UNDERWORLD OF DIPLOMACY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10001, 23 March 1910, Page 3

UNDERWORLD OF DIPLOMACY.

HOW SECRETS OF STATE GET OUT. BISMARCK AND IHE FRENUtI TELEURAM.

One of the most fascinating phases of international life is how secret news is obtained and how it travels through the underworld nf diplomacy. The late Queen Victoria jealously guarded the secrets preserved at Windsor Castle, and her refusal to allow documents to be examined prevented many "memoirs," "confessions," and "revelations" appearing

during her reign. But her own letters, published recently, reveal a great deal that was only within the knowledee of the very few. Her engagement to Prince Albert, usually declared to have been a case of a wife falling in love after marriage, is proved conclusively by the letters that passed between them before the ceremony to have been a case of really genuine love at first sight. The reason for the resignation of

Lord Randolph Churchill is, of course, well known to have been due to an impulse, but if Lord Salisbury had been consulted it would have been kept secret to this day says "CasselPs Saturday Journal." The father of

Winston Churchill was, however, rather hot tempered, and he gave the news to the world himself in the shape of a letter to the "Times." The same paper secured the first intelligence of an event which altered the history of England. This was Sir Robert Peel's conversion to Free Trade. He did not know which party to favour. England was Protectionist, and he seemed inclined tu keep with the anti-free traders. On a certain day. however, he startled a Cabinet meeting by announcing his conversion to the cause of free imports, and when they had recovered their astonishment his colleagues resolved to keep it secret for a time at any cost. But that night at dinner a certain Minister whispered the news to a lady at his side, and she immediately sold it to the "Times." The premature announce*, menu forced the hands of the Government, and England became a free trade country. George Meredith adapted the incident, and called it "Diana of the Crossways." A servant made a small fortune by selling to an evening paper the news that the G.Q.M. was about to bring in a Bill proposing Hoire Rule for Ireland. It is this chance cossip that has led to dozens of important official secrets reaching the ears of the general public. Everybody in

these days is a reporter. Germany is particularly prolific in yielding surprises in the matter of secrets. Perhaps there is no other great campaign which is the subject of so much conjecture as the FrancoGerman war. Many accounts of its origin have been given, and ah differ in some materal points. It was thought that Bismarck had the secret, and in his letter—published, it is believed, by the order of the fallen Chancellor to spite the Kaiser —he givea a convincing description of the events that precipitated the war. But the Kaiser retaliattd with another story. It may be remembered that the two nations were at diplomatic loggerheads over the can didature of &• German Prii.ce for the throne of Spain, and towards the close of the correspondence between the rival foreign offices France sent a telegram definitely demanding Prince Leopold's retirement and requesting an apology. In the ordinary course this me : sage was delivered t.o Bismarck, who was thirsting for a trial of strength with the French. But the telegram disappointed him. It did not seem bellicose enough. Indeed, it was worded so politely that itxeally meant all end of talk about hostilities. The Iron Chancellor, however, was determined to try conclusions with his neighbours, and therefore he deliberately omitted certain words from the telegram before issuing it for publica-

tion. The result was to convert France's message into a threat, and the terrible offspring of Bismarck's trick we all know..

But this is only one side ot a most interesting story. If Bismarck was working at Berlin fur war he had a helpmeet at Versailles in the person of the impress Eupenie. She detested the Heraman, anc, as a Spaniard, was passionately determined not to allow a Teuton to ascend the throne of her native country. Thus she worked day and night to give the

French the opportunity of humbling the pride of the Germans. Time falsified her ambitions very tragically, and led to her own ruin. It is said that on the evening of the day that witnessed the firing of the first shot she gave expression to that terrible phrase, "This is my war." Within 24 hours she bitterly lamented her indiscretions, and with the approach of the victorious legions of von Moltke her thror;e gradually receded from her. ,

It was not until 1894 that the German Foreign Office issued the French telegram in its original entirety, and that at the instigation of the Emperor, who wished to get even with Bismarck for the exMinister's hostile attitude towards his sermons. The publication of tfre maker of modern Germany's letters a few years later was the Prince's dying shot. The story uf the Empress Eugenie's share in the war came to light as the direct result of journalistic enterprise.