The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1917-09-14
"WILLY" AND "NICK Y"

in which he disposed, as Mr.. Gerard
truly states, of the. Kingdom of Prus-
STA as if it had been one of his horses,
no more remarkable transaction sure
ly has been recorded than that be-
tween his descendant, the Kaisdf, and
the Tar of all the Russians for the
"belgiuming", if we may be allowed
to coin the word, of Denmark and the
destruction of the British Empire as
a great power. Frederick the Great
bequeathed to his nephew "the prov
inces, towns, palaces, forts, fortresses,
all ammunition and arsenals, all lands
mine by inheritance or right of con-
quest, the Crown jewels, gold and sill
yer service of the plate in Berlin,
country houses, collections of coins,
picture galleries, gardens, etc" From
this it will be seen that the Kingdom
of Prussia with the conquered prov
ince of Silesia, together with all the
towns and cities over which the great
soldier ruled, were passed along, as
Mr.. Gerard says, with the same easy
familiarity as the Kings private ta-
bles. Now the worst of this belief of
the right of a person to dispose of the
destinies of countries and peoples is
that it acts as an example for and in
citemcnt to future exhibitions of ar
bitrary power, and no better example
of this could perhaps be Forthcoming
that the remarkable series of tele-
grams, which has just been unearthed
among the Tzar's papers, and printed
on another page of this paper, and
which affords the evidence of hte
plans discussed and agreed upon by
"Nicky" and Willy" for fomenting
trouble in the year 1905.
The Triple Alliance of that day was
planned to attack the British Empire.
The iumping-off ground was, for ma
val reasons, to have been Denmark;
and the powers engaged, if only ev-
erything had worked for the best, in
accordance with the best intentions
of the best possible Emperors, were
to have been Germany, Russia and
France. France, it is true, was not
eventually asked, but the French Re-
public was to have been dragged into
the war, attached to the tail of the
Russian comet, or, as "Willy" put it,
in telegram, dated October 81, 1904,
once the German-Russian alliance was
consumated, "it is out of question that
France on such Indication would try
to shirk her implicit duty towards her
ally; though Delcasse is Anglophile
enrage, he will be wise enough to I'M
derstand that British fleet is utterly
unable to have Paris" After which
followed the distinctly delightful in
of ote ln4a 4.
not to forget business even when en-
gagged in pleasure, you ought not to
forget to order new ships so as to be
ready with some of them when the
war is over. They will be excellent
persuaders during present negotia-
tons. Our private firms will be most
glad to receive your contracts" Can
anybody be reasonably surprised that
such sentiment should have caused
"Nicky" to telegraph to "Willy",
"May God help US Hearty thanks for
your loyal friendship which | trust
beyond everything" The iustaxpo-
sition of the Tzar's two sentences is
full of pathetic even if of a ludric-
rous significance.
Two days later, the Russian Admi-
raj, having completely lost his nerve,
in the North Sea, and, taking an Eng
fish fishing feet, off the Dogger bank,
for Japanese torpedo boats, having
fired on and sunk some of them, the
Tar was naturally indignant at the
protests of Mr. Balfour, who was then
Prime Minister, in London, and was
for unfolding with the Kaiser the free
dom of the seas. at is certainly high
time to put a stop to this" he tele-
graphed to the Kaiser, "the only way,
as you say, would be that Germany,
Russia and France should at once unite
upon arrangements to abolish Eng
lish-Japanese arrogance and insolence.
Would you like to lay down the form
outlines of such treaty. AS soon as
accepted by US France is bound to join
her ally"
1t need hardly be said that the Kali
ser was delighted with the commits
sion, and draft treaty was duly for
warded to the Tar, who was so suf-
ficiently overcome by the loyal friend
ship which he trusted beyond every
thing, as to indicate to the Kaiser that
he had changed his mind about show
ing the treaty to France. To which
the Kaiser Immediately replied, "You
have given me new proof of your per-
feet loyalty by decision not to in
form France without my agreement.
1t is my firm conviction that it would
be absolutely dangerous to inform
France of treaty." Wonderful pre-
science! the simple fact being that,
as the Kaiser went on to explain, what
it would be wise to do would be to
hold an unsigned treaty over the head
of France as a club to force the Re-
public to induce her secret ally, the
United Kingdom, to keep quiet, SO as
not to combine its fleet with that of
Japan in "an enormous maritime su-
periority," which, as the Kaiser put
it, would soon make short work of
my small fleet" The Kaiser, it is to
be observed, was getting ready.
The immediate result of these nego-
tiations was an agreement between the
Kaiser and the Tar to declare the
Baltic a closed sea. But finding that
Denmark, which was vitality interest
ed in this proposal, was as declined
to be party to it, as Belgium proved
disinclined to permit the German ar
mics to cross its territory in 1914, to