New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-03-11
ROYAL CONGRATULATIONS.
QUESTIONS RAISED AS TO THEIR PRO
PRIETY IN WAR TIME
RULERS NOT BARRED OUT BY IN
TFRNATIONAL LAW.
TERNATIONAL LAW.

Queen Victoria had received Geographic dis
patches from Emperor William and from King
Humbert congratulating her the surrender
of General Cronje and the relief of Ladysmith.
Some French and German journals even go to
the length of expressing their conviction that
the Kaiser would never have rendered himself
guilty of so grave a breach of international eti-
quette. Under the circumstances, it is well to
offer a few words of explanation about the mat
ter. In the first Place it must be pointed out
that any messages of congratuation sent either
by Emperor William King Humbert to Queen
Victoria have been of a nOn-oficial character
In the case of the German ruler they may be
said TO have constituted purely private com
muncation from grandson to a grandmother
to whom he is attached by particularly
ties of regard and affection So far as King
Humbert is concerned, the relations between
himself and the venerable English sovereign
have been ever since his childhood those of
nephew and aunt: there is no foreign court at
which British influence carries much weight
or where English sympathies are so pronounced
at the Quirinal.
Moreover, there is every reason to believe that
both Italy and Germany are allied to England,
if not by any cut and dried treaties. at any rate
by some sort of secret. but at the same time
definite, understandings according to the terms
of which Italy and Great Britain can rely upon
each others diplomatic naval and military
support in a moment of emergency or danger.
while in the way England in return for
the Kaisers withdrawal of all opposition her
acquisition of Delagoa Bay, agrees to Germanys
eventual acquisition of Maceo. and of PortuGaTs
other colonies in the far Orent-coonies which
in Teutoa hands are likely to prove far more
profitable TO German trade and commerce than
Kiao- Chau Bay.
Under the circumstances it is. after all natu-
raj that apart from any question of private and
personal relations between the English German
and Italian sovereigns, the last two should view
with sympathy and good will the military
cesses of Power TO which they are to all in
tents and purposes allied.
WHERE INTERNATIONAL. LAW CEASES.
Strictly speaking, it is not in accordance with
the spirit of information law for neutral ruler
to offer congratulations to a victorious beiliger
ent. But while International law applies TO the
official actions of a monarch and his govern
ment it has never put forward any pretensons
to the control of his private and family relations
The French never took it much amiss that Alex
ander II of Russia should have signaIized the
successive surrenders of Metz. Srasburg and
Paris and the disastrous defeat of Sedan by
drinking at the Court dinner to old Emperor
William, at the same time giving expression to
the unbounded enthusiasm and satisfaction
which these glorious feats Of arms" had
aroused within his breast The French people
had the good sense when these manifestations of
German sympathy then prevailing at the Court
OF st. Petersburg brought to their atten-
ton to recall that the old Kaiser was the favor
lie uncle of Alexander II, and that the relations
between the two We're such as to induce. the
Gar to take a fial delight in any success
achieved by his mothers brother 1t was at one
Of these State dinners by the by. that Alexander
III, then only CZareVitch created so great a
sensation by declining to join his father in drink
ing to the toast in honor of the German vic
tories, for which act of boIdness he was nm
ished 10y his father with several weeks of arrest
This had the effect of still further increasing
the antpathy Of Alexander III for everything
German, and before he had been long on the
throne he cut Russia adrift from her alliance
with Germany and Austria-the Three Ernner-
ors Alliance. as it called-and began tbe
steps which, under Nicholas IL, have developed
into the present alliance between Russia and
France
During that same Franco German war the
sympathies of King Victor Emmanuel were AL
together in favor of France. and il was ONLY his
Ministers, representing in this particular in
stance the popular sentiment of the Italian ma
ton who prevented him from fastening TO the
assistance Of his former ally, Napoleon III In
TACT the buriy old monarch made no secret as
to the profound sorrow which the French de-
feats caused him, and when some years after
peror William he took occasion at a state ban