Thus Spoke the Kaiser: The Lost Interview Which Solves an International Mystery

VOLUME 153

NUMBER 5

MAY 1934

BY WILLIAM HARLAN HALE

IN the summer of 1908, the Emperor William II of Germany granted an interview to my father, William Bayard Hale, the American journalist and biographer. Political observers became interested in it right at the start; for this was the first interview the Emperor had ever given to a newspaper man, and it was rumored that he had been very free in his comments on international affairs and foreign leaders. A few months later the intense interest of the whole world was suddenly aroused when the Century Magazine, which had procured the interview and widely announced it, — and, indeed, had already had it printed, — suppressed it on the eve of publication. This turn of the event immediately gave rise to the suspicion that the Emperor had committed another of his characteristic indiscretions. The wildest surmises were made as to what the text might contain; spurious versions were broadcast; attacks and denials flew across the Atlantic.

For twenty-five years, now, the Century interview has been an international mystery. Its substance was known only to Hale, to the editors of the magazine, and to Theodore Roosevelt — and they kept silent. On but one point did the world guess the truth: the German Government, fearful of the Emperor’s unguarded speech, had, at the last moment, demanded that the interview be suppressed. And not without cause. Just a few days before, on October 28, 1908, the London Daily Telegraph had published an authorized interview with the German Emperor which had created a sensation in all the capitals of Europe. In his conversation with Hale he had been even more outspoken — more so, in fact, than his ministers knew. In any event, they were taking no chances, and the Century interview never appeared. It is now presented for the first time.

In order to realize the full import of the Emperor’s words, one must remember that they were uttered only six years before the outbreak of the World War. With the Russo-Japanese War only three years in the background and the Algeciras Conference already standing as a proof of Germany’s isolation, the stage was set for the new and incomparably greater conflict. The whole history of the period was a rapid succession of international crises, any one of which, it was feared, might set the nations of the Triple Alliance and those of the Triple Entente at each other’s throats. After 1906, when Great Britain launched the Dreadnought class of capital ships, Germany’s naval rivalry with England was matched only by her army rivalry with France. And when, in 1907, the Hague disarmament conference broke down, there was no longer any hope of holding the race within reasonable bounds. Such was the tense state of affairs when, the following year, the German Emperor voiced to Hale, expressly for publication, the most amazingly indiscreet statements ever uttered by the head of a great nation.

Copyright 1934, by The Atlantic Monthly Company, Boston, Mass. All rights reserved.

It happened one evening in July 1908, as the imperial yacht, the Hohenzollern, lay at anchor in the fjord of Bergen. The sun was just setting as William Bayard Hale came aboard for the interview; he was graciously received by the Emperor, who stalked the quarter-deck in the gold braid of an Admiral. What had given Hale the opening for this meeting was the appearance, a short while before, of his A Week in the White House with Theodore Roosevelt, a wellreceived portrait of the dynamic President in action. He had behind him, also, a varied career as an Episcopal minister, a newspaper editor, and a writer on politics and diplomacy. The Emperor, in accordance with his rule never to receive representatives of the press, was pleased to regard Hale as a private citizen. But he had agreed to let Hale make public whatever he said, and had stipulated only that the interview should appear in a magazine rather than in a newspaper, and that the text must first be submitted to the German Foreign Office.

It was long after darkness had closed in on the fjord and on the white yacht there at anchor when Hale finally made his adieus and was borne in the steam pinnace back to the deserted waterfront of the town of Bergen. All night he sat up in his hotel making exact notes of the Emperor’s remarks (he had spoken in English) just as they had tumbled from his lips during two hours of uninterrupted conversation. From these Hale was able at leisure to prepare the text of his article. In the restrained and formal magazine style of the period, he transcribed from his notes what the Emperor had said, in several instances being careful — in order not to shock the Foreign Office too severely — to present his political pronouncements in indirect discourse. In due time the manuscript was sent to Wilhelmstrasse, where it was checked minutely by the Chief of the Bureau for English-Speaking Nations, Baron von dem Bussche.

