his condolence? Why?
Let me explain. The fire at the Charity Bazaar broke out at 4 p.m. on
May 4, but the Russian Ambassador in Paris only telegraphed the news to
Count Mouravieff on the evening of May 5. The Emperor can only have
heard of the disaster on the 6th; it was then too late for him to
telegraph a direct message, and it was therefore thought best to send
instructions to the Russian Embassy. The blame in this matter falls
therefore upon M. de Mohrenheim. It was due to his methods of
proceeding that the Emperor learnt the news forty-eight hours late.
_Le Gaulois_, in a somewhat officious explanation, informs us that the
Russian Ambassador kept back his telegram because May 5 is the birthday
of the Empress, and because there is a superstition in Russia that it
is bad luck to get bad news on one's birthday. This explanation is
untrue; there is no such superstition. Did they conceal from Nicholas
II, on the day of his coronation, the terrible catastrophe at
Khadyskaje, which cost the lives of thousands of Russians; and did this
disaster prevent the Tzar from attending M. de Montebello's ball that
same evening? Moreover, M. de Mohrenheim should have telegraphed on
May 4 to Count Mouravieff, leaving to him the choice as to the hour for
communicating the information to the Tzar. M. de Mohrenheim is in the
habit of doing this sort of thing; when he chooses, his instincts are
dilatory. He behaved in exactly the same way, and with the same
object, on the day when M. Carnot was assassinated.
As soon as the news of that dreadful event reached the Quai d'Orsay,
the _Chef du Protocole_, (then Count Bourqueney) went in all haste to
the Russian Embassy, woke up the Ambassador, and informed him
officially of the disaster which had just overtaken France. It was
then two o'clock in the morning. Instead of telegraphing the news at
once to Alexander III, M. de Mohrenheim only did so at eleven o'clock
on the following day. Now, he knew perfectly well that, as the result
of this delay, the Tzar could only learn the news two days later
because, on the following day in the early morning, Alexander III was
starting with the whole Imperial family for Borki, where he was about
to open a memorial chapel on the spot where several years before an
attempt had been made on his life. The journey takes about forty-eight
hours, and as the destination of the Imperial train is always kept
secret, the Tzar could not receive the telegram until after his arrival
at Borki. It will be remembered that the delay which thus took place,
in the communication of the Tzar's sympathy with France in her
mourning, created an unfortunate impression, and enabled the German
Emperor to get in ahead of him by two days. The explanation of the
delay which occurred on that occasion should have been communicated to
the Havas Press Agency, and the Tzar's journey mentioned. This was
done by all foreign newspapers, but good care was taken that no word of
the sort should be published in Paris. It is, therefore, evident that,
if the Kaiser has been twice placed in the position which has enabled
him to get in well ahead of Alexander III and Nicholas II, the blame
must not be ascribed to any indifference, or lukewarm feelings on the
part of the friends of France. The most one can reproach them with is
to have retained at Paris an Ambassador about whose sentiments both
Tzars were fully informed long ago.
[10] "Truly, this man must be devoted to France," M. Emile Hinzelin
writes me, "he must love her dearly, since he keeps a strip of her, cut
from the living flesh, which still palpitates and bleeds. Whom can he
possibly hope to deceive? Mülhausen is not far from Paris, neither is
Colmar, nor Strasburg, nor Metz. It is from this unhappy town of Metz,
the most cruelly tortured of all, that he sends us his condolences and
his bag of money. As is usual with complete hypocrites, he is by no
means lacking in impudence. Never have the French people of
Alsace-Lorraine been accused with more bitter determination,
prosecuted, condemned and exploited by all possible means and
humiliated in every way. Never has William himself displayed such
unrestraint and wealth of insult in his speeches to the Army. I came
across him during a journey of mine some months ago, just as he was
unveiling a monument, commemorating the fatal year of 1870. With his
head thrown back, his eyes rolling in frenzy and rage, shaking his fist
towards France and with his voice coming in jerks, he uttered
imprecations, challenges and threats in wild confusion. Next day the
German Press published his speech, very carefully arranged, toned down,
and even changed in certain respects; but it still retained, in spite
of this diplomatic doctoring, an unmistakable accent of fierce and
determined hatred. There you have him in his true light, and in his
real sentiments, this man of sympathetic telegrams, of flowers, and
easy tears."
[11] _La Nouvelle Revue_, June 16, 1897, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[12] _La Nouvelle Revue_, July 1, 1897, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[13] _La Nouvelle Revue_, August 1, 1897, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[14] Amongst the latest proofs of this, here is one, I quote from a
German newspaper: "In 1870, when war was declared, the _Kölnische
Zeitung_ offered a reward of 500 thalers for the first capture of a
French gun. This prize was won by some soldiers of the first Silesian
Battalion of the 5th Regiment of Chasseurs, who, in their first fight
at Wissemburg, took possession of a cannon which bore the name of Le
Douay, after the commander-in-chief of a French Army Corps. It
occurred to these soldiers to erect a monument at the spot where this
gun was captured. The monument itself, consisting of a large rock from
the Vosges, was the gift of one of them, and on June 20 the
presentation of the monument took place, in the presence of Chasseurs
who had come from all parts of the country and of a large number of
officers. Twenty-seven years ago, the Chasseurs were there, on the
same spot, facing the enemy; to-day, they hail the heights of
Wissemburg as part of the great German Fatherland, reconquered after a
fierce and bloody struggle." It is evident that the Emperor is not the
only one to celebrate these anniversaries, that new ones are always
being invented, and that no humiliation will be spared us in
Alsace-Lorraine.
[15] _La Nouvelle Revue_, September 15, 1897, "Letters on Foreign
Policy."
[16] _La Nouvelle Revue_, October 1, 1897, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[17] This article appeared in the _Petit Marseillais_ under the title
of "The Gulls."
[18] _La Nouvelle Revue_, October 1, 1897, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[19] A friend writes to me from Germany: "You cannot conceive the
effects produced upon me by the _incredible_ development of industrial
enterprise throughout all Germany. Factories seem to spring out of the
ground; in all the large towns that one visits, smoke ascends from
hundreds of chimneys. The workshops that manufacture steam-engines are
so overloaded with work, that orders take more than a year to fill. I
went all over the offices of the Patents Bureau in Berlin--a place as
large as our Ministry of Commerce, with a library more complete than
that of our poor Conservatoire of arts and trades. Alas, we are but
pigmies beside these giants! Everywhere one sees evidence of order,
discipline and patience, qualities in which we are somewhat lacking.
But I am not down-hearted, and with the help of a few colleagues, we
are going to try and propagate some of the ideas we have learned from
our neighbours and which may be of benefit to our country."
[20] _La Nouvelle Revue_, December 1, 1897, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[21] _La Nouvelle Revue_, December 15, 1897, "Letters on Foreign
Policy."
[22] _La Nouvelle Revue_, January 2, 1898, "Letters on Foreign Policy."