The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-02-04
kaiser IS READY FOR WAR
Wilhelm Perfecting Plans to Grapple
with England.
WAITING FOR AN OPPORTUNITY
The Young Emperor Feels That the
Trausvaal Affair VIII Lead to u
Conflict battle Ground Has
Not Becn Selected.

Berlin, Feb. 3.-The diplomatic hurly-
burly of the last week has abated. The
war talk has died out in the officers
cafes and casinos. leaving only disap-
pointment. The invective and denun-
citation have simmered away IN the
newspapers. leaving only a sediment
of lasting bitterness and hatred toward
Britain. In the Old Castle, the reichs-
tag building and the ministerial offices
in the Wilhelm straSse, however, the
passions and reproaches of the new
year have left their marks. The con-
nict begun with the emperor's fatefui
MESA ge to the Transvaal president may
have sunk to an echo elsewhere, but
at court, in cabinet and in parliament
il has just begun.
Emperor William III. has been near
his first call to arms. The whole bel
ligerency of his Hohenzollern nature
has been aroused. The spirit of war.
which was born i'm him, full fledged,
as in no other living sovereign. mas
been stirred from the inactivity into
which he persistently forced it after he
ascended the throne and has taken pos
session of his mind and soul. As the
young emperor has said, he would never
be the man to seek war without ex-
cuse. but If war must come--if the APP
peal to the god of battles must be
made--no man in Europe stands ready
to jump into the struggle with such
Zest as he He feels sure that the re-
fusal to recognize Great Britain'S
suZerainty over the Transvaal will lead
to a conflict. and, regardless of the
questions of art and drama and inter-
nal politics. he now thinks, talks and
! writes of little else.
The report that he had given up his
ideas of increasing his navy materially
10 htA
project worth the consideration of
reichstag or people He presses for
bill, he harnesses Hohenlohe for "A pro-
gramme of action: he consultS almost
i daily with his admiralty officials as re-
CARDS details of their plans for en-
larging the fleet.
kaiser's Naval Plan Exaggerated.
The emperors naval plan is not so
enormous as the world has been led to
believe. The English press has taken
pains to eNagserate IL in order to make
out that 1t never could be realized. 1t
| does not call for 900. 900 marks nor
| 1OO. .oOOO OOc, but about $4,000, 900 He does
not wish to build as many war ships
| as England has. nor to man as large n
fleet as reat Britain boasts. What he
| wants is merely Il sum total Of about
| twenty first-clasS modern warShips.
With Observation-Disclosures from Eng
land Tor Just such an emerSency-aS
| base of operations, besides the North
| Sea and Baltic Canal as strategic
| aid in the manipulation of the fleet, he
! feels sure that he could show the Brit
| ish navy an invulnerable front at sea.
| On land. of course, he need give the
| British force hardly a thought 1t is
! the firm conviction of every German
, officer on the grand general staff that
, about one-half of Germanys standing
| army could easily in war wipe out all
! the men England could put in the field.
| This conviction is not the result of over
| confidence. but of study on the part of
! all the German officers sent to England
| I'm the last fifteen years to observe her
| army methods.
The one difficult point in the emper
ors problem is how to get the German
and English armies together in case of
! conflict AS matters stand, the Anglo
| German war would resemble Bis
| marck's proverbial conflict between the
wolf and the whale. If the English
| navy should not encounter even a sin
| gle torpedo boat i'm approaching the
! German coast it could not put an army
! of even 10000 men on German soil. Any
l troops that 1t might land would be
/ crushed within twenty-four hours after
\ setting foot on the coast