The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-01-10
He Has Therefore Been Granted
"Leave Of Absence" and Will BE
Succeeded by Won Sternburg.
EMPEROR WAS NOT PLEASED
BECAUSE HIS GIFT OF A STATUE WAS
INDIFFERENTLY RECEIVED.
DIR. Won HoIIeben Held Responsible
for Leading His Majesty to
Commit Mistakes.

BERLIN, Jan. 9.-Ambassador Won Hole
ben was not recalled from Washington, but
learning that his government was not
wholly satisfied with his work and, feeling
i'll and depressed, he cabled for a long leave
of absence which was Immediately granted.
He will not return to Washington. Baron
Speck Won Sternburg's temporary assign
ment as charge d'affaires of Germany at
Washington will be followed after an inter-
val by his appointment as ambassador. The
baron, in the meantime, will retain his po-
sition as consul general of Germany at Cal
cutta. Oddly enough, the exact where
abouts of Baron Won Sternburg Is not
known at the Foreign Office 1t is thought
however, that he is visiting kinspeople in
Saxony.
At the Foreign Office all the officials will
say about DR.. Won Holleben is: He has
not been recalled and his leave is granted
upon his own initiative. The government
would never recall an ambassador in the
midst of important negotiations without
grave reasons, and these certainly do not
exist in this case. The supposition that the
government is annoyed because the ambas-
sador failed to obtain President Roosevelt
acceptance of the arbitratorship of the
Venezuelan dispute is wholly incorrect.
Germany reckoned in advance that the
President might have weighty reasons for
declining; hence her note of Dec. % contain
ed the alternative proposition to refer the
matter to The Hague arbitration court.
Still is was felt that the international polit-
ical factors in the case dictated the appro-
priateness of first offering the President the
arbitratorShip.
The newspapers, however, say the gov
eminent feels that 1t was misled. or. at
least, not fully informed by the Washing
ton embassy representing President ROose-
velt's attitude when he was requested to
arbitrate the Venezuelan dispute. The
opinion also is that DR.. Won Holleben' s
dispatches regarding the policy of the
and it's general foreign policy have been
neither adequate nor precise. A variety
of other reasons may have, contributed to
the lack of confidence in the ambassador.
The Vosssche Zeitung, for instance, at
tributes Importance to the telegram sent
by Emperor William to Mrs. Kipling, on
March 5, 1899, when Kipling was Ill in New
York. The newspaper assumes that DR..
Won Holleben counseled the sending of the
telegram and that the Emperor, especially
since the publication of Kipling's recent
yised Emperor William, when Kipling was
i'll, wired to Mrs. Kipling as follows: LAS
an enthusiastic admirer of the incompara-
BILE works of your husband, 1 await with
anxiety news of his condition. God grant
that he may be spared to you and to ali
who are thankful TO him for the heart
moving manner in which he has sung the
deeds of our great. common race"
DIR. Won Holleben's critics also aver that
he showed an unskilled hand in the great
champagne war and in the Witt incident.
and also in permitting himself to become
the object of press attacks even though
unjustly The matter of the statue of
Frederick the Great is also remembered,
with its indifferent reception by part of
the American people. This, ii is alleged,
Dr. Won Holeben ought to have foreseen
and he should have dissuaded the Emperor
from offering the statue to the United
States.
Baron Won Heyking, the German minister
to Mexico, has been granted an extended
leave of absence. 1t is possible he will not
return to his post.