1898
The encroaching expansion of Germany--When will there be a determined
coalition against Germany?--The crime of Jules Ferry--William II
checked in his attempt to obtain a representative of the Holy See at
Constantinople--Leo XIII confirms France in her protectorate over
Christians in the East--William's journey to Palestine.
January 9, 1898. [1]
Shall I be told that I repeat myself if, once a fortnight, I say to
every good citizen, anxious about the many dangers that threaten his
country, "Beware of this Germany, whose numbers and wealth and strength
are ever-increasing and multiplying?"
Let each one of us do all that lies in his power not to assist in any
way the industry and commerce of Germany, which devour and destroy our
own. Let us enlighten those near to us who in their turn will
enlighten their neighbours, and let us stimulate a movement of
resistance to the invasion of German produce of every kind; let every
one of us contribute his share to the strengthening of public opinion
for the struggle against the spirit of Germanism, which is gradually
undermining the national spirit of France. May the voter insist that
his representative should not keep his eyes fixed within the narrow
semi-circle of parliamentary affairs and that he should observe beyond
it the continual retreat of our diplomacy before the advance of German
predominance.
Even the most limited intelligence can now perceive that, even if we
felt ourselves powerless to pursue our secular policy for the defence
and protection of Christians in the East, nothing compelled us to
witness the marriage contract between Germany and the Grand Turk, to
overwhelm them both with good wishes for their perfect union, to lend
them our aid in establishing their perfect understanding.
What need is there for us to seek to reconcile Germany and Russia in
China? Germany could not have rendered any valuable assistance to our
ally in the Middle Kingdom, for she brings to Asia nothing but her
insatiable greed, and had it not been for her reconciliation with
Russia, she would never have dared to gratify it. Once sure of the
confidence of the young Tzar, with what haste and brutality did William
II proceed to display his long teeth! So there he is, definitely in
possession of Kiao-chao Bay, for only the utterly credulous will
believe in any retrocession of this so-called leased territory, in
recovering from Germany this admirable commercial harbour, this
marvellous strategical position.
February 6, 1898. [2]
Lies, insolence, polite hypocrisy, underhand plotting, audacity,
cynicism and cruelty, these are the ingredients that go to the making
of Prussian statecraft.
It must be admitted that the Emperor-King of Prussia is growing.
Cutting himself clear from the timid souls who are still possessed of a
sense of right, he assumes the proportions of a Machiavelli and a
Mephistopheles combined. William the Incalculable, as his subjects
call him, develops to his own advantage the influences and the power of
evil. What new distress will he bring to Christian souls, this
applauder of the Armenian massacres, when, after having covered with
his favour, supported by his strength, guided by his advice and
encouraged by his friendship, the assassin who reigns at
Constantinople, he makes his pilgrimage to Palestine, escorted in
triumph by the same soldiers who, by order of the Red Sultan, have
killed, tortured and tormented Christians? We shall see him kneeling
before the tomb of Christ, surrounded by Turks with bloodstained hands,
when he goes to take possession of those much-coveted Holy Places,
which shall make him, the prop and stay of the exterminator of
Christians, sole arbiter of Christianity in the East. Can the heavens
that look down on Mount Sinai smile on William II, sheltering in the
shadow of Turkish bayonets? When, at Jerusalem, he celebrates the
opening of the Prussian Church (whose corner-stone was laid by
Frederick III, repentant of his military glory), will not this man of
insatiable pride receive some sign of warning from above? No, it
sufficeth perhaps that he should go forward to meet his fate. Is it
not the same for all evil-doers, no matter to what heights they may
attain, who only climb that they may be hurled to lower depths?
The challenges that men fling at the ideal structure of the principles
of humanity are like the stones that children throw at monuments. They
accumulate and serve to consolidate that which they were meant to
destroy.
No one can reproach William II with inactivity, and in this the monarch
at Berlin is of one mind with Germany. He draws the nation after him;
it follows blindly on dizzy paths of adventure and the pursuit of
wealth.
