The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-18


 A MOST exactly a year ago Alfred
 "A von Kiderlen- Waechter-he likes , the accent laid on the second syl- lable of the Kiderlen-took the post of state secretary at the German foreign of- flee in the Wilhelmstrasse in Berlin in sue cession to the dear old gentleman" Herr von Schoen, transferred as ambassador to Paris. Von Kideren himself demanded the post as the price of his remaining in the diplomatic service Oddly enough a year before that during the Kaiser crisis" arising from the famous interview in the Daily Telegraph von Kiderlen was laughed down in the reichstag when he strutted up and down the government bench in a wondrous wastcoat of canary color and made a stuttering defense or the foreign office. His subsequent history in office proves that man may be states man without being an orator.
 Today it may almost be said that like the Roman senator of old he carries peace and war in the folds of his toga. He IS permanent foreign secretary and Ger manys responsible agent in the negotia- tions going on between Germany and France on which the fate of Morocco an1 perhaps the issue of European peace or war depend. The Kaiser, though on his northern trip far up the coast Of Norway, Is kept in touch with events in Berlin by wireless and no doubt exerts an irnpof- tant influence on the negotiations, but 1t Is yon Kiderlen who is general on the diplomatic field of battle.
 ,.{ I t1l- x1,hO n ma r. ried aL baroness von Waechter, lady of the Wurtemburg aristocracy. and who in his pride and satisfaction added her nar3e to his own, young Von Kfderen entered the diplomatic service and was employel at St. Petersburg, Paris and Constanti- nople. He was always In toucft with Herr yon Holstein, the mysterious under sec retary of the foreign department, who never left his office except to go to his house and never left his house except to go to his office Holstein, the recluse, for 30 years exercised an almost uncanny lli-, fluence on German foreign policy, and it was through Holstein that young Won Kiderlen became acquainted with the high official world of his day.
 He became an intimate friend of Prince Eulenburg the notorious "Philf' of the canayilla called after the princes ancss- tral home the ''Liebenberg Round Table, hut was not involved in the scandal in which inc prince was the central figure
 In those early days of the young dplo- mats career the three associates Von fiolstein Eulenburg and Von kiderlen were mercilessly lampooned in the comic paper Kladderadatsch, which nicknameu ,no,, inc "Troubadour' (Prince Eulen- burg). the oyster Lover' (Von Holstein', and the '.Dumpling (Vop Kiderlen- waechter The nicknames hit on ths c-aaxnesses of each of the trio. The wacbtemberg diplomats fondness for the asnatz,e' (dumplings) of his native kns- dom was satirized by the title, which he bears among his intimates to the present time The lampooning became so gross that Won Kiderlen lost his temper ana sent a challenge to Dr. Polsdorn, eoltor of the Kladderadatsch. The challenge was accepted, pistols were the weapons chosen and Von Kiderlen's opponent fei' with a bulle in his right shoulder.
 A rising diplomat, Won kiderlen had already attracted the Kaiser's notice. The Kaiser found in him a kindred soclai spirit a man of humor not too refined. who could laugh long and heartily, could crack and take a joke, and the coarse- ness of whose fun was redeemed by wlt. | He accompanied his royal master on sev- eral of his summer trips to the Norwegian | fiords and elsewhere until the two had a falling out and von Kiderlen reverted once more to the role of a diigent If comparativeIy obscure servant of the for- | eign office. The obscurity was only nom l inal, for though for many years he was relegated to Bucharest as mere minis ter it fell to him to pull the threads Of German foreign policy hoth in the Balkans and at Constantinople It was these em- ployments chiefly which supplied Von I<iderlen with the two great opportunities of his diplomatic career.
 \ He was recalled to Berlin to conduct l the negotiations for the settlement Of the l Bosnia H Herzegovina crisis and 1t was 'ls
 who, having unbounded confidence Tn the military superiority of Germany. forced l Russia to sheathe her half drawn sWorn' l For work of this kind the foreign niih's- ter. then Baron von Sonoen, was known l to be wanting in the necessary strength
 of character; man of energy ana cour age was required. and the result justiheo the selection of Won Kiderlen.
 His second coup was the negotiation of the agreement of 1009 with France