Wilhelm II

“ Yet, one thing these letters disclose without any doubt: never has the KAISER occupied himself with schemes of attack, with preparations for the world war. The dominating thought in every instance is how to assure peace. That he wanted to see Germany and Russia as the center of the league which was to guarantee peace, needs no defense. For he had to transact German, not French or English politics. ”

“ Russia was the leading power in the common action of Germany, France and Russia against Japan; no instigation from Germany was needed to make Russia discover her interests in eastern Asia and stand up for them with increasing obstinacy. If the KAISER, in language rich with enthusiasm, extolled the CZAR as the author of these new political tendencies, we might well find in this fact a hope for deliverance from the nightmare which Russia had constituted for Europe, as well as a hope for common advantages, as is clearly shown by the wish expressed for a German coaling station in the orient. ”

“ May heaven comfort you in your grief and give you strength for your heavy duties, and may a long and peaceful reign give you the opportunity of looking after the welfare of your subjects. The sympathy and real grief at the so untimely end of your lamented father in my country will have shown you how strong the monarchical instinct is and how Germany feels for you and your subjects. ”

“ He will guarantee that Western frontier; in plain language, he will not attack Russia when she can no longer defend herself but at a price, and that price is a Commercial Treaty. Now there are treaties and treaties, but this particular Treaty was, in fact, a Treaty of Exploitation -- of such exploitation, indeed, that no country -- at least no country not a Free Trade country -- would have submitted to it unless under compulsion. Russia was greatly dependent upon the German market for the sale of her corn, and in 1902 Germany had raised the duty on Russian corn from 43 to 78 per cent. ”

“ That Europe had to be thankful to you that you so quickly had perceived the great future for Russia in the cultivation of Asia and in the Defense of the Cross and the old Christian European culture against the inroads of the Mongols and Buddhism, that it was natural that if Russia was engaged in this tremendous work you wished to have Europe quiet and your back free ”

“ It shows to evidence how necessary it is that we should hold together, and also that there is existent a base of common interests upon which all European nations may work in joint action for the welfare of all as is shown by the adherence of France to us two. May the conviction that this can be done without touching a nations honour, take root more and more firmly, then no doubt the fear of war in Europe will dissipate more and more. ”

“ Thus the Imperial letters make an historical document of the highest value, providing the key to the complex and hidden machinery of European international policies during the ten years preceding the Great War, which was their inevitable and disastrous consummation. In as far as the GERMAN EMPEROR himself is concerned, there is little scope for conjecture, inasmuch as he condemns himself with his own hand. History as a general rule is largely a matter of piecing together available evidence and filling in the gaps with ingenious and learned hypotheses. ”

“ Common sense would have told him that world conquest is no longer practicable. Common sense would have warned him that to extort too much from a neighbor would annul the very purpose of the extortion. ”

“ The EMPEROR, in fact, is to threaten his Ministers with Siberia if they do not sign a treaty disastrous to Russia! And the KAISER thinks that the CZAR will be amused by such a proposal! We are left wondering what CZAR replied to his "real friend," but we may imagine that the reply was tinged with sarcasm.
To the Liberal Manchester Guardian the letters show the Kaiser as a contemptible figure, "a mediavalist fanatic on a modern throne." He is characterized as an "anti-Liberal," an. "arch-Tory," a most irresponsible person in one of the most responsible offices in the world. ”

“ As matters stand, after the event, the war has brought no profit even to the victors, but a wide calamity and a profound disease which cannot be healed in this generation. And he who before all others is most guilty, deprived of his glory, stripped of his possessions, discrowned and abject, dwells in a dishonorable exile, the pensioner of a small nation which once he despised.... ”

“ Light is concentrated upon the central figure of the long drama which merged into tragedy at last, and in the shadow beyond may be discerned other Kings and Emperors, their Ministers and Chancelleries, and beyond these again swarming factories founding cannon, and busy dockyards building ships of war, and the hosts of armed men. ”

“ The inconsistency of the letter of May 30, 1898, must have been evident to the Emperor of Russia, for if tentative offers of alliance were made by Great Britain, they were, on the Imperial writer's own showing, conceived in the interests of peace, and yet in the same letter and in the next the GERMAN EMPEROR plainly insinuates that Great Britain is inspired by some sinister design against the peace of Europe. We two, writes the GERMAN EMPEROR to the CZAR, "have the same opinions: we want peace, and we have sustained and upheld it till now . ”

“ I hope and trust that the person whom you are going to select to replace him will be able to carry on the work in the same manner and with the same thruthfullness and openess of character like Schouvaloff; as the relations of our two countries rest on traditional bases, quite other than those with other nations, and are of commanding influence on the whole of the world! At your dear Fathers express wish I replaced Schweinitz [13] by Werder, if I could at the same time express a wish, it would be that you chose either Pahlen, [14] Richter [15] or Staal [16] as remplaçants if possible. ”

