When Edward VII Outwitted the Tsar

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 892, 8 February 1930, Page 18

When Edward VII Outwitted the Tsar

Memoirs of Detective wh o Guarded Three Generations of Royalty ~. “Two-Fisted ” Ferdinand of Bulgaria... Unpopular Leopold of Belgium ...

»UCH has been written and more said o£ the relations of King Edward with the other reigning monarchs of Europe durI have previously pointed out that I do not pretend to write an authoritative documented history, but I will relate such incidents as I remember of King Edward’s meetings with other monarchs and also one or two tecollections of his conversations which should discount the common view that tha King was in some Machiavelian way their enemy. I have attended the King anil Kaiser together upon many occasions and 1 have heart! the King discuss the Kaiser with intimate friends and I know quite certainly that the King did not dislike his nephew. He distrusted him deeply because the Kaiser was always making secret suggestions to other monarchs, suggestions for alliances, “understandings,” and treaties. Invariably King Edward was informed very quickly of such doings and then began a period of “sorting out” and the cancelling of the proposed treaties before they came to birth. Perhaps the King's own words would best describe his attitude toward the Kaiser I accompanied him to Reval in 1908 where he met the Tsar for the last time. The King and Queen travelled on the yacht Victoria and Albert, and the Tsar and his family and suite were on the Russian Royal yacht Stanlart. There were several dinners at which formal speeches were made and then one day I was instructed to accompany the King who was taking a walk tits A tele with the Tsar. Colonel Propoffsky of the secret police—the notorious third section—and myself we~e*the only escorts. At the Tsar’s special request we walked right up only a few feet behind the two monarchs. Points were under discussion which were not touched upon at the public functions. For instance at that time Sir Ernest Cassel had proposed a journey to Russia to negotiate some important financial transactions and the King “p>tt a word in” for his friend- He secured the Tsar’s promise to receive Sir Ernest Cassel and let it be known that the financier had the imperial support. Then the conversation turned on politics and the King chaffed the Tsar about some meeting he had had with the Kaiser in which a proposed treaty was discussed. “But,” replied the Tsar, "it was purely tentative. 1 would have signed ncthiug without letting you know.” “But.” the King laughed and nipped the Tsar playfully by the arm, “unless my information is at fault, the document teas signed and only required drafting when Stolypin put his foot, on It.”

of Portugal in his treatment of Congo natives. There had been much-discussed atrocities. Personally, tite two Kings in years gone by had liked each other, and I remember one occasion w-hen the young heir to the Belgian throne, the present King Albert, came out to Biarritz with a personal letter from his uncle to the King. The visit was unexpected and the King was just leaving for a motor drive over the Basque country to San Sebastian to meet. King Alfonso. He read the letter with one foot on the running board of his car. I can picture him now. There was a light, breeze blowing. The King’s board Was just slightly ruffled and his cigar smoke blew tow-ard me. The King wore a light grey suit and a very light hat with silver-white binding and band. He read the letter to the end, then he looked at the tall handsome Comte de Flandres and obviously approved him:

“Yes, yes,” replied the Tsar uncomft rtably, “but I intended to tell you before It was complete.” All this conversation went on in English and Colonel Propoffsky, who knew no English, when he heard the constant laughter, said to me in French.

“You must tell me these stories, old man, when we are alone.” On the way back to Reval—the monarchs had been walking through the outskirts of a forest —we met a seedy - lookiug person who had appeared on our outward journey. Colonel Propoffsky took a look at him. then blew a little gold whistle. Instantly, as though from nowhere, six plain-clothesmen sprang from the path behind and arrested the man. King Edward and the Tsar turned round, while the latter explained to the King that the arrest was merely a precautionary measure. With a rather surprised little laugh the King walked on.

"Will you stay?” he asked, but the young prince excused himself on the grounds that he had to proceed immediately to Vienna to represent his uncle at the Austrian court upon the occasion of a royal wedding. The Deer-Eating Champion

"Tell the King,” said King Edward, “that 1 will write to him but the points which are dividing us remain.” Then the King departed from diplomatic language. He smiled at the earnestlooking prince and said: "You know, personally, I like your uncle. He’s a very agreeable chap. I remember the old days even as lie does, and I am sorry for the present breach. But —the Congo and other things! Y'ou understand?” The present King of the Belgians smiled and left. It i 3 strange to look back now after all the changes the war brought and remember that two monarchs for whom the late King Edward had a great personal affection were King Ferdinand of Bulgaria and the aged Emperor Franz Josef of Austria. Frequently the old Emperor used to arrange to take his “cures” and holidays at Hamburg and Marienbad at dates to coincide with the royal visits from England. The old Emperor ioved to hear King Edward recount anecdotes and humorous stories. Franz Josef had an excellent sense of humour and I heard him tell at least one good story. The occasion was when the two monarchs were seated together shaded by a palm, on the terrace of the castle St. Isehl. There had been some rumours of the presence of disaffected’ men from over the Serbian bolder and orders had gone forth that both monarchs had to be constantly and closely guarded. Lieutenant Farencz, a cavalry officer attached to the secret police, acted as guard of the Emperor and I attended upon the King.

