The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-13
BERLIN SEES WAR CLOUDS BLOW OVER German Action Taken To Arouse Patriotism PROVED BIG SUCCESS Portugal Having Hard Time Con- vincing World That Republic Is
 Satisfactory to the
 People
PROVED BIG SUCCESS
By FREDERICK WERNER

CT a display of brilliant but harmless lightning.
 When the Kaiser left on his usual Nor wecIan summer cruise everyone imme- diately realized that no crisis was ex- pected and that the Morocco question was to be settled without the roar of can
 mons. France was to be scared little, partly because the German government. i in view of an approaching election, wished | to impress upon the minds of her voters | the individuality of being too harsh with | q set of statesmen who, If not popular
 at home, at least had succeeded in mak-
 ing Germany respected and feared abroad,
 and partly because the German govern
 ment considered the moment opportune
 for adding to German possessions in Af- | rica
 l In reality international peace was not
 in danger for single moment. Germany was perfectly sure of what would hap | pen. She knew that England would back
 Up Trance. and this was why no Ger
 man troops were landed at Agadir, which
 might have embarrassed a German diplo-
 malie retreat should it become neces- | sary.
 The stra ratagem was success. The Ger | man voters were treated to the sight of | France in a state Of terror and con- | fusion because the German eagle Tapped it's wings, and. this done, the good effect was driven home with faint clanking of sw0rds and beating of military drums in the press
 The final and most conclusive proof rhaf hn l,nln offa
 fer dramatic effect was given when Rus sia. fin the very midst of the crisis" and before anybody knew officially the re- sult Of the conversations, contracted to issue 100,0Oo,0OO mark loan in Germany By orening negotiations for this loan, the Cars government plainly showed that in St. Petersburg, at least, nobody consid- cred the Agadir incident as anything but a piece of international bluff country that is thinking of going to war is not the place to place uninvested cash In England, where brains always seem to work slower than anywhere else in Europe. 1t was much later realized that German action was not meant to be an insidious attack upon the Franco British entente, and the much discussed speech of Lloyd George, in which he issued a yelled warning to Germany, shows that even this clever statesman had been taken in. It will, therefore, probably be some time before England realizes that l the entente Is considered fatorabe to Germany because it is anticipated that | thereby Germany will be able to obtain l British acauiescence in any agreement ar l rived at with France.
 In Spain the mistake was made during | the earlier stages of the Morocco em- broglio, of considering 1t in too serious a light and the government tried the rather risky experiment of playing to the gal lery by series of more or less deliber- ate insults to France, which came dan- gerously near provoking a war. Evident ly the Spanish government thought to please Germany and many were those who saw in Spain nothing but a German agent provocateur. Germany, however. lost no time in warning Madrid and as soon 1t was realized that Spain would have " fight her own battles Spanish statesmen tumbled all over each other in their eagerness to apologize to France
 In France war with Spain would have been pop lh'r, because many French pa triots believe that a victorious war is just what their country needs to arouse
 it from it's present unsettled state, The
 French people as whole dote on their
 army and consider it the finest and strongest in the world. They hesitate to
 measure its strength against Germany for the memories of 1870 are still too vivid, but with Spain 1t would be another
 matter. and Canalepjas d;d well when he
 stopped irritating the Gallic fighting cock
 Portugal is heroically trying to make the world believe that the republic is now firmly established and that return of
 the dynasty Braganza is altogether i'm
 possible, but somehow European diplo- mats hesitate to believe that the Portu-
 guese people are happy and satisfied with the new form of government. The fact l is that were a referendum to settle the | matter it would undoubtedly be seen by | the Portuguese vote that the country was | in favor of the re-establisting of the l monarchy not because 1t has any partic- uar love for it's prof1igate young ex- king, but because the people are devout | Catholics and the priests are preaching day and night that the present republican
 government is in league with the evil one
 and must not be supported by any true Christian
 | To offset the exhortations of the clergy
 the government is trying to prove that | Manuel and his whole family are trait ors to Portugal. But somehow, stories | like the one recently circulated-that trunk had been found in the royal palace | containing papers in which the king promised Germany and England all the | the revolution-do not find credence in | Portugal.
 1 That the republican form of govern ment is far from being firmly establish ed is amply proved by the reluctance of England and Spain to recognize the l Portuguese republic.
 | The old story, Russian local famines, | with their strange, almost incredible. concomitants amongst the still benighted peasantry, is being represented again this | summer. From the interior come reports of attempts to drown old women &C.,
 cused of causing the drought by dis
 pensing the rain clouds, of watering graves where village drunkards have | been buried, and similar medieval fol- lies.
 At the meeting. ten days ago, of the | exchange committee of the town Tomsk, where the first Siberian exhibition will be held 1t was confirmed that almost | complete famine Is expected in West ern Siberia, the great granary of Siberia in general. This years harvest Is esti- mated at 80 per cent below that of last year. In many districts there will be no
 seed for sowing.
 The ministry of the interior has ob- tained the following particulars from other regions:
 Northeastern European Russia: Ex-
 tremely bad crops. In the province of
 Perm, total failure of wheat and grass
 Region of Tomk in a similar condition
 In several of the volga provinces, the
 crops are 60 and 75 per cent below last years yield. Odessa and Rostoff re- gions, 30 to 40 per cent less. :, On the other hand, the harvests in the central and western provinces promises