SECRETS OF DIPLOMACY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 237, 6 October 1928, Page 16 (Supplement)

SECRETS OF DIPLOMACY.

REVEALED BY'BRITAIN. \ PRE-WAR RELATIONS. ' ENGLAND, FRANCE AND GERMANY The third volume of tho "British' Documents on the Origin of the.War," published this month, tells the story of British, French and German relations from 1003 through 1906,.: with yivid sidelights on the' Morocco crisis, the oharacter of .the ex-Kaiser and British preparations as early as 1006 to meei an expected German advance through 1 Belgium. Tho ominous thing about tho book is its fascination. The reader unskilled in historical analysis cannot veture to' assess blame among the diplomats involved, many of whose secret papers arc hero published for the first time. But he can see and understand the intemso lure which the diplomatic fencing of the pre-war period must have had for any normal man. It had all the combined excitements of a village feud, a high-stake .poker game and an E. Phillips Oppenheim novel. It was the world's greatest indoor sport. •■ ' Modern Deals are Duller. If; this inclines one to blame the diplomats less, it makes one fear a r.ecfirrence of tho hectic sport the«mort. Some reassurance may be found in the. apparently greater dullness and stodginess of diplomatic negotiations since the war. It is hard to imagine fascinating reading in recent international negotiations. The comparative lack of secrecy may account for this. • Indoor sports are spoiled when the whole world is a "kibbitzer." Who-wants to hayo his ■ poker .losses published in a white paper?. _,

. The British newspapers have greeted this new volume with a chorus of widely divergent interpretations. The Liberal "Manchester Guardian" finds that "these documents do not reveal any of the imperialist ambition with which Germany was charged after tho Great War began," while the conseyative "Morning Post" declares that ">fo one who lias studied the documents can ever raise again the' question of war guilt. The villain of the piece was Germany." • The diplomatic correspondent of "The Herald," organ of the British Labour party, pointing out that many important documents are missing from the volume, charges that there has been "a destruction of evidence on a wholesale scale." "One can only conclude," he continues, "that the documents that have been destroyed—when - and by whose orders we do not kiiow ; —were destroyed because they contained the really damning evidence." Editors Stand Firm. G. P. Gooch and Harold Temperley, the two eminent historians who arc editing the series, admit that' certain documents have been omitted "duo to a desire to consult the susceptibilities of tho persons or of the governments concerned," but they state further that they "have omitted nothing which they consider essential to the understanding of the period," and that they "would feel compelled to resign if any attempt were made to insist on tho omission of any essential documents." The central' controversial question raised by tho document on the Moroccan question is how far Britain, at that time, committed herself to an alliance with France. Did she promise merely diplomatic support against Germany, or military supp" , "* - - only in certain contingencies, of fnfiitary support in the event of any Franco-German conflict? And, further, if promise of definite military support were given, whv were they not communicated bj' the" British diplomats to the Cabinet? Lascelles Depicts Wilhelm 111. • . -A splendid full length portrait of the ex-Kaiser is given in a memorandum by Sir Frank Laseelles, British Ambassador to Berlin at this period. He applies to him Dryden's lines: "Fixed in opinion, ever in the wrong. Was all by fits and starts, and nothing long." The anibassador confesses himself frankly puzzled as to whether Wilhelm at heart wanted war or peace. At the same time he deplores the Kaiser's dangerous theatrical qualities, and his tendency to treat diplomatic conversations lightly. Sir Frank gives -an amusing example of the latter: ■ ' ; "On one occasion, when I made a communication to the Emperor of -an agreeable nature, his majesty replied in such a way that I was constrained to ask him whether he wished me-to convey such a message to his majesty's government. '"No, , said his majesty, 'you surely know me well enough to translate what I say into diplomatic language.' '■ In that case,' I said, 'I propose to report that your majesty, has received the communication with satisfaction,' a meaning which even those intimately ncquainted with him might easily have failed to gather from his original remark, which was, 'The moddles seem to have had a lucid interval.'"