The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-03-01
rHE KAISEn,S CHNrAN ArrIrUDE,


to Preclpltate "a General War.
Berlin, Feb. 2S.-Whatever may be
thought and said outside of Germany
as to the kaiser's line of action on the
&reece-Crete imbroglio, the dominant,
If not the unanimous, opinion in Ger
man circles is that it has been consist
ent with his whole eastern policy and
inspired by a desire to maintain the
European peace. The home papers
which insinuate and the foreign papers
which openly affirm that family affairs
have been an element in influencing the
kaiser choose to ignore facts which
ought by this time to be open to the
world. There is no feud or ill-will now
existing between the kaiser and his Sis
ter, the Duchess of Sparta, wife of the
Greek heir-apparent, The disfavor
with which he treated her conversion
from the Lutheran to the Greek church
is a matter of past history.
The empress mother was the medium
of early reconciliation, and the harmo-
ny of affection between the kaiser and
his favorite sister has long since been
restored. That the kaiser sought, first
of all, the support of Russia for his
proposal to blockade the Piraeus should
dispose of the report that family con-
siderations weighed largely with the
czar. The kaiser can be expected to
know how far the fact that King
George is brother of the dowager car
ina would affect Russian policy The
history of our own time affords an il
lustration.
II ,s~ 1n1 1.a
Grand Duke of Hesse- Darmstadt, the
brother of the then cZarina, the czar
Alexander II. declined to interfere pri-
vately or through diplomacy, and when
Prussia annexed Holstein- Gottorp, long
associated with the Russian dynasty,
nothing was said from ST. Petersburg.
That the dowager czarina has person
ally interfered on behalf of King
George is beyond all probability. The
telegram of encouragement and Sympa-
thy from her to the king, which has
gone the rounds of the European press
was fabrication, and events since
have proved that the czar and kaiser
alike are guided by motives in which
family relations play no important
part.
The actual truth is that so far as
the kaiser has taken any lead upon the
Cretan difficulty his aim has been to
prevent or at all events to postpone
the breaking up of Turkey and to stop
Greece from entering upon a war
which, unless accompanied by a gen
eral confagration in the Balkan penin-
sula might involve the devastation of
Greece and the overthrow of King
George.
The kaiser has been in consultation
with German officers who have served
in the reorganization of the Turkish ar
my and has obtained during the pres
ent crisis reports from the German
staff still connected with the sultans
forces. Their reports concur in stating
that the position of Greece as assailed
by land is absolutely hopeless. The
Turks are inlmea sureably better pre-
pared for an immediate campaign on
the Thessalian frontier
The porte seems to have anticipated
a possible outbreak of war with Greece
and got ready for it. Early in the cur
rent month the porte had 10000 troops
around the base of Olympus and was
prepared to direct that force in two
columns from the Olympus and Elias
sora districts upon Larissa This army
has been reinforced to 1000 men
Against them the Greeks have but a
feeble force between Larissa and Phar-
salia, and only began when the war
storm seemed gathering to throw up
some works around Larissa, which had
long been projected, but persistently
neglected These Turkish frontier
troops are well supplied with artillery,
the infantry are armed with the Pea
body-Martint rifle, and they are well
led and altogether in good trim.
According to the opinion of the Ger
man officers best able to calculate the
course of the campaign, the Turkish
force by itself would suffice to overrun
the Greek mainland. Of course a pro-
longed war, in which the powers would
stand aloof and let Turkey once more
conquer Greece is not to be consid-