When the manuscript came back, the author’s chagrin was extreme: for with it came a note from the Baron, saying that all the really important and emphatic points must be cut out! Criticisms had been changed in substance; diatribes had been edited into ambiguous phrases of faint praise. Nothing more specific must be published.

There were, then, three versions of the interview. The first was the bundle of notes that Hale made of the Emperor’s words — the almost verbatim account of a trained reporter. The second was the article in its original form as it was submitted to the Foreign Office. The third consisted of what was left after the Foreign Office got through with it. It was this last that was acquired for publication in the Century Magazine. The first and second versions were locked away by Hale and were seen by no other living soul until after his death. Thus, while the real interview remained hidden and unknown, the harmless dilution of it came near creating an international crisis.

Before me as I write lie all three versions of this suppressed interview. In preparing it for publication, I have thought it advisable for the sake of historical accuracy not to limit it to the expurgated form which the Century printed and then destroyed, but rather to draw upon the complete text. I shall preserve all the Emperor’s extraordinary pronouncements on politics and foreign affairs, omitting only his rambling comments on art and science. With this exception, and one other of a different kind to be noted hereafter, I shall follow the original manuscript in Hale’s handwriting, the one which was sent to the German Foreign Office and returned with the most important passages crossed through by the censor’s pencil — but with their words still plainly legible. For identification, these canceled passages are printed in italics.

Here, then, is the vital substance of what Emperor William II said to Hale that July evening in 1908.

I

One of the Emperor’s first inquiries was: ‘And how is the President? Well and hard at work, I hope and am sure. What a man he is! I don’t know that we ever shall meet. You see, he can drop his job and go off to Africa or somewhere, shooting, or doing what he likes. I don’t see any prospect of getting a holiday of four years — or four weeks. One can never tell,’ His Majesty laughed parenthetically, ‘what may happen, but it looks as if I should not soon be allowed the freedom from duty which my colleague, your President, is about to enjoy.

‘Mr. Roosevelt,’ said the Emperor, — speaking not in a casual way, but as if giving voice to conclusions which he was glad of a chance to express, — ‘ Mr. Roosevelt is an inspiring example of the force of personality. It is n’t genius the world needs, nor brilliancy, nor profound learning, half so much as personality. The man with convictions of righteousness, who is ready to fight for them and never give them up, indifferent to abuse and careless of lying and howling adversaries — he is the man to whom all will come and before whom all things will yield.

‘Yes, the big things in the world are always done by just a man — one man — one strong personality. History in its times of crisis cries out for a man. Everything waits until a great personality appears; nothing happens until there rises up a man of absolute fearlessness, who knows what he wants and goes straight after it. Look what Mr. Roosevelt has done. He has done it alone, single-handed. Consider the great changes that have come over your country, the great moral revival that has swept the face of it. Who brought it about? Mr. Roosevelt brought it about. He is one of the greatest leaders of men the world has seen. You might say that he is only the incarnation of the finest spirit of your land. But he expressed that spirit before it was conscious of itself.

‘Parliaments may criticize; Parliaments may hold back; Parliaments may be very wise — but Parliaments don’t do things. You may gather all the wisdom in the world in a Parliament chamber, but you will never get action out of a Parliament chamber. One man has got to lead.

‘There must always be one man willing to assume responsibilities, to do things. Parliaments consider; they do not act. Where is your Congress, your Senate? Following the President, of course, consenting to policies and acts which no legislative body could ever have devised or been willing to take the responsibility for. It makes no difference whether it is in a republic or an empire. The strong, upright personality rules. It is a law of society; it is a principle of progress.

‘How they did abuse him!’ His Majesty continued. ‘The language of vituperation had no resources unexhausted. You must n’t give me away,’ — that was the Emperor’s phrase, as he spoke in my ear in a stage whisper, — ‘ but some of my aristocratic friends in England (you know they were badly hit there) . . .’ And I listened to the story, told with palpable delight, of the rage of certain British lords and ladies of high degree over the performances of the personage whom one of them amiably described as ‘the uncouth monster in the White House.’

