Kaiser's Deal With Rhodes.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 12 September 1918, Page 3

Kaiser's Deal With Rhodes.

SECRET AGREEMENT ABOUT AFRICA AND MESOPOTAMIA. ' Prince Liclmowsky, in his recent revelations, referred to "tlic programme ui' "tlie greut Rhodes." This allusion is explained by Mr R. C. Hawki 11 in his tract on "Central Africa and the League of Nations." He tells how Rhodes in IS'J9 called on the Kaiser at Potsdam to "square" him on the Cape to Cairo scheme. There is only one record in England of that, interview, 1 says the "Daily Chronicle," and that was written by Rhodes himself, and handed to King Edward, then Prince of Wales, but scraps liave leaked out. At first the Kaiser resolutely refused to allow tlie Cape to Cairo telegraph to cross German East Africa. At last it came to something like a row, during whieli Rhodes suddenly accused the Kaiser of wanting Mesopotamia, and the Kaiser retorted, "What if I do?" That reply gave Rhodes his supreme diplomatic victory. It was an admission by a ' responsible sovereign that Germany v.-as coveting territory owned by Turkey. The statesman changed his tone, talked plain English, and dared to offer the Kaiser a free haiid in Mesopotamia in return for a free hand in Africa. The Kaiser took the bait. Three days later they met at dinner, and on the following day the agreement was duly signed. Rhodes came back to England, delivered a great speech eulogising the ivaiser, and added the codicil to his will establishing scholarships at Oxford for of German birth. Then he returned to South Africa and the Boer War began. The Kaiser refused all invitations .to join France and Ilussia against England, refused to see Kruger when the old President readied Europe, and one of the last letters Rhodes received from the Kaiser, congratulated Mm that his tcleg.upli wire had readied Uji.ji in Central Africa. Meanwhile the Kaiser had cmbnrked upon his designs in Mesopotamia.