“ However modern the KAISER has often appeared to be when handling questions concerning the future of Germany, when showing an interest in technical problems and conferring with economical experts whatever their creed might be, a fundamental contrast still existed between him and the world of today. ”

“ What a lark it would be if you suddenly were to thump your imperial fist on the 'Table of green cloth,' and give the lazy ones a jump! After all, one cannot wait for ever, considering the many months that have already been wasted. ”

“ Fate set him up for an autocrat, and whatever may have been true in some simpler age of the world, if there ever was any, it is clear now that a man cannot be brought up as an autocrat without such damage to judgment and character as makes him unfit to exercise any determining infuence on public affairs. ”

“ The letters published in this volume are rich in examples of this disastrous imagination. It was this mistaken idea which, notwithstanding all plainly visible notes of warning, led to the belief that Germany and Russia had to represent common monarchical interests, in opposition to an inferior world. An understanding of real facts, while found here and there, is yet on the whole lacking to a surprising extent. Roughly speaking, the letters start with the time when Germany entered into world politics. ”

“ It would appear that he fails to recognize, while thus reasoning, that the differences between Japan and America, Japan and Russia are of a political and economic nature, and that the alliance of England with Japan satisfied the immediate interests of both countries more satisfactorily than a crusade of the white against the yellow -race would have done.
Thus the political accomplishments of these letters are not especially encouraging. In fact, they allow the reader to look only into details, but not into the whole of the German-Russian relations. ”

“ My dear Nicky The heavy and responsible task for which Providence has destinied you has come upon you with the suddeness of a surprise, through the so unexpected and untimely death of your dear lamented father. [1] These lines are to express my fullest and warmest sympathy with you and your Alix [2] and your poor distressed mother. [3] I can well understand the feelings which must have agitated your heart in witnessing the ebbing away of the life of your father, as his illness and sudden passing away was so very like my own dear Papa's ”

“ Hardly any evidence will be needed to establish the fact that WILHELM II. was the personality with far more strength and initiative. As the letters show, the active political aims are on his side. He wants to produce an impression on the CZAR; he wants to cement Russia's policy with that of Germany, in accordance with the needs of the German interests and the peace of Europe. ”

“ In the first named Guard Regiment the person of the late Tsar was always highly venered and last Mondays the whole corps of its officers and the four Colours of the Reginal joined their prayers with mine of the chapel of the Russian Embassy at Berlin. Now, dearest Nicky, Good bye, God bless and protect you and dear Alix and give you happiness in your new married life, that is the warm wish of... ”

“ This, however, is not surprising when the German people, who endured an adept in theatricalism for thirty years, are treated as if they were evilminded, undutiful children."
The comment on the letters all over the world has been as voluminous as it has been many-sided. However, three main viewpoints can be discerned in the very numerous reviews of the Kaiser's correspondence. First, the opinion of the Kaiser held by The Morning Post, Great Britain's leading Tory organ. ”

“ The London Naval and Military Record commented editorially on the same subject as follows: "It has been left to the enterprise of British journalism to publish the last and by far the most damaging exposure of Germany's ex-Kaiser." In Paris a prominent newspaper, describing how I obtained the letters, declared that I was enabled to do so through my influence with Lenin. In Amsterdam a newspaper printed a despatch from its Berlin correspondent announcing that the letters had once been published in I9I7 in a Petrograd monthly periodical. ”

“ He succeeded General von Werder at Petrograd.↑ The protest of Russia, France and Germany made on April 24th against the Chinese-Japanese Treaty of Shimonoseki of April 17th, which forced Japan to give up the Liao-tung peninsula and Port Arthur.↑ Count Nicholas Osten-Sacken, Russian ambassador in Berlin.↑ These annexations were Germany's seizing of Kiao-Chau, Russia's seizing of Port Arthur and England's seizing of Weihai-wei in 1898.↑ Norway was in the midst of a great political crisis. ”

“ M. Félix Faure was elected President on January 17th, and on January 26th, M. Ribot formed a Cabinet which introduced and carried a bill giving amnesty to political offenders.↑ On December 6th, :894, at the first sitting in the new Reichstag building, six socialists refused to rise when the president called for three cheers for the Kaiser.↑ The Roseberry government fell on June 21st, 1895.↑ The historic speech made by the young Czar on January 29th, in reply to a deputation of the Zemstvos come to plead for reforms. ”

“ Prince Henry of Prussia represented the Kaiser.↑ Von Plessen was commandant of the Kaiser's headquarters↑ Lieutenant-Colonel von Moltke a nephew of the great Moltke -- was the Kaiser's aide-de-camp since 1891. From 1906 to December, 1914, he was Chief of the German General Staff↑ Von Villaune is probably General Carl von Villauny.↑ The 8th Hussars.↑ Count Schouvaloff was one of Russia's foremost diplomats. He was Russian Ambassador to London in 1878, during the Berlin Conference. ”