The Washington herald., 1912-09-25
Man Proposes-

1t is but a short three months ago
that the Kaiser had good cause to con-
eratulate himself upon the successful
carrying out of his foreign policy with
regard to Great Britain when he sent
his most astute diplomat, Baron Adolf
Mareschall Won Bieberstein, to represent
Germany at the court of King George,
and to-day all the Kaisefs plans in this
respect have been shattered, for Herr
Won Bieberstein is dead-he dying sud
denly at a resort in his native Baden,
whittier he had repaired for rest.
Germany to-day can boast of no such
astute politician, so tactful and success
full diplomat, as was the late states
man. and it will puzzle Emperor Will
lam sorely to find a suitable successor,
with the right understanding, capability,
and tact required for the delicate mis-
sion mapped out for his envoy at Lon
don in the face of an anti-German
feeling. fed by the lingo press,
that will not down, despite the Kaisers
oft-reiterated public declaration that
every one of his actions toward Eng
land during the twenty-four years of
his reign ought to be ample guarantee
of his peaceful intention, peace that
was not to be disturbed so long as he
was on the throne.
Prince Metternich, the predecessor Of
Won Bieberstein-a man well on IN
years-loved his books and his we'll
earned rest too we'll to be,the man to
carry out the Kaiser's aggressively
friendly policy During his. incumbency
the German Embassy was rarely if ever
a gathering place of court and high
life The representative OF great
Power almost came to be overlooked,
owing to his desire for solitude, and
all this had to be changed, for the
Kaiser was determined to show the
world, and especially England, that he
and his policy were misjudged, that he
got no square deal"
But where 10 find the man? Germany
of to-day, having changed from war
like to a commercial, industrial, and
colonizing country, has not the galaxy
of statesmen TO choose from as in the
days of Bismarck The empire, not be-
ing in need of them, did not beget
them At last the Emperor's mind re-
verted to his envoy at the Sublime
Porte, Bieberstein; the man who had
made good" in a most difficult mis-
sion, who had succeeded in carrying
out for Germany the most favored po-
sition in the Ottoman Empire, with all
the benefits accruing therefrom; the
man who, though beginning his career
as a country court judge in the Grand
iDuchy of Baden, had raised himself by
his iron will, ceaseless energy, and ca
pability for hard work to the position
Of Foreign Secretary of the Empire; the
man, in short, who, upon one occasion,
when attacked, made his position clear
to his imperial master in such uhmis-
taxable words that the Kaiser changed
from a skeptic TO his firm friend and
has remained such to the end.
The Kaiser has to start all over again.
But where, among his numerous states
men is a second Bieberstein? The
Baron Won Kinderlen-W Waechter, the
present German Foreign Secretary, may
have chance, but the policy accredited
: to him in the Morocco (Agadir) case
was anything but pleasing to Downing
u Street, even if he were a diplomatic
Agiant like Bieberstein, which it may be
emphatically declared, he is not. Then
one hears, now and then, the name of
"our own" Count Johnny Bernstorff
mentioned, who has Won golden opinions
since his sojourn in our midst as Ger
man Ambassador. True, his late
fNhsr,fo years was the German envoy
at LoAs don, and Count John was born
there and received a thorough Eng
Iish education. But while this may
count for something, while even it
would go great ways toward obtain
ing this highest-and most difficult
of all foreign missions for him, he
lacks one thing that outweighs all the
Iest-experience. Most of Count
Bernstorf7s foreign missions were
no. of leading character, nor
was he accredited to leading nations.
Before coming here he was merely Ger
man consul general at Cairo, Egypt.
Being of old, well-seasoned diplomatic
stock, also scion of the "Deutsche
Uradei," and last but not least having
an American wife, who is persona
grata with the orthodox Empress, as
he himself is with the Kaiser, he su-
perseded others in the German foreign