There is this about Germany to inspire us with fear--and one wonders
how it is that Russia and France have not been so terrified long ago as
to make them leave no stone unturned in the Near and Far East, to
exorcise the perils with which her earth-hunger threatens them--that
she is just as greedy as England in the politics of business, has just
the same jealous desires for financial and commercial expansion, but
that, in addition, she has hankerings of another sort: for glory, for
conquests, for the annexations necessary to feed and satisfy her
imperious military spirit. When we consider the innumerable objects
for which Germany is working in the Near and Far East, we are compelled
to astonishment at the narrow limits of the field of action that she
leaves for other nations.
Prior to 1870, every country in Europe possessed its own distinguishing
features, its power, its ambition, or its dominating influences.
England was the first, of commercial and industrial nations. Russia
was the great leader of Oriental policy, the predestined heir to Asia.
Austria was the supreme German power. France was a military nation and
at the same time the eldest daughter of the Church; she was the
undisputed protector of Catholic Missions all over the world and umpire
in most of the great international quarrels. To-day, Germany is at
once all that England, Russia, Austria and France were. She holds
every monopoly, centralises power of every kind, and destroys all power
of movement in others. When shall we have a determined coalition
against Germany? Herein lies the only hope of liberating Europe from
the claws of Prussia and recovering something of the lion's share which
William takes to himself.
February 22, 1898. [3]
By what process of mental aberration has it come to pass that our
Minister of Foreign Affairs has placed himself under the wing of
William II at Constantinople? His one object should have been to
combine every effort on the part of Russia and France to keep Germany
out of the East.
There would be no parallel to such a deplorable lack of foresight, if
our diplomacy had not provided it in the Far East, if it had not helped
to prove to Germany, there also, that she was becoming indispensable in
China, that the prestige of Russia combined with that of France was
insufficient to cope with the situation and to solve the difficulties
that had arisen with the Son of Heaven, with Japan and England.
The blindness which has characterised our foreign policy, which, since
Jules Ferry took it in hand, has made us labour continuously with our
own hands for the greatness of Germany, as if to justify our humility
in her eyes, this will remain the crime of the initiator of an
anti-national policy, the crime of M. Jules Ferry. It will also remain
the irreparable fault committed by those who have adopted the
lamentable policy which consists in following in the train of the
conqueror once the ransom has been paid.
March 9, 1898. [4]
William II will have his sea-going fleet, and be able to challenge the
fleets of the Great Powers and meet them on equal terms. He had meant
to carry with a high hand his seven years' naval construction plan, in
the same way that Bismarck obtained his seven years' military programme
in spite of the opposition of the German Catholics. And now behold the
German Budget Committee has sanctioned the raising of the money for his
warships in six years!
As to the projected reform of the military code and the complete
re-organisation of the army on a homogeneous basis, the Emperor-King of
Prussia is not in the least disturbed. No doubt Bavaria, Würtemberg
and certain other Confederated States will claim to keep their
autonomous armies by virtue of the Constitution of 1871, but the King
of Prussia is quite determined, on his part, to administer the German
army under a single military code. Bavaria, they tell us, will never
yield. Bavaria will yield. The German victories of 1870-71 created
the German Empire and every Empire must of necessity be centralised or
else become once more a Confederation.
United Teutondom, Germany, is embodied in Prussia. The Bavarians, like
all the other Saxons, sing the national hymn "Germany, Germany, ever
and ever greater." What, then, is the good of all their talking at
Münich? If Germany is to grow ever greater, she cannot have several
centres of influence. Therefore Bavaria will submit.
April 1, 1898. [5]
Notwithstanding the fact that he is a Protestant, William is impressed
by the greatness of the rôle that Leo XIII might play in Christianity;
and, therefore, brings all the influences at his command to bear upon
him. Through all his official and officious agents he tells him that
atheistic France, in the hands of laymen, can no longer be the eldest
daughter of the Church; that the Holy Father is the Head of
Christianity throughout the world, and that in the East and Far East he
should make use of those who are most Christian; that an Emperor who is
a believer, even though he be a Protestant, is much better fitted to be
the protector of Christians in China and in Turkey than a Republic
without faith. The only possible influences in China and in Turkey are
religious influences, but economic questions follow in their wake, and
the German Emperor, King of Prussia, means to appear before the peoples
of the Near and Far East, in the light of his spectacular proceedings
at Kiel, of the triumphant audacity of Kiao-chao, and of the splendour
with which he is going to invest his journey in Palestine, as the
Controller of their destinies, the defender of their rights and the
supplier of such goods as they may wish to purchase.