‘But,’ continued the Emperor, ‘if it were outrageous that Englishmen or other foreigners should abuse Mr. Roosevelt, how much more deplorable is it that his own countrymen should have hurled anathemas at him because he was fighting the battle of honesty. I can understand why men like Mr. Rockefeller, with his peculiar methods of gathering money, should not have relished the President’s attack on iniquitous trust methods.’

‘Mr. Rockefeller,’ I ventured to observe, ‘is — according to his own profession, at all events — one of those whom Your Majesty applauds for putting their money at work for good. Last autumn, one glorious October day, on his golf links, he stopped at stance to assure me solemnly that he was really a socialist: that all he had he considered he held as a trustee for humanity.’

His Majesty pulled up in his walk. ‘So Mr. Rockefeller said that to you!

Did you ask him where in heaven’s name and from whom he got the appointment? I am sorry you did n’t, for I for one should like to know.’

The Emperor appeared amused at a reference to the indignant rejoinder of Mr. Dick Turpin, highwayman, who, having made reference to his respectable fortune, had been asked, ‘And where did you get it?’ ‘The question,’ said Mr. Turpin, ‘is impertinent and irrelevant.’

The Emperor dwelt upon his admiration for Mr. Roosevelt, and sent him a message of congratulation and good wishes. ‘You may tell him, if you like,’ His Majesty concluded, ‘you may tell all your friends in America of what I said to Mr. Carnegie one day not long ago. Mr. Carnegie was in a merry mood, and he said to me: “There are just two fellows I wish I could be given the management of.” They were your President and myself. “I would show the world things, I tell you, if I could just get you two fellows in harness and have the reins for one day.” Now, I replied to Mr. Carnegie’s little joke: “I should esteem it a real honor to be harnessed up with Mr. Roosevelt; but I should insist that we go tandem, and that Mr. Roosevelt lead!” That is really the way I feel about it, so highly do I admire his indomitable courage, his high convictions, and his success in putting them into execution.’

‘But,’ I suggested, ‘if Mr. Carnegie had the management of such an illustrious pair, the first thing he would do would be to direct Your Majesty to blow up the Stettin yonder, and the second to instruct the President to call the American fleet back from the Pacific and probably put the ships at work dredging harbors. Hasn’t Mr. Carnegie told Your Majesty his pretty story of the little white yacht which is sufficient to police the international frontier of the American Great Lakes and keep the peace between the United States and Great Britain?’

‘All wrong!’ exlaimed the Emperor. ‘In the world of practical facts we have to fight, even for righteousness’ sake. The Bible is full of fighting — jolly good fights some of them were. It is a mistaken idea that Christianity has no countenance for war. Why, the early Christians had no scruple about propagating the faith by the sword. We are ourselves Christians by reason of forcible conversion. Mind, I don’t advocate that method now, but how can our missionaries reach the barbarians unless we win and keep open a road for our missionaries, by force, if necessary?

‘I am told that a few years ago, when it occurred to Japan that it might be a good thing if, along with other features of Western life, the nation were to adopt a religion, a sort of committee was formed to investigate the claims of various faiths. When they came to Christianity, the committee rejected it at once, because, as they declared, Christianity was no religion for a soldier.

‘Little those Japanese knew about it! The greatest soldiers in history have been Christians. The greatest degree of fortitude and of courage is inculcated by Christianity. The trouble with the Japanese is, they don’t want any religion. They are constitutionally incapable of religion. They are utterly without sentiment. They are entirely practical, cold, unsympathetic,’¹

II

The Asiatic question was, I cannot overstate to what degree, the Emperor’s chief theme. The particular phases of the situation now obtaining and developing to which His Majesty mainly adverted were the attitudes with regard to the East taken respectively by England and the United States — the contrasted attitudes. And the particular practical conclusion which His Majesty drew from the exigencies of the case was the necessity for united action in the East on the part of Germany and the United States.²

‘How long ago was it,’ exclaimed the Emperor, ‘that I painted my picture, “The Yellow Peril”? I did n’t speak in oracular verse. There was nothing sibylline or enigmatical or ambiguous in my prophecy. There could only be one interpretation. I painted it on canvas, not merely in black and white, but in unmistakable colors. That was fifteen years ago. I dare say the world smiled. The world does n’t smile now. The time for smiling is past.

