The Kaiser by Virginia Cowles

Author:Virginia Cowles [Cowles, Virginia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sharpe Books
Published: 2018-12-11T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11. The German Fleet

“He’s a Satan. You can hardly believe what a Satan he is!” exclaimed the Kaiser about Edward VII to a startled dinner party on March 19, 1907. The outburst was caused by the knowledge that the British Government was negotiating in St. Petersburg for an agreement which would put an end to outstanding disputes between the two countries, and secondly by the announcement that King Edward, on his annual spring cruise, would meet the King of Italy at Gaeta and the King of Spain off Cartagena. The Kaiser was convinced that his uncle’s main purpose was to do mischief to Germany. He was rather silent at the beginning of dinner due to indigestion, Count Zedlitz related, “but about eleven o’clock he began to talk freely about the policy of England and grew rather excited. He complained bitterly of the intrigues that his uncle, the King of England, was carrying on about him. He said he knew all about them from private letters from France, and King Edward was equally hard at work in every other country. The whole press of the world, including that of America, had already been mobilised against him by English money, and it was extraordinary how much personal animosity his uncle’s attitude revealed.”[260]

The truth was that the King of England was beating the Kaiser at his own game. Two years earlier, at Bjorko, William I had preached a continental combine against Britain. In the flush of triumph following his departure he had written to the Czar: “Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden will all be attracted to this new centre of gravity… They will revolve in the orbit of the great block of Powers (Russia, Germany, France, Austria, Italy) and feel confidence in leaning on and revolving around this mass.” He had gone on to predict that even America would join, and thus John Bull would be prevented from setting “the rest of the civilised nations by each other’s ears for his own personal benefit.”[261]

But Bjorko had been stillborn and Algeciras, far from prising apart England and France, had strengthened the entente. And now it looked as though Britain was making a bid for Russian friendship. It was too much. It was a sinister plot. The Fatherland was being encircled. William II’s grievances found their way into the German press and soon many newspapers were attacking Edward VII and his “sinister” activities. On April 15th the Neue Freie Presse declared: “Who can fail to receive the impression that a diplomatic duel is being fought out between England and Germany under the eyes of the world. The King of England… is no longer afraid of appearing to throw the whole influence of his personality into the scales whenever it is a question of thwarting the aims of German policy. The meeting at Gaeta [with the King of Italy] is another fact connected with the burning jealousy between England and Germany. Already people are asking themselves everywhere: ‘What is the meaning of this continual political labour,

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