It is possible that William II may be able to persuade Leo XIII that he
should entrust him with the Holy Places and work together with him in
China. In any event, the Catholics of Germany are now a long way from
the _Kulturkampf_; they will vote the naval budget by an ample majority
and Germany will become the great Naval Power, and at the same time the
great Military Power, so that in the end she may become the wealthiest
of the Commercial Powers: this is the dream of William, King of Prussia!
June 5, 1898. [6]
William II has become attached to the East, the scene of his chief
diplomatic successes, a part of the world in which his Imperial word is
law. He will continue to shower his favours upon it, and disturb
everything there, so as to be able to fish in troubled waters. He will
ransack everything for his purposes, even that very vague thing,
homogeneous Turkey, based on the Mussulman faith. At this moment, he
is planning I know not what kind of acceptance of the Cross by the
Crescent, just as he planned Prince Henry's Chinese crusade. If the
Cuban war did not detain him in Europe, he would have gone to
Palestine, with a cavalcade of some sort which would have been an event
in the history of Christianity. And he will do it yet.
What does Russia, so jealous for the Holy Places, think of the
intrusion into them of the German Kaiser? He is master there. Here is
one of the most striking proofs of the fact: the Mussulmans have a
perfect horror of bells, but the new German Church erected at Jerusalem
is equipped with a fine peal of them. That which neither Christian
kings, nor even Tzars, were able to obtain, William II has achieved.
And such is the idea of force with which the German Emperor is
associated in their minds, that even the most fanatical Mussulmans have
bent the knee in submission to this sacrilege.
July 12, 1898. [7]
The unseverable unity of Pan-Germanism is the ruling formula with the
Germans of Austria. Are they not continually threatening the Hapsburgs
that they will secede if the supremacy of their German minority over
the Slav majority is not maintained? They do not even take the trouble
to lower their voices when they cry to the neighbouring Empire: "Before
very long we shall be yours."
Since the defeat of France, Germany's ambitions have grown to a height
out of all proportion even to the importance of her conquest. On all
sides she has cast covetous eyes, stretched out her grasping hand in
all directions. For only France, while still intact, possessed the
courage to protect other nations from the all-consuming German appetite.
That Germany should have captured the monstrous friendship of a French
Minister for the Christian-slaying Sultan! Can any one possibly find
any absolution, any excuses, for such a deplorable mismanagement of our
material and moral interests in the East?
Gradually, unless something can be done to check these unfortunate
tendencies of our diplomacy, William II will announce that the time has
come for the apotheosis, _à la turque,_ of a Protestant Emperor.
And then, all of a sudden after this gradual preparation, the Catholics
and the Holy Places of the Orthodox will be delivered over to one of
the only forces of Christianity, to that which gives absolution for
murder and protects the slayer of Christians.
Race, nationality, politics, trade, influence and guarantees, all may
be summed up in Oriental countries in a single word: Religion! Must,
then, a government seek to advance the cause of its State religion, not
from religious conviction, but in the spirit which seeks to retain the
privileges and wealth it has acquired and its powers of self-defence?
Our new Minister of Foreign Affairs understands these things--he has
pondered over them long: will he not, therefore, seek and find in the
complexities of Oriental policy the factor of immediate and personal
advantage which is calculated to minister to boundless self-conceit?
He will endeavour quietly to untie the least compact of the knots tied
at Stamboul and Berlin; he will replace them by other knots, tied more
closely by himself. He will display the cleverness of those who make
no effort to be clever, and he will not lack clearness of sight and
precision for the simple reason that he loves his country better than
himself.