‘Everybody knows what must come to pass between Asia and the West, the Yellow Race and the White. It is imbecile folly for us to close our eyes to the inevitable, for us to neglect to prepare to meet the inevitable. We are unworthy of our fathers if we are negligent of the sacred duty of preserving the civilization which they have achieved for us, and the religion which God has given us.

‘All the world understands that the gravest crisis in the destiny of the earth’s population is at hand. The first battle has been fought. Unfortunately, it was not won. Russia was fighting the White Man’s battle. Many did not see it then. All do now. What a pity it was not fought better! What a misfortune! Those Russians were not fit to fight this fight. What a pity it should have fallen to them to do it!’

The Emperor’s face flushed, and he lifted his arm, his fist clinched in air. Between set teeth, with his face close to mine, he exclaimed, ‘My God, I wish my battalions could have had a chance at ’em! We’d have made short work of it!’

I asked the Emperor if he thought the Japanese had been overestimated as soldiers. He replied: —

‘Decidedly I do think so. If the whole truth about the Russo-Japanese War were known to the world, a good deal of Japanese prestige would vanish. Why, we had some gymkhana exercises at Tientsin in which, in a test march, the Japanese were nowhere. I believe they never did get in at all. You see, they could n’t fulfill the conditions of the march — could not carry their impedimenta, having always left this to coolies. Now the time has not come when a diminutive stature and an inability to carry burdens on a march is an advantage in war. Then their engineering and mechanical skill has been overrated. It is true they are great imitators on the surface, but they don’t get the spirit, the heart of the thing.’

I said: ‘We don’t seem able to get at the Japanese. With all we can learn about him he remains a mystery.’

To this the Emperor rejoined instantly: ‘We know this much about him: he hates the White Man worse than the White Man hates the Devil.’

The Emperor discussed the Japanese character at great length, and concluded by saying: ‘The Japanese are devils, that’s the simple fact. They are devils.’

‘The danger to us,’ continued the Emperor, ‘is not Japan, but Japan at the head of a consolidated Asia. The control of China by Japan — that would be the worst calamity that could threaten the world.

‘We shall be wise if we divide the East against itself. That means, at this stage of the game, that we must not allow China and Japan to get together, either fraternally or — one inside the other. The particular duty which the White Man owes himself at this moment is to prevent Japan’s swallowing China.’

‘But,’ I said, ‘is n’t the integrity of China and the “open door” principle guaranteed by half a dozen treaties, to every one of which Japan is a party?’

‘That’s the trouble!’ rejoined the Emperor. ‘Japan is a party to every one of the treaties. Not worth the paper they are written on. What we have got to have is an agreement among white nations. But consider what positions the white nations are in. You know where I stand. Look at the others:—

‘It’s no good talking about Great Britain. England is a traitor to the White Man’s cause. The ninnies there have gotten that government in an absolutely impossible position. I tell you, that empire is going to pieces on this rock. If that alliance of theirs with Japan is persisted in, I don’t see how the British Empire can be saved from dismemberment. When self-interest comes in at the door, sentimental patriotism flies out of the window.

‘Do you know why Australia and New Zealand invited the President to send the American fleet to their shores? If the President never told you, I will tell you why. That invitation was for the express purpose of serving notice on the government of my good uncle over there that those colonies understand that they have in the United States a friend who understands the White Man’s duty better than the mother country seems to understand it. That was the reason the invitation was issued; and the President accepted, and the fleet was sent, on that understanding.

‘I know that British Columbia has made it plain that it must be handled very tenderly indeed, or it will be lost to the Empire. In South Africa — well, everybody knows how critical the race problem is there.

‘In India, conditions at this hour, even as they are publicly known, are worrying Englishmen. If they knew the whole truth they would be more than worried. Now, I am not talking idly. I have information from my consuls that conditions in India are very much more serious than England knows. The peculiar danger there springs directly from the fact that the British Government has made an alliance with Japan. It has done this, it has exchanged honors and pledges of friendship on the basis of equality with one Asiatic people while it holds another Asiatic people in bondage.

