HE WOULD NOT LISTEN.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 10 September 1917, Page 3

HE WOULD NOT LISTEN.

MORE TALES OF THE CZAR. Apropos of the disclosures of the Willy-Nilly treaty telegrams, a story was recently told by the Moscow paper, the Russkove Slove, as follows: “At the beginning of the war the German Emperor, on the occasion of one of his appearances on a balcony of the Berlin Palace, tore some documents to with the words: ‘That is a proof in my hands of the perfidy of the Russian Emperor.’ Now at the time of the Manchurian war, when things were going their worst for Russia, Nicholas and Wilhelm worked out together the text of a defensive and offensive alliance directed against France. Each wrote out a copy of the instrument, and gave it to the other, but their agreement was never formally confirmed. Once, ‘in a moment of despair,’ the Czar showed his copy to Count who was horrified at its contents, and at once cried, ‘Tear it up, your Majesty.’ In the end, Nicholas agreed to follow this advice.”

In an article in the latest Fortnightly, Dr. Dillon tells of a curious incident bearing on the Czar’s foreign policy. He had got to know of a very important secret connected with Russia’s foreign policy, and having been released from his promise of secrecy, he thought it his duty to inform the British Government. (This was during the war). when he broached the subject to one of the Ministers, that official at once stopped him by asking if his information had anything to do with the Czar, because if so he did not want to hear it. The Government, said the had perfect confidence in the Czar’s good faith. Dr. Dillon therefore had to keep his information to himself.