July 25, 1898. [8]
The high approval bestowed by Germany upon all the subterfuges of the
diplomacy of Abdul Hamid, the bankruptcy of the European Concert, the
embarrassment in which each one of the Governments that compose this
strange Concert finds itself when confronted with the machiavelism of
the Turk, all these have produced a situation intolerable for those
statesmen who have any regard for the dignity of their country.
Our new Minister of Foreign Affairs, upon coming to the Quai d'Orsay,
felt keenly the humiliation inflicted upon France by the persistent
weakness of our policy. From the outset he succeeded in foiling the
Sultan's dangerous scheme for securing a representative of the Holy See
at Constantinople which would have abolished at one stroke the whole
French protectorate over Christians in the East.
Cardinal Ledochowsky, Prefect of Propaganda, with the help of the
prospective Nuncio at Constantinople, and in order to emphasise the
collapse of French influence in the East, was making his plans in
readiness for William II to assume, solemnly and definitely, a
protectorate over the Christians. Already the Kaiser's trusty friend
at the Vatican had decided to instruct the Catholic clergy in Palestine
to render exceptional honours to the German Emperor on the occasion of
his journey to the Holy Places. But the Council of the Congregation,
in plenary session, has opposed the wishes of Cardinal Ledochowsky, and
so there will be no nomination of a representative of the Holy See at
the Court of the Grand Turk. The German Emperor must needs be content
with the honours "usually accorded to reigning princes." This is the
kind of rebuff that neither Abdul Hamid nor William II readily forgives.
One of the German Emperor's chief joys is to break things. To bewilder
people by the suddenness of his resolutions, to court all risks, to
proclaim his power, to sow the wind and reap the whirlwind: these are
the pleasures of the German Emperor, King of Prussia. There is no need
for me to repeat the strange Neronian stories that are whispered in
Germany concerning certain incidents of William's sea-voyages and
journeys in Norway. A number of mysterious deaths following one upon
the other provide sufficient material for these tales. For those who,
like myself, have never ceased to regard William II as a creature of
unbridled pride, it is enough from time to time to note one of his
actions, so as to form our judgment of the man and to be able to
predict to what heights of complacent admiration for himself and of
severity for others he is likely to attain hereafter.
August 10, 1898. [9]
Created by force, the unity of Germany is maintained by force. On the
day that another force arises, Germany will collapse, for her cohesion
has only been attained and cemented by cunning and contempt for the
truth; she has lived by the sword and she shall perish by the sword.
It is said that Bismarck was the real obstacle to an understanding
between England and Germany. It is certainly true that neither France
nor Russia has anything to gain by England's throwing herself into the
arms of Germany. Mr. Chamberlain is ready to do all in his power to
draw England into the Triple Alliance, and William II, no longer
dreading the criticisms of Varzin, would now accept with pleasure the
proposals which he seemed to disdain. Nevertheless, the real rival
that threatens England's future is Germany.
The German peril, industrial and commercial, inspires England with
fear, and we should know how to turn this situation to our advantage.
Let us do all we can to prevent an _entente_ being arranged which would
deprive us of a card and add one to the enemy's hand.
A war in China between Russia and Great Britain, no matter how it might
end, would fulfil Germany's dream of being delivered from Russia in the
East and the Balkans. This is precisely what William II desires and
seeks--herein pursuing Bismarckian tactics. France and Russia must,
therefore, exercise all their skill to prevent it, and go exceeding
warily amidst the intrigues that are now afoot.
What has been the result of the Note which the representatives of the
Powers have handed to the Porte, on the initiative of France and
Russia, stating that they will never permit the landing of new Turkish
forces in Crete? Merely to prove that Austria and Germany refuse to be
parties to these proceedings, and to speak plainly, support the Sultan.
Ah, if Russia could only be kept busy in China! What a godsend if
France could be left alone to play the part of this admirable European
Concert, the genial notion of our last Minister of Foreign Affairs!
Germany alone secures her ends, profits by all the disturbances she
creates, waxes and grows fat, and William II smiles at the thought of a
world-wide kingdom ruled by himself alone. Once master of the whole
earth, he may come to stand face to face with God.
