FAMOUS INTERVIEW

Hokitika Guardian, 26 July 1930, Page 7

FAMOUS INTERVIEW

, ;ex-kaiser and Britain. SOME SECRET HISTORY. " LONDON, July 7. Visdnunt. Burnham, in a special ai tide ih ythe “Daily Telegraph,” give details of the circumstances of tli Kiiiser’s famous interview on Oetotoe 28, 1908. \ - , Lord Burnham reveals that the in y tferview was based on several conversa tions, Major-General E. Stuart AYortle, had with the Kaiser, which was pu into newspaper form by Mr J. B Fifth. The typescript was sent to Ber lin and. returned with the addition o the concluding sentence in the Kaiser’. 1 handwHting. Lord Burnham confesses that he die not envisage the "German uprising against the Emperor which resulted ; “FRIENDSHIP IN ENGLAND.” In October, 1908, an article appeared in the London “Daily Telegraph.” It was stated to have been written by a “diplomatist who has long since passed froth public life,” and was put forward as a “calculated indiscretion” designed to allay the suspicion with which Englishmen sometimes regard the German Emperor. • The Emperor who was aaid to have spoken with “impulsiveness ajid unusual frankness,” began by declaring that Englishmen in giving rein to suspicions unworthy df a great nation Were !, ma*d as March hares,” He added that it was one of his dearest wishes to live on the best of terms with England. He went on to say that his, task was not easy. He was, so to speak, in a minority in his own country, but it was a minority of the best elements ( just as was the minority in England with regard to Germany. ‘ writer reminded his Majesty, .that “net England alone, but the, whole' of Europe, had viewed with dis-J approval the recent action of Germany | in allowing the German consul to return from Tangier to Fez,” the Kaiser, replied ivith a gesture of impatience/ “The German subjects in Fez are cry- j ing for help and protection,” he said. The Kaiser then referred to “the subject uppermost in my mind—my proved friendship for England.” He admitted that in the South African war German opinion was “bitterly hostile” to i Britain, but said that it: was not so in!, official Germany. He added:, ‘‘When the struggle was at its height the German Government was invited by the Gpvernnient of France and Russia to join withthem ■ in; calling upon England to put amend to the war. The moment had. come, they said, not only to saye republic, but to. humiliate EnglanLitp- the dust. What wai my reply P I'said, that so far from Germany •joining iiL'tfny concerted European acy Ition to ptit pressure upon England, and

bring about her downfall, Germany would -always keep aloof from politics that would bring her into complications with a sea Power like England. Posterity will one day read the exact terms of the telegram—now in the archives of Windsor Castle—in which I informed the Sovereign of England of the answer 1 had returned to the Powers which then sought to compass her downfall.”