A FAMOUS DIPLOMAT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 114, 30 September 1912, Page 6

A FAMOUS DIPLOMAT.

BARON VON BIEBEKSTEIN. LATE GERMAN' AMBASSADOR. The following particulars of the career vharacter of the late Baron Marsi hall Von Bieberstein (Gentian Ambassador to Great Britain) are taken from a personal sketch contributed to the London Daily Mail by its Berlin correspondent 011 the occasion of the Baron's transfer from Constantinople to London being announced in June last: "Details of circumstances 'differ, but there is now agreement on the essential fact that Baron Marschall, while German Foreign Secretary in 1890, inspired, if lie did not actually formulate, the Kruger telegram. It is certain that he was the author of the circular note which apprised the Powers that the continuance of Boer independence was a Herman interest. When Emperor William arrived at the Foreign Office for the first time after the Jameson Raid to counsel with his Chancellor (Prince Hohenlohe), with his Foreign Secretary (Baron Maischall), and with the Secretary of his Navy (Admiral Hollmann), the Kruger despatch lay ready for the Imperial signature. Diplomatists in a position to know aver that the Kaiser was opposed to the whole idea of burdening the cable with that fateful message. But Baron Marschall insisted. He represented 'that the telegram was demanded and would be cordially approved by German public sentiment. The Kaiser yielded, but it was not until after I his 'Majesty had radically edited the | Foreign Office draft that the .telegram j was permitted to go on its ill-starred way. Baron Marscall remained an ardent member of the group of Continental statesmen who advocated a coalition to (defeat British purposes in South Africa. GERMAN POWER IN CONSTANTIs NOPLE.

"It was not surprising that the Foreign Secretary during whose administration Anglo-German relations were at the breaking-point should be assigned only a year later to take up the struggle against British supremacy in Turkey. With what telling effect he dedicated ' himself to the task is a commonplace of contemporary diplomatic history. Baron Marschall is given somewhat more personal credit for the rise of German power at Constantinople than is actually his due. The foundations of the work he was sent to do were laid deep and well several years before his entranceon the scene. The Kaiser had long since paid homage at the Yildiz Kiosk to the 'great assassin.' The newlyarrived Colossus from Berlin was not the first to bring Abdul Hamid proofs | of German friendship and disinterested--1 ness, { "What the Ambassador set himself to do, and what he did with miraculous rapidity, was to reduce the Sultan to a state of practical subjugation to German ambitions in Turkey. Wholly Tinschooled in the arts of professional diplomacy at a foreign capital, it was not many months before Baron Marschall absolutely dominated the perspective. Ilis influence was enthroned both at Yildiz Kiosk and at the Sublime Porte. Nobody, Turkish or foreign, could withstand him. He became a' sort of unofficial Grand Vizier, and German authority throughout Turkey rose as surely and as irresistibly as the sun itself over the placid Bosphorous. By a process of auto-suggestion people came to regard the German Ambassador as omnipotent and invincible. He exploited j his power to the full, and often with a, | high hand.

THE CHAMPION OF YOUNG TURKEY. "If Baron Marschall's career in the last decade of the Ilamidian regime was a story of incessant triumph, his record during the four years following the overthrow of the autocracy is still more remarkable. It is within the memory of all how soothsayers chanted the funeral dirge at Constantinople after the revolution. But they failed to reckon with the amazing adaptability to new conditions which is one of Baron .Marschall's most marked attributes. He completely reversed the tactics which had raised him to the, pinnacle in anterevolution days. He' bided his time. He let Young Turkey come to him. Then he proclaimed that as the Old Turkey was an autocracy, pure and simple, he had necessarily cultivated relations exclusively with the despot; but now that Turkey was become a constitutional monarchy his services'•were as freely at its disposal as they had been at the disposal of the discredited regime. No tribute to Baron Marschall's skill could be higher than the mere statement that, despite Abdul Hamid, despite Bosnia and Tripoli, he leaves German influence in Turkey as strong as it was in the heydey of the autocracy. "Baron Marschall is a profound believer in the potency of printers' ink for the uses of diplomacy. Although not a Bismarckian by descent, his diplomatic methods are of the mailed fist • order, and chief among the Bismarckian tools he is fond of using the press. When the, history of Baron Marschall's life and times at Constantinople is written, large will loom the name of a certain Herr Paul Weitz. Herr Weitz is nominally the Turkish representative of the' Frankfurter Zeitung. But he was also Baron Marschall's journalistic Man Friday. He was the medium through which the Ambassador was accustomed to inspire Europe with news and views. No foreign journalist whose w : ay led to Constantinople escaped the solicitous attention of Ilerr Weitz. A übiquitous figure at the Pera Palace Hotel, .lie was amiability and helpfulness personified. A coveted audience with the Strong Man .of the Corps Diplomatique could always be arranged through this accommodating German colleague. The rest could safely be left to Baron Marschall's innate hospitality and charm."

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. A physical giant, Baron Marschall, was amiable and gentle by temperament, with an ample supply of reserve force. He was never hail-fellow-well-met, but could be reserved without becoming austere. He spoke English quite Iluentlv, French indifferently. A graduate of Heidelberg, he carried on his left cheek the unfailing sign of university education in Germany, a series of Sehmisse inllicted by sabres in student duels. To London there accompanies him his wife, a native Baden baroness, and his daughter, Baroness Maria Hilda, a pretty girl of 19. His eldest son is a lieutenant of dragoons in Baden; two boys are at school. Baron Marschall was understood to have coveted the London mission just because of its "steep and stony path." Before leaving Constantinople ho said he would place all his strength at the disposal rf his Emperor and Fatherland in the task he was about to undertake. He was at hi.T death within a few days of completing his 70th year.