September 11, 1898. [10]
On the occasion of a gala dinner at Hanover, William II, always in a
hurry to display his likes and everlastingly parading his dislikes, did
not fail to seize the opportunity of being polite to England and
uncivil to France. He proposed a toast to the health of the 10th Army
Corps, recalling to memory the brotherhood of arms between Englishmen
and Germans at Waterloo; he glorified the victory of the Sirdar,
Kitchener, in the Soudan.
A few days later, speaking of peace, the German Emperor, King of
Prussia, let fly his Parthian arrow at his august brother, the Tzar.
At Porta, in Westphalia, he said: "Peace can only be obtained by
keeping a trained army ready for battle. May God grant that 'e may
always be able to work for the maintenance of peace by the use of this
good and sharp-edged weapon."
Nothing could have been more bluntly expressed; it is now perfectly
clear that the reduction of armaments has no place in the dreams of
William II. I know not by what subterfuge he will pretend to approve
of a Congress "to prepare for universal peace," but I know that, for
him, the dominating and absorbing interest of life lies in conquest, in
victories, in war. Turkey victorious, America victorious, England
victorious--these are the lights that lead him on. He excels at
gathering in the inheritance won for him by his own people, and he
likes to have a share also in the successes of others. He has had his
share in Turkey and has filed his application in America. He is
already beginning with England in China and speculating with Great
Britain in Delagoa Bay, under the eyes of his greatly distressed
friends of the Transvaal.
Amidst a hundred other schemes, the German Emperor, King of Prussia, is
by no means neglecting his apotheosis at Jerusalem. We are told even
the details of his clothes, which combine the military with the civil,
"An open tunic of light cloth, brown coloured; tight trousers, boots
and sword-scabbard of yellow leather, the insignia of a German General
of the Guards, a helmet winged with the Prussian eagle." A truly pious
rig-out forsooth, in which to go and kneel before the tomb of Christ!
They say that, in order to judge of the effect of this costume, William
II has posed for his photograph forty times.
The German Church in Palestine certainly never expected to see the
_summus episcopus_ adopting an attitude of extreme humility in that
country. If any simple-minded Lutheran were to address the Kaiser in
the streets of Jerusalem, after the manner of the Hungarian workman,
who saw the archbishop primate, all glittering with gold in his gala
coach, passing over the Buda bridge, William II would answer him in the
same style as did the archbishop: "That is just the sort of carriage in
which Jesus used to drive," exclaimed the workman. The archbishop
heard him, and leaning from the carriage door, replied: "Jesus, my good
fellow, was the son of a carpenter. I am the son of a magnate, and
Archbishop Primate of Hungary."
William II undoubtedly believes that he does Christ an honour in going
to visit Him. He goes in the full pride of a personality which sees in
itself all the great events of the past, gathered together as in an
historic procession. He goes, with all the pomp and circumstance of a
glorious omnipotence, he, whose diplomacy has made a protégé of the
Khalif and a footstool of the Crescent--he goes, I say, to manifest
himself as the Emperor of Christianity.
Was all then to be lost to us at a stroke--the Crusades, all the moral
and economic interests of France in the East, that secular protectorate
of which we, the possessors, make so light whilst William II devotes to
its conquest all the resources of his skill and cunning? Not so! Our
Minister of Foreign Affairs was on the alert. William XI, who is an
artistic walking advertisement, designed, like a Mucha or a Cheret, for
the German market, has now had evidence of the fact that, if religion
is an article of export for him, anti-clericalism is nothing of the
kind for us. Our interests in the East have been protected and
preserved. The Pope of Lutheranism has not been able to silence the
Pope of Rome. The radical Republic which represents France remains the
grand-daughter of Saint Louis. On hearing the authoritative news of
William II's journey to Jerusalem, Cardinal Langénieux, Archbishop of
Rheims, begged Leo XIII for "a reassuring word." Up to the present,
the Holy See has recognised our Protectorate in the East as a simple
fact; to-day it is recognised as a right. Here is the "reassuring
word," the answer given by Leo XIII to Cardinal Langénieux:--
"We know that for centuries the French nation's protectorate has been
established in Eastern Countries and that it has been confirmed by
treaties between governments. Therefore no change whatsoever should be
made in this matter. This nation's protectorate, wherever it is
exercised, should be religiously maintained and missionaries must be
notified accordingly, so that, if they have need of help, they may have
recourse to the Consuls and other agents of the French nation."
