THE POWER BEHIND THE GERMAN THRONE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9587, 6 September 1909, Page 7

THE POWER BEHIND THE GERMAN THRONE.

*>■ . I The death of Herr von Holstein, . which took place recently, brought into momentary prominence the name of a man who for many years was one of the most mysterious and powerful personages in the Fatherland. The general public knew little of him, yet his was the hidden hand that pulled the strings of diplomacy in many of the most important affairs of the Empire. The London journals contain interesting articles on the career of this mysterious diplomat. His wonderful grasp of intrenational politics, and his gifts of secrecy and silence early recommended him to Bismarck, who in 1867 made him First Secretary at the Paris Embassy, then in charge of Count Arnirn. The ambassador was supposed to be on terms of the most intimate friendship with Holstein, but it was charged against the latter that he did not hesitate to provide Bismarck with the means of bringing about the fall of Arnim. who was too independent to please the Iron Chancellor. For a quarter of a century Baron von Holstein held the threads of German foreign policy. Successive Chancellrrs and Foreign Ministers, like Caprivi, Marshal von Bieber- 1 stein, Count Eulenberg, were unable or unwilling to dispense with his services. His influence was all the more remarkable because of its being wielded in absolute retirement. He scarcely ever saw an ambassador, never went to Court, mixed very little in general society, and having neither wife nor family, seemed to be wholly absorbed in the work of his office. But when practically dying Herr von Holstein remained a power. In : the recent upheaval in the Balkans, when there seemed a prospect that Germany might score a signal triumph, it was Holstein that was consulted on the moves that should be made, and Prince BulovV was a daily visitor to the diplomat's sick room, where many important conferences took place. j It might have been said of him that he was not so much part of the German Foreign Office as the whole of it. Conscientious, indefatigable, imperious, jealous of rivaly and impatient of opposition, and usually able to bear it down, because no man's mind in his own sphere was so continuous and concentrated as his own, he went his way, he had his way; and when he could get it no longer he quitted the scene. The inner circles of every capital were acquainted with his name, and learned in time to mention it with respect. But to foreign countries as a whole Herr von Holstein was practically unknown, even while he Wf.s doing more than any other man. next to the Kaiser himself, to shape the policy of a great Empire—even while statesmen stood in awe of him, ana while his hreath could make or unmake Ambassadors and other persons. Nor was it only by the world at large that he wan ignured. The greater part of Germany did not even suspect his existence. As he walked in the ! streets of Berlin he passed unmarked. Amid crowded assemblies, upon I the rare occasions when the iigure of this prince of bureaucrats moved amongst them, he had few inti- . mates. He rarely apeared at ' court, and was little known even to I his own Sovereign, whope notice and ! favour he showed no amhition to S win. [[He was one of those formid- I i able persons who concentrate all ! passions into cr.e whose * existence is absorbed into the prusecution of a single enterprise, and whose love ofVjWork makes all the other interests and affections of humanity of no account. The "Times" in a leadnig article, refers to von Holstein's attitude towards England as "neither very friendly nor very enlightened. He would talk at times, as many of his countrymen know how to do, of the blessings and the mutual advantage of an Anglo-Gj.man understanding. But it very soon became apparent that by such an understanding he did not mean an understanding upon equal terms. He would not have been averse to see England in something like the same relations to Germany as those in which her Continental allies stand to her. But Germany, in his conception of this arrangement, was very distinctly to have been the 'predominant partner.' S3 she was in all h»s political conceptions."