‘Don’t you see how that fact must rankle in the breasts of Indians? The long-slumbering disaffection in India has been fanned to a blazing spirit of rebellion through the use of this humiliating argument. It makes those people wild to realize that they can’t be British citizens, that not one of them can earn a V.C., while another Asiatic people are considered equal to Englishmen. And I can tell you that the people who are spreading this rebellion, who are urging this argument, are disguised Japanese agents in India.

‘Now mind you, I don’t believe public opinion is behind this treaty in England. But the ninnies who run the government are determined to stick to it. So long as they do, England is in the position of a traitor to the White Man’s cause, and England is outside any programme which other Western nations may devise to meet the conditions which the awakening of the East has produced.

‘Then go on to consider what other Powers are bound to England by treaty of alliance or diplomatic understanding. Such Powers must be considered as excluded from any programme against England’s Eastern ally. This counts out France and Russia.

‘What Power remains, then, interested and unfettered? The United States.

‘The United States,’ the Emperor went on, ‘must be realizing the gravity of the Asiatic problem. Placed on one shore of an ocean the opposite shore of which teems with hundreds of millions of Yellow Men, what you begin to see now you will soon — sooner than Europe — appreciate as the only serious apprehension of the future, the apprehension beside which all others fade into inconsequence.’

The Emperor spoke at some length of the grounds of friendship between Germany and the United Slates. Among other things he said: ‘The vast number of Germans and men and women of German descent who are, you tell me, among the most substantial citizens of your great country, constitute already a necessary bond between us. Our instincts are one, our religion the same, our race the same. Germany has no ambitions that traverse or even approach the spheres of American activity.’

And then the Emperor continued: ‘This is what I am coming to. If China needs a Big Brother — suppose we, and not Japan, be Big Brother. It would be easily possible for the United States in agreement with me to guarantee the territorial integrity of China, to guarantee the “open door” in China, and to fill, as a faithful and cherished guide and friend of China, the part which her voracious relative cannot be trusted in.

‘To do that, I say, would be easily possible. And to do that would be the highest wisdom. Japan’s ambitions have got to be restricted. The White Man’s interests in China have got to be protected. The consolidation of Eastern Asia has got to be prevented.’

I asked the Emperor whether the President agreed with his views on these subjects. He said: —

‘Yes. We’ve been over them pretty well together, and I believe he does agree. Oh, this has gone much further than anybody dreams. It’s been on my mind for four or five years in this form, and it’s working out.

‘Some fine day the world will wake up and read a quiet little agreement between Germany and the United States declaring that we guarantee Chinese sovereignty over Chinese territory, and the “open door” in all parts of the Chinese Empire. O — ho! ho! I wonder what my friends across the Channel will say to that!’

Here the Emperor laughed loudly, and made a dance step on the deck.

III

The conversation, following the impulsive course of the Emperor’s mind, soon turned to the subject of religion. The Emperor spoke with fervor, with evident simplicity of heart and pious anxiety for the progress of the cause of Christ. Clearly he esteems himself a lord with spiritual as well as temporal responsibility, Summus Episcopus of the church within his dominions, as, beyond doubt, his anointment as a Christian sovereign has made him.

‘With us in Germany,’ the Emperor said, ‘religion is in a flourishing condition. The old Gospel is as true to-day as ever, though there are some who think the people should be coaxed to eat the cakes of sugared theology, instead of being invited to partake of the plain bread of the faith of Jesus Christ. I am glad to say, however, that the dominant note in German preaching is a call to devotion to the personality of Jesus. There is the heart and power of our faith. Roman Catholicism is without it. The Catholics have small place for Jesus. They have relegated Him to a place inferior to Mary and the Saints. But we Protestants draw our strength from the strength of the Saviour’s Holy Person.’

There can he no denying the warmth of the Emperor’s antipathy to Roman Catholicism. Indeed, to a native of a land where the religious quarrel is so far happily unknown, the Emperor’s abomi-nation and horror of all things pertaining to it become difficult to understand.³

I inquired about the Old Catholics. We used to hear much of the promise of the movement headed by Dr. Döllinger.