At their last Congress the German Catholics--we know that the Catholics
constitute a third of the population of Germany and that their
representatives can hold in check the Imperial policy in the
Reichstag--openly expressed their sympathy for Leo XIII, for the "noble
exile at Rome, who is compelled, from the day of his elevation to the
Papacy, to pledge himself never to cross the threshold of the Vatican
alive." When William II is compelled hereafter to make concessions to
the Centre in the Reichstag, his allies, the Italians, will be well
advised to give the matter their attention.
September 26, 1898. [11]
All the actions of that modern Lohengrin, William II, derive their
inspiration from a Wagnerian theory concerning the harmony of discords.
This friend of the Sultan, soon to be the guest of the Khedive,
congratulates Kitchener, the Sirdar, whose deeds are the blood-stained
consecration of England's machinations in Mussulman territory.
Almost at the identical moment that he sent his telegram to the Sirdar
to celebrate a British victory, he said at the opening of the new
harbour at Stettin: "I rejoice that the ancient spirit of Pomerania is
still alive in the present generation, urging it from the land towards
the sea. _Our future lies on the water_."
Queen of the Seas, take warning!
We know how William II is wont to express his pacific ideas and what is
his conception of the reduction of armaments--with blustering threats
and hosannahs in praise of rifles and cannons. On the subject of
peace, the German mind has long since been fixed in its ideas. One
cannot sum them up better than in the following quotation from a Berlin
newspaper.
"At the Paris Salon in 1895 there was a great picture by Danger
entitled 'The Great Authors of Arbitration and Peace,' depicting all
those, from Confucius and Buddha down to the Tzar Alexander III, who
have laboured in the cause of peace. In a note which explained the
painter's work, it was said to be impossible to depict all the friends
of arbitration and peace. It seems to me that such friends of peace as
William II and Prince Bismarck should not have been forgotten, for, by
the Treaty of Frankfort, they have brought about a lasting peace and
have obtained the power required to maintain it."
Between this German conception of peace and ours, is there not a gulf
that nothing can ever bridge?
October 23, 1898. [12]
William II is in the seventh heaven. One by one he dons his shining
garments, which the eastern sun gladdens with silver and gold. He has
made another trip on his swan, that is to say, on the white
_Hohenzollern_, which carries Lohengrin to the four corners of the
earth. The German Emperor's departure from Venice was a master-stroke
of scenic effects, one of those subversions of history, to which the
eccentric monarch of Berlin is so passionately addicted. Nothing
indeed could have been more original than to make the sons of the
ancient Venetians, hereditary foes of the Turk, welcome a Protestant
monarch who is the friend of the chief slaughterer of Catholics.
A Christian Emperor landing at Stamboul accompanied by his Empress,
obtaining permission from the Sultan to hold a review of troops on a
_Selamlik_ day, acclaimed by the Mussulman people and soldiery, exalted
amidst all the pomp and splendour of the East, feasting his eyes on
magic colours, the hero of unrivalled entertainments, surely it is
enough to raise to a frenzy of pride the potentate who has made such
things possible.
But amidst these pomps and vanities, William is by no means neglectful
of his skilful and lucrative business schemes. It is said that he has
secured a concession for a commercial harbour at Haïdar Pasha, near
Scutari. Haïdar Pasha is the railhead of the Anatolian line, which
belongs to a German company. Will the great commercial traveller,
William II be able to persuade his sweet friend the Slayer, to make him
a grant of the coaling station which he covets at Haïfa? The Sultan
will refuse him nothing. Will France and Russia have time to spare for
lodging protests, their attention having been so skilfully diverted to
Fashoda on the one hand and to China on the other? Is it not written
that the two nations must unite forces if they would check the schemes
of him who aspires to world-wide dominion over religion and commerce?
