New York Times Current History: The European War from the Beginning to March 1915, Vol 1, No. 2 | Page 6

will not attempt to weigh their relative capacity for misrepresentation,
but the facts are as I have stated. There has been nothing in Germany's
recent action in regard to Morocco contrary to the explicit declaration
of my love of peace made both at the Guildhall and in my latest speech

at Strassburg."
Kaiser and the Boer War.
Reverting to his efforts to show his friendship for England, the Kaiser
said they had not been confined to words. It was commonly believed
that Germany was hostile to England throughout the Boer war.
Undoubtedly the newspapers were hostile and public opinion was
hostile. "But what," he asked, "of official Germany? What brought to a
sudden stop, indeed, to an absolute collapse, the European tour of the
Boer delegates, who were striving to obtain European intervention?"
"They were fêted in Holland. France gave them a rapturous welcome.
They wished to come to Berlin, where the German people would have
crowned them with flowers, but when they asked me to receive them I
refused. The agitation immediately died away and the delegates
returned empty handed. Was that the action of a secret enemy?
"Again, when the struggle was at its height, the German Government
was invited by France and Russia to join them in calling upon England
to end the war. The moment had come, they said, not only to save the
Boer republics, but also to humiliate England to the dust. What was my
reply? I said so far from Germany joining in any concerted European
action to bring pressure against England and bring about her downfall
Germany would always keep aloof from politics that could bring her
into complications with a sea power like England.
"Posterity will one day read the exact terms of a telegram, now in the
archives of Windsor Castle, in which I informed the sovereign of
England of the answer I returned to the powers which then sought to
compass her fall. Englishmen who now insult me by doubting my word
should know what my actions were in the hour of their adversity.
"Nor was that all. During your black week in December, 1899, when
disasters followed one another in rapid succession, I received a letter
from Queen Victoria, my revered grandmother, written in sorrow and
affliction and bearing manifest traces of the anxieties which were
preying upon her mind and health. I at once returned a sympathetic

reply. I did more. I bade one of my officers to procure as exact an
account as he could obtain of the number of combatants on both sides
and the actual positions of the opposing forces.
"With the figures before me I worked out what I considered the best
plan of campaign in the circumstances and submitted it to my General
Staff for criticism. Then I dispatched it to England. That document
likewise is among the State papers at Windsor awaiting the serenely
impartial verdict of history.
"Let me add as a curious coincidence that the plan which I formulated
ran very much on the same lines as that actually adopted by Gen.
Roberts and carried by him into successful operation. Was that the act
of one who wished England ill? Let Englishmen be just and say."
The German Navy.
Touching then upon the English conviction that Germany is increasing
her navy for the purpose of attacking Great Britain, the Kaiser
reiterated the explanation that Chancellor von Bülow and other
Ministers have made familiar, dwelling upon Germany's worldwide
commerce, her manifold interests in distant seas, and the necessity for
being prepared to protect them. He said:
"Patriotic Germans refuse to assign any bounds to their legitimate
commercial ambitions. They expect their interests to go on growing.
They must be able to champion them manfully in any quarter of the
globe. Germany looks ahead. Her horizons stretch far away. She must
be prepared for any eventualities in the Far East. Who can foresee what
may take place in the Pacific in the days to come, days not so distant as
some believe, but days, at any rate, for which all European powers with
Far Eastern interests ought to steadily prepare?
"Look at the accomplished rise of Japan. Think of a possible national
awakening in China, and then judge of the vast problems of the Pacific.
Only those powers which have great navies will be listened to with
respect when the future of the Pacific comes to be solved, and if for that
reason only Germany must have a powerful fleet. It may even be that

England herself will be glad that Germany has a fleet when they speak
together in the great debates of the future."
The interviewer concludes:
"The Emperor spoke with all that earnestness which marks his manner
when speaking on deeply pondered subjects. I ask my
fellow-countrymen who value the cause