The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-01-27
BELIEVES THE
KAISER ERRED,
Bismarck Not in Accord
With the Transvaal
Policy.
SHOULD NOT INTERFERE.
German Interests Best Subserved
by Maintaining a Neutral
Policy.
WILLIAMS ERRATIC COURSE.
The Prince Says Ill-Health Is Re-
sponsible for Many of the
Emperor's Acts.
WILLIAMS ERRATIC COURSE


times within the past week rumors were
IN circulation in Berlin that Prince Bis
marck was dead. These reports had the
| effect to cause rush of inquiries to Fried
richsruhe to learn the truth. Among the
large number of visitors whom the Prince
received personally, and with such cour-
tesy and activity of movement as to dispel
the last vestige of anxiety concerning his
health, was an old and intimate friend and
co-worker in the political arena who has
given to The United Press the substance of
an interesting conversation he had with
the ex-ChancelIor which serves to correct
certain impressions upon the public mind
in regard TO Prince Bismarck relations
with the Kaiser.
Not once since his resignation of the
| office of Chancellor, Prince Bismarck said
to his friend, has the Emperor spoken to
him upon the subject of politics, except
upon the memorable occasion of the
Kaiser's visit to Friedrichsruhe on March
% last, when his Majesty came to the ex-
Chancellor's residence with General Count
Won Waldersee. The Emperor was at the
| time very angry about the vote in the
| Reichstag refusing to pay the united re-
spects of that body to the Prince upon the
| occasion of his birthday. Prince Bis
marck admitted to his friend that he was
well able to go to Berlin on January IS,
when the twenty-tifth anniversary of the
founding of the empire was celebrated,
but he did not go because he emphatically
declined to lend his name as a flag for the
present course OF politics, which is being
directed upon lines which the ex-Chan-
| cellor regards as radically wrong and of
which he profoundly disapproves.
1t was move of rare cieverness on the
part of the Emperor, the Prince said, to
make spontaneous call at FREDERICKSBURG
recently, thereby creating at home and
| abroad the impression that the imperial
policy had the full approval of Prince Bis
marck or at least his tacit assent.
Nothing of the kind was true, however.
The recent moves of the Kaiser, he said.
were grave mistakes. Germany had no
business whatever to NEEDLE with foreign
complications unless German interests
were directly menaced or assailed If the
powers have grouped themselves definitely
either for or against certain causes. what
of it? Germany has still time to decide to
what extent her interests are involved.
The expressions which the Emperor has
sometimes INDUCED in, the United Press
informant said, must be credited to the
fact that the Kaiser's state of health was
not always normal.
His irritability, caused by worrying and
frequent violent headaches, had quite
often accounted for quick word or deed
on his part. 1t may be added, too, that
he slept very little-in fact not at all suf-
ficiently to enable him to maintain his
health.
The present Government of Germany is
deprived of all initiative in the manage
ment or direction of politics. The EN-
peror directs everything personally, and
his Ministers and Secretaries of State are
merely his executive officers. Among his
many irresponsible counselors 1t is al
ways the last one having the ear of the
Kaiser who is charged to see that the ideas
OF the Emperor are carried out
Prince Bismarck's personal organ, the
hamburger Nachrichten, prints articles
almost daily giving pointed expression to
some OF the foregoing views. In an article
published in the Nachrichten last Thurs
day commenting upon the Kaiser's aim
ing to stamp Germany's character as that
of "Weltnacht"-a power so mighty as
to require large increase in the nayy-
the paper says:
The nation must receive better informa-
ton than 10 has now before accentjng the
new position of pursuing an external pol
icy of might instead of a policy of inter
national development. The country is
not ambitious for foreign enterprises in
order to acquire prestige. The wisest
policy IS that of conserving German in.
terests
These sentiments, however, find small
sympathy In the press generally, official
and unofficial. The tide of popular feel
ing continues to run strongly in the direc-
ton of Anglophobia. Anything the
Kaiser could do or say to satisfy this feel.
ing would receive the hearty reclamation
OF all classes. The Hamburger Nachrich-
ten, although attacking the attitude of the
Emperor in assuming control of the for.
elgn affairs OF the empire, expresses the
hope that England may ere long receive a
thorough lesson in regard to her Isolation
as State and her limitations as a mower
The Emperor entertained the FOREIGN
ambassadors at dinner at the castle on
Thursday. Among the guests nresan+
were United States ambassador Rnnvon
and Mrs Runyon, NJ. Herbette. French
ambassador, and Nine. Herbette: M de
Szogyeny, Austrian ambassador. and
Nine. de szogyeny, and Count LAMA di
Busca, Italian ambassador, and his Count-
ess. Sir Frank Lascelies, British Emhae.
sador, was absent owing to the death NJ
Prince Henry of Battenberg, and the Sc
RES OF receptions at the British embassy
has been Abandoned.
a case affecting Germans BECOMING
American citizens has lust been dec;ded
by the Supreme Court of the empire in
Leipsic. f. W. Boehme, druggist, liv-
ing in Brooklyn, N. Y, and a native of
Leipsic, was sentenced by a lower court to
pay a ilne OF 200 marks for emigrating to |
foreign country without having fulfilled
his term of military service. He appealed
through his father from the decision of the
court.
The Supreme Court, in rendering its de-
cislon upon the appeal, finds that Boehme
as duly naturalized citizen of the United |
States, could not be punished for an act