Though France and Russia have sometimes quarrelled over the question of
the Holy Places, they cannot regard without anxiety the triumphant
entry of the third thief upon the scene.
England, too, is busy with Fashoda and does not seem to be in such a
position, diplomatically speaking, at Constantinople, as to be able to
oppose the cession by Turkey to Germany of a Mediterranean harbour.
Moreover, the manner in which she has grabbed Cyprus leaves her without
much voice to talk of the _status quo_ in the Mediterranean.
William II in Palestine! This man with his mania for glittering pomp
and grandeur going to kneel at the stable in Bethlehem; the proudest
and most conceited of men, the most puffed up with vainglory, treading
the paths trodden by the feet of the Humblest; the most egotistical and
least brotherly, coming to bow before Him who is brotherhood
personified: could any spectacle be sadder for true Christians?
November 10, 1898. [13]
The Imperial pilgrim has left the Holy City, _El Cods_, as the Turks
themselves have it. Amidst the silence of its holy places his
turbulent majesty manifested itself in every direction. He prayed,
discoursed, telegraphed, wrote and conducted inaugural functions. He
made all the Stations of the Cross and preached to the German Colony in
Jerusalem, telling them that amidst such surroundings "they should be
possessed of a perpetual inclination to do good." And forthwith he
proceeded to speak of his great friendship for the Sultan, for the
individual who methodically suppresses Christians in his empire by
killing them.
William has seen the tomb of David, which infidels may not approach,
and whose stones only Mussulmans may lawfully tread. The very dear
friend of Abdul Hamid, he whom the Turkish troops salute with the same
words as they use for the Sultan, has written to the Holy See,
announcing his gift of a plot of land to the German Catholic
Association in the Holy Land and adding "that he was happy to have been
able to prove to Catholics that their religious interests lie very near
to his heart."
Leo XIII might have replied: "Sire--Let your Majesty do even more for
Catholics; persuade your friend the Sultan to cease from killing them."
November 24, 1898. [14]
William II's journey to Palestine has completely proved the thorough
understanding which he has established with Abdul Hamid--that he should
take possession of the Holy Places, as head of the Lutheran religion
and as representative of the Catholics of his Empire. France is,
therefore, no longer _de facto_ protector of Christians in the East,
since she is not required to protect the German Catholics, now directly
protected by their Emperor. In the Far East, William II had already
refused to allow France to protect his Catholic subjects. The
advantages which he derived from this decision were too great for him
to abandon them elsewhere, since the murder of a single missionary had
brought him Kiao-ohao.
Thus, then, ended this journey, accomplished in pomp and splendour,
applauded at the same time by German Christians and by the slayers of
Christians. William II has attained his object in the matter of
religious influence and of the emigration of German colonists, whom the
Sultan will be pleased to receive with open arms. The Kaiser paid his
reckoning liberally by proposing the health of the Sultan at Damascus
and by declaring his intention to help and sustain the Master and the
Khalif of 300 million Mussulmans. The seed of the words thus spoken
will sprout and will inspire encouragement for every kind of revolt in
the Mussulman subjects of France--and, for that matter, of England also.
Whilst William II was paying his devotions at the Holy Places, giving
all the impression of a pious benevolent Head of the Church, a number
of horrible evictions were being carried out in Schleswig in his name
and by his orders. Hundreds of families, dragged from their native
soil, from their homes and kindred, were led away to the frontier on
the pretext that they still clung to their belief in a "Southern
Jutland." Day after day, for the last thirty-four years, on one
pretext or another--and sometimes without any--the Danes have been
discouraged from living in Schleswig. Either life has gradually been
made impossible for them, or else they have been suddenly compelled to
leave the house where they were born, where their elders hoped to die
in peace, and their places have been filled by German colonists. A
terrible exodus, shameful cruelty! But "Germany for the Germans" is an
axiom before which all must bow, big and little, rich and poor.
