On the one hand, the memorandum of the Kaiser's ex-Ambassador in London proves from an authoritative enemy pen that, practically ever since the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78, and particularly from the time of the accession of the present Emperor to the throne in 1888, the Germans have carefully prepared the way for the present war, and that during this period they have consistently turned their attention toward the East and toward the development of the Mitteleuropa scheme. And on the other side it indicates, if indeed any indication were still required, that the so-called rivalry existing between England and Germany prior to the war arose not from any desire on the part of Great Britain to stand in the way of the development of legitimate German interests in the Balkans and in Asia Minor, but from the unwillingness of the Government of Berlin to agree to any reasonable settlement of the many all-important questions connected with these regions.
Although for years the Germans had been intriguing against the Triple Entente, Prince Lichnowsky, a man possessed of personally friendly feelings for England, was sent to London in order to camouflage the real designs of the enemy and to secure representation by a diplomatist who was intended to make good, and who, in fact, did make a high position for himself in British official and social circles. The appointment itself raises two interesting questions. In the first place, while this is not stated in the memorandum, it is clear that, whereas Baron Marschall von Bieberstein was definitely instructed to endeavor to make friends with England and to detach her from France and Russia, or, if this were impossible, to bring about war at a convenient time for Germany, Prince Lichnowsky's task was somewhat different. Kept at least more or less in the dark as to German objects, the Ambassador, who arrived in London when the Morocco crisis of 1911 was considered at an end, instead of being intrusted with the dual objects of his predecessor, was clearly told to do, and did in fact do, his utmost to establish friendly relations with England. The Berlin Government, on the other hand, this time maintained in its own hands the larger question of the making of war at what it believed, happily wrongly, to be a convenient time for the Central Empires. In the second place, although this, too, is not explained, various references made by Prince Lichnowsky leave little doubt in the mind of the reader who knows the situation existing at the German Embassy prior to the outbreak of war that the Ambassador himself was aware that von Kühlmann—the Councilor of Embassy—was, in fact, the representative of Pan-Germanism in England, and that to this very able and expert intriguer was left the work of trying to develop a situation which, in peace or in war, would be favorable to the ruler and to the class whose views he voiced.
Phases of German Policy
To come down to the real subject of this article—the proof provided by Prince Lichnowsky's disclosures of the long existence of the German Mitteleuropa scheme and of the fact that Germany, and not Austria, made this war, largely with the object of pushing through her designs in the East—I propose to divide my remarks in such a way as to show that the development of this scheme passed through three phases and in each case to take what may be called a text from the document under discussion.
The first phase lasted from the Congress of Berlin of 1878, when Prince Lichnowsky says that Germany began the Triple Alliance policy, and more definitely from the accession of the present Emperor to the throne in 1888 until the Balkan wars. While in using these expressions the ex-Ambassador does not refer only to this period, he says: "The goal of our political ambition was to dominate in the Bosporus," and "instead of encouraging a powerful development in the Balkan States, we placed ourselves on the side of the Turkish and Magyar oppressors."
These words contain in essence and in tabulated form an explanation (from the pen of a German whose personal and official positions enabled him to know the truth) of the events which were in progress during this period—events the full importance of which has often been refuted and denied by those who refused to see that from the first the Kaiser was obsessed by a desire for domination from Hamburg to the Persian Gulf. Indeed, from the moment of his accession the sentiments and views of the German ruler became markedly apparent, for one year later his Majesty paid the first of his carpet-bagging visits to Constantinople—a visit more or less connected with the then recent grabbing of Haidar Pasha-Ismid railway—now the first section of the Bagdad line—by the Germans, and with the prolongation of that line to Angora as a German concern, concessions secured by Mr. Kaula, acting on behalf of German interests in 1888.
Preparing for Pan-German Project
Before and particularly after the appointment of Baron Marschall von Bieberstein, who had then been a personal friend of the Kaiser for many years, the enemy had been carefully preparing the way for the realization of his Pan-German dreams in the Near and Middle East. Although so far as the Balkan States were concerned, up to the outbreak of the war the Kaiser endeavored to screen his intentions behind a nominally Austrian program, for years he had really been making ready his ground for the present occasion by military, political, and economic penetration and by diplomatic intrigues destined to bring about a favorable situation for Germany when the propitious moment for action arrived. The power of von der Goltz Pasha, who introduced the present military system into Turkey in 1886, and of his pupils was gradually increased until the Ottoman Army was finally placed completely under Germanic control.
The Young Turkish revolution of 1908, which at first seemed destined greatly to minimize German power at Constantinople, really resulted in an opposite effect. Thus in spite of the effective support of England for Turkey during the Bosnian and Bulgarian crises of 1908 and 1909, a gradual reaction subsequently set in. This was due in part to the cleverness and regardlessness of von Bieberstein, and in part to the circumstances arising out of the policy adopted by the Young Turks. For instance, while the Germans ignored the necessity for reforms in the Ottoman Empire so long as the Turks favored a Teutonic program, it was impossible for the British Government or the British public to look with favor upon a régime which worked to maintain the privileged position of Moslems throughout the empire, which did nothing to punish those who instigated the massacre of the Armenians of Cilicia in 1909, and which was intent upon disturbing the status quo in the Persian Gulf, and upon changing the status of Egypt to the Turkish advantage.