One of these days I shall tell how the house of Krupp (in which William II has so large a personal interest over and above his public interest) is about to create for itself a formidable position in China, which is likely to overthrow many calculations and may end in turning Asia upside down. The great commercial houses of Hamburg, encouraged and supported by the government at Berlin, are in telegraphic communication with every market in China. Germany's economic life is developing with frightful rapidity in Asia.
September 11, 1894. [5]
Amongst the list of surprises with which the Emperor of Germany is pleased to supply the makers of small-talk in Europe, one often finds, since the journey of the Empress Frederick to Paris (although that was hardly to be called a success) that he is by way of making advances to France. From time to time William II, in a carefully premeditated pose (as, for that matter, all his poses are), extends towards us, across the frontiers of Alsace-Lorraine, the hand of generous friendship. Sometimes, for an entire day he will be good enough to forget that he is heir to the victories won from us in 1870. Next day, it is true, we shall find him celebrating in splendour our defeat at Sedan; but none the less he will have satisfied his great soul by thus inviting us to forget the past. Why is it that William II wearies not in thus renewing his attempts at reconciliation with France? The reason is, that he has nothing to lose by continual failures, whilst he has everything to gain if he succeeds, even for a moment, in deceiving our vigilance, and in diverting us from those feelings which alone can honour and raise the vanquished, that is to say, fidelity to the brothers we have lost, and the proud belief that, sooner or later, we shall re-enter into possession of the conquered territory.
Last on the list of the intermittent advances which William II has made to France, there appeared lately the following in the Allegemeine Norddeutsche Zeitung, official organ of the German government:—
"There is no reason for misunderstanding, or for failure to appreciate, the increasing signs which go to show that public opinion in France is favourable to reconciliation with us, and that this opinion is growing, not only amongst the higher classes in France, but amongst the people. It is beginning to be recognised that it is to the interest of both nations to shake hands, as is fitting between neighbours, no matter what may have been their former differences. On the part of Germans the tendency towards an entente has gained in strength since we have noticed the tendency of the French to judge impartially a personality like that of our Emperor, as befits a nation so cultured and richly endowed as the French."
What say you, veteran soldiers, who fought in the Terrible Year? What say you, Parisians of the Siege, Frenchmen who have seen the Prussian conqueror dragging his guns and booty along the roads of our France? What say you, men of Alsace-Lorraine, heroes all? (No matter whether, like some, you have sacrificed situation, home and your little fatherland, so as not to forsake the greater, or, like others, you have consented to become Prussians in order that the land you worship may remain in hands that are still French.) What say you, when our dreadful defeat, our piled-up ruin, and the spoliation of a portion of France, become for a German official organ our former differences? What words are these in which to speak of 1870-71, of that unforgettable and tragic invasion, of the terrible anguish of our ravished provinces, and what a proof they afford of the great gulf which separates the mind of Germany from that of France!
September 26, 1894.
The German Emperor does not forget that he is before all things a Prussian. Having administered a reprimand to the nobility, he proceeds to give to the five new fortresses at Königsberg, the five greatest family names of the Prussian nobility.
At Thorn he declared—
"Only they can count upon my royal favour who shall regard themselves as absolutely and entirely Prussian subjects." The Germans have not yet realised that the German Empire will be Prussian, before ever Prussia consents to lose herself in a united Germany.