The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-08-07
Won WEIGAND is
SURE KAISER is
In PEACE MOOD
He Says Things Are Happening
Fast in Germany.
New Foreign Secretary Is a
Well Known Pacifist.
ALSO A GOOD NEG0TIAT0R
GOut Kept Zimmerman From
Being a Success.
His Successor Would Have
Avoided Many Blunders.
ALSO A GOOD NEGOTIAT0R
BY KARL HI. Won WElGAND.
(The Last American Newspaperman
to Leave BerIin,)

to Leave Berlin.)
New York, Aug. Things are hap
pening fast in Germany. The devel-
opments there are of greater impor-
lance than generally understood and
realized here. The cabinet changes
emphasize that after all the other bel
ligerent countries. Germany also is
now passing thru changes that will
increasingly affect her cid political
structure.
The new imperial German cabinet
and Prussian ministry cal be charac-
terized as .durchhalten" or stick it
thru cabinets. They will bring Ger
many and the world one step nearer
peace. In part they can be looked
upon as interim cabinets" and are
partly a compromise and concession
in the direction of the forces hard at
work for a parliamentary form of
government but which is not yet
reached by tn, present appointments.
The present chancellor DIR. George
Michaelis is personally no. in favor of
an out and out parliameHtarian sys-
tenn of government. He is trying it
first with half way" step which he
calls INSTRUMENTATION as distin-
euished from "parlia mentarian"
namely by drawing upon the political
parties and ''commoners'' for cabinet
timber.
Chief significance lies in the nam
ing of DIR. Richard Won Kuehlman to
the post of foreign secretary That
overshadows in Importance all others
Kuehlman has been for some time the
favorite TO make peace" Michaelis
will look after the internal political
affairs as long as he remains, and
Kuehlman who is one of the few men
in Germany who knows England, Will
take the foreign affairs into his own
hands. He has the. strong backing
- hi ial a nd
business interests in Germany.
Purely a Peace Move.
His selection as foreign secretary is
a move to make peace easier and
decidedly encouraging sign that points
to the end of the war. The general
opinion in Germany is that there are
but two countries with which Ger
many must make peace, namely, Eng
land and America. All others will
follow as a matter of course.
Kuehlman is the man selected for
that difficult work. He is concilia-
tor and regarded as perhaps Ger
many's best negotiator- The book,
"Welt Politik Ohne Weltkrieg,
(world politics without world war;
which has had great vogue in Ger
many lately, is said to express his
world political views. The book is
attributed to him.
My impressions of the various con-
versations have had with him always
were that he was for reconciliation
with England. AS far back as early
in 1915 he told me in the Hague that
the war was "a terrible blunder and
mistake for all sides" and that it
could be ended only by negotiation.
He was much worried at the time
about the American situation, created
by the submarine crisis and expressed
the belief that it would be a grave
mistake to bring the United States
into the war if it could be avoided.
I last saw him and talked with him
last November in Sofia, when he was
on his way to take his new post in
Constantinople. Just before L left
Berlin 1 had luncheon with his broth
err, who told me that the am bassador
was much perturbed over the entrance
of America into the war.
Like U. S. Business Man.
Kuehlman is a man of SO and looks
much like an American business man.
of ''so1idity," he is rather quiet and
deliberate but forcible His wife was
Baroness Won Stumm, a family which
has had many members in the Ger
Won Wedel family. holds the record
in that respect in Germany.
The new foreign secretary is well
known in England. He was first sec
rotary or counsellor of the German
embassy in London, under Prince
ton in Holland became very acute for
Germany, Kuehlman was sent to The
Hague as minister. Last October he
was advanced to ambassador and sent
to Constantinople to restore more cor
dial relations with the Turks after the
death of Wangenkeim. The Constan-
tinopIe post has been a particularly
difficult one. And it was his success
there made easier for him than for
others because of years of residence
there before and thoro knowledge of
the psychology of the Turks, which no
doubt recommended him to the kaiser
to succeed Zimmerman.
In Kuehlman the German foreign
office has now a man who has been
looked upon as one of Germany's best
and most clever negotiators. As Doc
tor Michaelis the new chancellor
whom also first met in Sofia. has lit
tie knowledge and less experience of
foreign politics and policies. the post
of foreign secretary assumes an i'm
portance it has not had since the days
of Kiderlen- Weechtcr in the Morocco
crisis. In naming Kueh1man, there is
little doubt that the kaiser had in
mind the temperament. qualifica-
tions and diplomatic abilities neces-
sary to negotiate peace when the time
comes. especially with England and
America
Zimmerman a Failure.
Doctor Zimmerman, for time the
most popular man in the government,
the choice of the reichstag to sue
coed the gentle hammered, tiniid Won
Jagow and with whom the liberals be-
lieved they had driven a -.con1moner'