Colonel Lord Denbigh, in an address before the Royal Colonial Institute,
London, recently told how German designs upon the Island of Madeira were
checkmated by Great Britain in 1906. He said it was more or less a piece
of secret history outside diplomatic and naval circles. At Madeira, he
said, the Germans first took a hotel. Then they wanted a convalescent
home, and, finally, desired to establish certain vested interests. They
demanded certain concessions from Portugal. The German Ambassador, early
in 1906, called on the Portuguese Government, and said that, if the
concessions asked for were not granted, the Kaiser would send his navy
up the Tagus to Lisbon. The Portuguese Government telegraphed to
England, and that night the British Admiralty were on the point of
mobilizing the whole resources of the British fleet. They thought of
another way of meeting the situation, however, and sent the Atlantic
fleet close up against the Portuguese coast. They let the Kaiser know
what had happened through an undiplomatic source, with the result that
next day the German Ambassador had to call again on the Portuguese
Government and explain that he had exceeded his instructions.