Valdez daily prospector., 1914-11-13
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1914.
BISMARCK WORDS RECALLED.

says the St. Louis Republic, are an interesting commentary upon some utterances of Prince Bismarck in a conversation at Friedrichsruhe 22 years ago-May 31, 1892, to be pre- cise-with Dr. Hans Kleser, editor of the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zei- tung. He said:
 T do not understand why a Rus more dangerous to us than the pres ent one with Petersburg, Warsaw and Odessa. From Germany's point of view, l should not have put any difficulties in the way of Russia if she had wanted to take Constanti- nople From an egotistic point of sia in possession of Constantinople, i. e., which has made one step from Odessa across the Black Sea, to be less dangerous to us than the present one. So far as Pan-Slavism is con- cerned, I consider that official Rus sia, nay, even the real Russians, are not at all Pan-Slavonic. The Pan- Slavonic articles in the Russian pa pers, which fill the Western Euro peans with such fears, are not writ ten by Russians at all, but chiefly by Poles, whose aim is to incite Slav and Teuton against each other in the hope of creating new Polish kingdom at their expense, no matter which side be victorious"
 In view of the promises which the czar is reported to have made already to the Russian Poles, how marvellous appears the foresight which dictated those last two sentences!
 In the same conversation Bismarck discussed the possibility of war with France. He said:
 "In my reichstag speech (delivered in 1887) gave my reasons why was against so-called preventive war with France. My personal conviction, gained from study of history, is that it is unwarrantable to enter upon war with a weaker opponent at an apparently suitable date merely be- cause the opponent at that time threatens to attack you as soon as he is strong enough to do so. Some of the French who threatened us five years ago are already dead today, and in all probability hardly one of them will be alive at the time when France may see her chance of attacking us. But will go still further, and main tain that if Germany retains only semicapable statesmen France will never have such an opportunity"
 Apropos of the war for Schleswig- Holstein by which Prussia gained ter ritory of immense strategic import ance, he said:
 Austria had to be made to under stand that she would forfeit all sym pathy if she did no. go along with us. The gratitude of Russia for the ser vice which we had rendered her when Austria wished to mobilize Germany, had to be reawakened; and England had to be isolated, so that she might restrict herself to threats, as she al- ways does when no one will pull the chestnuts out of the fire for her. Each single act was tride. but the difficulty lay in getting them all to fit in together"
 Modern German statesmen have felt that war was purely military affair. Bismarck knew that successful war is as much a matter of diplomatic as of military preparedness.
 One quotation more, to show the great chancellor's keen sense of the moral values in war. Won Moltke de- sired to fight France when a pretext presented itself in 1867. Said Bis marck:
 ''I still rebelled against recogniz. ing the unconditional necessity of this war, which must make so many thou. sand widows and orphans and create such unspeakable misery. We had only just witnessed 1866 (the war with Austria) and in comparison with that which awaited the world 1866 would dwindle to pale shadow. Ma poleon's throne creaked in every joint; incalculable events might happen. The decision was not an easy one, for something else had to be considered; the question of right! did not want war which would en- able others. later on, to reproach us with having entered upon it wickedly Justice had to be on our side beyond every doubt, so that no factory!made