December 10, 1898. [15]
Mr. Chamberlain's coquetting with Germany has ceased for the time
being. _The Times_, in contrast with its former hymns of praise, now
contents itself with asking William II not to make difficulties for
England in Europe or beyond the seas, and it adds that a friendly
attitude would serve the interests of German subjects in the Colonies
much better than one of hostility.
The passage in the German Emperor's Speech from the Throne which refers
to China is not calculated, it would seem, to appease Great Britain's
irritation. "Germany's Colonies," said the Kaiser, "are in a state of
prosperous development. At Kiao-chao steps have already been taken to
improve the economic conditions of the protectorate. The frontier has
been definitely settled by agreement with the Chinese Government. A
free port has been opened and work upon it has begun. The construction
of the railway which will link up the Protectorate with the Hinterland,
will be commenced in the near future. Relying on the old treaties
still in force, and on the new rights acquired under the treaty
concluded with China on March 6, 1898, my Government will also
endeavour in future, whilst carefully respecting the lawful rights
acquired by other Powers, _to develop economic relations with China,
which, year by year, will become more important, and to secure to
German subjects their full share in the activities directed towards
opening the Far East to Europe, from the economic point of view_."
Nor is the influence acquired by William II and his subjects in the
Ottoman Empire, emphasised by this same Speech from the Throne, of a
nature to reassure England with regard to her projects in the East. In
the Near, as in the Far, East she sees herself being supplanted by
Germany, and this by methods identical with her own, against which,
therefore, she fights more disadvantageously than against France and
Russia, more foolishly chivalrous.
William II, who had replied with insolent sharpness to a legitimate
claim advanced by a certain princeling of the Confederated States--the
Regent of Lippe-Detmold, Count Ernest von Lippe-Biesterfeld, has had
occasion to see that public opinion severely condemns his unjustifiable
action. The Confederated Sovereigns and Princes perceive therein a
menace to themselves, and have rallied energetically in defence of one
of their number. The masses, seeing an insignificant princeling
oppressed and threatened by the biggest of them, have sided with the
weaker. On his return from Jerusalem, William found the situation
extremely strained, and he endeavoured to relieve it by concessions of
various kinds. None of them, however, were regarded as adequate.
Thereupon, with the suppleness which costs him so little when it is a
question of sacrificing his most devoted and valuable servant, the
Emperor, King of Prussia, sacrificed Herr von Lucanus, the head of his
private household, an almost legendary personage who had had a hand in
every important act of William's life. It was he who carried the
Imperial ultimatum to Von Bismarck and escaped unhurt from the hands of
the infuriated giant.
Herr von Lucanus had not been sacrificed to the violent sarcasms of the
Chancellor after his reconciliation with William II; he seemed to be
unassailable until, simply for having addressed a few improper lines,
at the Emperor's dictation, to a minor prince, he is removed from the
anonymous post which was one of the occult powers of Potsdam. The
august Confederates may consider themselves satisfied.
[1] _La Nouvelle Revue_, January 15, 1898, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[2] _La Nouvelle Revue_, February 16, 1898, "Letters on Foreign
Policy."
[3] _La Nouvelle Revue_, March 1, 1898, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[4] _La Nouvelle Revue_, March 16, 1898, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[5] _La Nouvelle Revue_, April 1, 1898, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[6] _La Nouvelle Revue_, June 16, 1898, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[7] _La Nouvelle Revue_, July 16, 1898, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[8] _La Nouvelle Revue_, August 1, 1898, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[9] _La Nouvelle Revue_, August 16, 1898, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[10] _La Nouvelle Revue_, September 15, 1898, "Letters on Foreign
Policy."
[11] _La Nouvelle Revue_, October 1, 1898, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[12] _La Nouvelle Revue_, November 1, 1898, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[13] _La Nouvelle Revue_, November 15, 1898, "Letters on Foreign
Policy."
[14] _La Nouvelle Revue_, December 1, 1898, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[15] _La Nouvelle Revue_, December 15, 1898, "Letters on Foreign
Policy."