“Why did you arrest him?” I asked i the coionel. “Is he known to you?” i “Xo,” replied the colonel with a| dry smile. “That is exactly the reason—he is not known to me. He I recognised the Tsar. I could see that | hy the opening of his eyes. Better, be certain that sorry, my friend." With my Scotland Yard training I could not help but feel shocked at the amazing cynicism of the Russian police chief, but I had a. greater surprise that night. There was a Russian ship, the Olga, which drew- up near the royal yacht. 1 was required t.o accompany Colonel Propoffsky and two of his assistants to hoard the ship. The coloned explained that there was a concert party of 30 girls who were going to entertain the King and the Tsar with a programme of Russian music, but at first it must be ascertained that there were no Xihilists among them and that all people on board the ship were unarmed. Accordingly everybody on the vessel was subjected to search except the captain, who was an officer of the Russian naval reserve. An Unpleasant Incident There was an unpleasant little incident before this visit ended. The King was walking along near the waterside at Reval one day when a man threw a paper bag with disagreeable contents at M. Stolypin, who was accompanying the King. Instantly the little gold whistle of Colonel Propoffsky was in song and the man was hurried out off into some side street by the detectives. Shrieks of pain could be heard for some seconds after he disappeared. Several of us attended to M. Stolypiu, who was not hurt, but whose face was smeared with the evil-smelling contents of the bag. Ha was mad clear through. I toid the incident to Admiral Fisher shortly afterward. “You take my tip,” said “Jacky” Fisher, "they’H get that fellow before he’s done, Woodhall. He’ll come to a sticky end!” Fisher was right in this as in many of his prophecies. Stolypin was shot very shortly afterward at the opera! in St. Petersburg. Relations between King Edward and ' all European Kings were excellent ex- ! cept between him and King Leopold of Belgium. There were many reasons 1 for that. One was that the King of the Belgians had ignored the King's advice about his treatment of his daughter when she married against his will. A more serious reason was that the King of the Belgians refused to make certain changes which were suggested to him by the King, the Kaiser, ! the President of France and the King ,

The King had been speaking to the Emperor about a man he knew with an enormous appetite. Both monarchs laughed and the Emperor said: “Did I ever tell you that story about Colonel Count Menchen and his hungry servant?” The King said he had not heard the story and the Emperor related it. The story was, briefly, that Colonel Menchen, when a captain, made a wager with his brother officers that his servant, an enormous Transylvanian, could eat a whole deer. The wager was accepted, but the officer made on stipulation, and that was that the deer must be served in all sorts of ways. There was to be soup, fricassies, cutlets, a haunch, a stew, pie and every other sort of way of serving up a deer. Also he was to be permitted to starve his servant for two days. The night of the contest arrived and the big hungry soldierservant entered the mess. All the officers gathered round to watch his performance. He got through the soup, the cutlets, the pies, the savoury stews, the roasts and all the rest, but just toward the end he began to flag! “Come along!” commanded his master. "What is the matter with you? Can't you eat any more?” “Oh, yes,” replied the servant. “But if that deer doesn’t come quickly I shan’t be able to eat it!” King Ferdinand of Bulgaria, a fav-

ourite of King Edward,, was the best , informed prince in Europe. If ever 1 a situation arose in the European courts which King Edward did not quite understand he would write to ask for an explanation from King Ferdinand, whom he used to call “Inquire Within,” Once, however. King Edward stole a march upon him and exulted in his victory. It was at the time of the Russo-Japanese war. Ferdinand was excellently informed as usual, but Mr. Wickham Steed, Vienna correspondent of "The Times,” was able to give King Edward information of the great Japanese naval victories before either the Foreign Office of Vienna or Britain’s own in Whitehall had received the news. On the promenade at Ischl, as soon as he had heard the news, the King met Prince Ferdinand, as he then was. “Well,” he asked, “have you heard the news from the east?” “I am expecting something hourly,” replied the prince. “I have made arrangements which will insure my getting the news of anything worth cabling before any newspaper or Foreign Office.” “What will you wager I beat you?” asked the King. “Two English'hunters!” replied the prince.

“Then you'd better instruct your agents to buy them now.” said the Kin»• exultantly. "Admiral Togo defeated the Russian fleet off Port Arthur yesterday. Here's the cable.” And, much to his chagrin. Prince Ferdinand read Mr. Steed's cable. "You shall have your ttvo hunters.” he said laughingly. “Although you don’t appear to need any extra 'Steeds.' ” I had rather an exciting experience with Prince Ferdinand during that: visit. The King and the Prince were walking together one day a Quarrel took place between two men on the promenade. One struck the other, knocking him against Prince Ferdinand. Nobody recognised the Prince—or the King. Tho Prince shook the ni; t off and told him s'brrply to be careful V.om he was bumping. The man replied in an insolent, threatening manner.

“Apologise at once, sir!’’ demanded the Prince. For answer the bawler struck Prince Ferdinand in the face.

A Two-Fisted Prince Instantly, despite a detaining hand of King Edward, Prince Ferdinand set about, his opponent. He hit out with a straight “left” that reached the point of liis attacker’s chin, followed it up with a hard right and in two seconds had his man retreating across the road with his arms flying about wildly. A little crowd had collected and the police arrived. We told them who the successful fighter was and the police stood gasping their astonishment.

The Prince did not cease hitting out until >hc man had apologised. One of hi 3 eyes was closed and his nose required immediate attention. King Edward enjoyed the episode immensely. “Bravo!” he said when the Prince, a little out of breath, returned from the chase.

“Have you ever had presented to you an English boxer called Driscoll?" he asked. The King replied that he had not, so far as he could remember. “Then,” said Prince Ferdinand, “if you ever should, tell him what you think of his pupil!"