The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, December 17, 1908. THE INTERVIEW WITH THE KAISER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 443, 17 December 1908, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, December 17, 1908. THE INTERVIEW WITH THE KAISER.

The London Times publishes a telegram from its Paris correspondent transmitting an important statement “ from one who has not only had constant opportunities of familiarising himself with the attitude of the German Emperor and his Government towards Great Britain . . , but who himself played a part in some of the more important events with which he deals.” The statement asserts that to raise at such a moment as this against France and Russia, which are in relations of close friendship with England, the charge that in her hour of trial they invited Germany to join them in an attempt to “ humiliate England, to the dust” can only mean an attack on the present entente and an attempt to break it up. The statement then gives what it declares are “irrefragable facts/’ On January i, 1896, the day before the Kruger telegram, Baron Marschall von Bieberstein, then the German Foreign Secretary, paid a visit to the French Ambassador at Berlin, M. Herbet.te, and asked him if France would join Germany in diplomatic action to secure the independence of the Boer States. M. Herbetle replied that France took no special interest in South African questions, and asked whether Germany was prepared to give France support in Egypt as a, quid pro quo. Baron Marshall von Bieberstein refused whereupon M. Herbette\aid that France could not interest herself in Germany’s South African projects. In NovemberjjTiSgq, during the Boer war, Cvqfent Mouravieff, the Russian FoiCtgn Minister, saw M. Delcasse., French Foreign Minister, its Paris, and suggested joint representations to Great Britain to restord peace. The French Governmeutjreplied that France could amicable representations of the nature of those whi&i she had successfully made in tl* Spauish-American war, and womld take no further action than this. In March, 1900, M. Mouravi«ff repeated his previous representations to the French' Governnfent, which were received

Qpcactly as before. On his way ,oack to Russia he saw the EmpeIror William and Prince Bulow, *and pointed out that the moment was a favourable one for representations to England. The German reply was that “ the contemplated action might not be the affair of a day; it might be prolonged. 'Germany would therefore like as a preliminary ”it was doubtless meant, if not guarantee against all the three powers, jeciprocally pledging the status., quo

rope.’ ” France absolutely declined to be a party to this German proposal, and the negotiations dropped.