The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-12-11
TIE Won ARNIM CORRESPONDENCE

The letters now in course of publication by
Count Won Arnim furnish an explanation Of
the anxiety displayed by Prince Bismarck to
get possession of the correspondence. 1t
will be remembered that Count Won Arnim' s
sal to surrender these letters furnished
the groundwork of the charges brought
against him and the prosecution to which he
was subjected by the German Chancellor.
The letters had passed between Bismarck and
Won Arnim when Won Arnim was German
Ambassador at Paris. When he was removed
from that post the Ambassador kept posses
| sion Of q part Of the letters, whilst the Chan
cellor commended that they constituted q part
of the archives of the embassy, and, as such,
were, in no sense, Won Arnim's private
property.
The government made vigorous but vain
efforts to regain the missing documents, and
the court which tried the cause against Won
Arnim decided that they were pubic property,
and that they were wrongfulIy detained by
the Ambassador. But the fine and imprison-
ment inflicted on the offender did not effect
their purpose. His obduracy was not overcome.
He not only refused to give up the letters.
but he removed them for safety to Switzer-
land.
1t has all along been suspected that these
letters contained something the public .tion
of which would be either dangerous or dis
creditable to the German Chancellor. mere
dispute about the title to letter would not
have aroused so much obstinacy on one side
or SO much bitterness and vindictiveness on
the other. Something more than the ordi-
nary interchange of diplomatic instructions
and reports must have been involved in the
controversy. At least this was the general
opinion, and the general opinion seems to be
justified by the revelations made by the publ
cation Of the mysterious correspondence.
Two of the letters one from the Chancellor
to the Ambassador, and the other from the
Ambassador to the Chancellor, have been laid
before the readers of the BULLETIN. These
are intensely interesting as showing the spirit
by which the German Government was in
huenced after peace had been restored with
France and at time when protestations of
good offices, if not Of kindly feeling, were re-
iterated from day to day. The average mo-
rality of the civilized world requires that ma
tons should at least refrain from surreptitious
intermeddling in the domestic atf.rs of other
nations with which they are at peace.
II is the custom of governments 70 make
ostentatious ayowals of desire for the pros
perity of other countries, and for the stabil!.
ty Of other governments. Such avo walls,
whether sincere or insincere, are a. least
tributes to that sense of justice, and that
growing sympathy among civilized nations
which ought to characterize the public
opinion OF an enlightened age. 1t appears
that, on the part of Germany, these protesta-
lions were intended to cover a hostile pur-
pose, and that the active assaults OF war were
RENTED only to be succeeded by the covert
and subtle arts of diplomacy.
The remarkable revelation is made that
Germany still considered herself entitled to
interfere in French affairs, and it is lamenta-