The Emperor indulged an expressive shrug. ‘What would you expect? There can be no compromise within the Catholic Church. It is ultramontane or nothing. Any movement within it to reform it is doomed to fail. Erasmus was an amiable theorist, but Luther knew the only way to succeed.

‘You see, the Catholic Church has a perfectly simple proposition, and it has just one. Catholicism says: “Give me yourself, your whole personality, body and mind, in this life, and we will guarantee your happiness hereafter.” That proposition is incapable of modification. Some people find it attractive. How a man with a reason can do so, is an eternal mystery to me. [The Foreign Office changed this phrase to read, ‘I do not understand.’]

‘The day of Catholicism, of course, is past. The dawn of universal intelligence is its doom. I say that to my clergy. I tell them: “Let it alone. In due time it will perish of itself. Education is fatal to it. Educate, and pro-

claim the Gospel. Don’t waste time denouncing Catholicism.”’

Of the talents of Pope Leo XIII, with whom he spoke with pleasure of having conversed, the Emperor expressed admiration. The reigning Pontiff he regarded as a pious man, indeed a zealot, without theological or scientific training, ruled by extreme reactionaries.⁴

The Emperor told several incidents of Catholic difficulties he had known deftly evaded by dispensations or canonical subtleties. Good-naturedly he admitted that this kind of logical training produced minds of peculiar ethical resourcefulness.

‘One of my bishops [His Majesty referred to a Roman Catholic bishop] told me of the difficulties he had with the educated Chinese. You know the Oriental mind is thoroughly logical in its processes. Sentiment does not touch it. It wants to be shown. Accordingly, the questions which Chinese auditors gravely put to the missionaries are much like those with which our little children sometimes puzzle us — amusing, perhaps, but hard to answer.

‘One day, before a distinguished audience of Chinese which he was addressing on the beauties of Christianity, my friend was interrupted by the question: “You say that your God is all-wise, all-good, and all-powerful. He must therefore have desired to save the greatest number of people. Why, then, did He allow Christ to appear in the scantily populated, insignificant province of Judæa, instead of being born in the mighty and populous Empire of China?”

‘Now,’ said the Emperor, ‘what would you or I have answered to such a question? I fear I should n’t have made

any converts that day. But my Jesuit bishop was ready.

‘“The answer,” he said, “is easy. It is just because God desired to save the greatest of people that He caused Christ to appear outside the mighty Empire of China. For you cannot fail to remember that in the glorious reign of[His Majesty named the ruler of the Celestial Empire in the year of the Nativity; I cannot do so] it was the law that no Chinaman should pass the boundaries of the Empire. Undoubtedly God preferred that Christ should be a Chinaman, but He had to consider this fact. Great as was His admiration for your race, He could not shut off salvation from the rest of mankind. It was ordered that Christ should appear outside the Empire so that He or His apostles might come to you, while still free to visit also the heathen lands.”

‘What,’ exclaimed His Majesty, ‘could a Chinese philosopher say to an argument like that! Manifestly it is unanswerable, sufficient, convincing.’

The Emperor was anxious to learn of the prospects of Roman Catholicism in America. One Roman prelate he named to me three times during the evening as an archenemy of the Republic, a Jesuit in disguise. ‘Look out for Archbishop Ireland; he is the worst foe of your country,’ was almost His Majesty’s parting injunction. [The Foreign Office deleted the name in this quotation, but allowed the rest to stand.]

IV

Turning once more to international affairs, the Emperor spoke to me of the Boer War, spoke truthfully and impressively of the irony of history; of the mills of the gods that, though grinding slowly, grind exceeding fine. It would have been most ungracious to remind His Majesty, philosopher though he be, and just historian, of another of history’s ironies. For must not a German see a certain whimsical and malicious irony in the fact that the great victory of 1870 left the vanquished a dream, — just a dream of revanche, — which to this day compels in no little measure the politics internal and foreign of the conqueror, restricts her ambitions, makes it necessary for her to maintain an immense army — and to keep it close home?

But France, the Emperor explained, would constitute no threat for Germany were she free of other enemies. In greater part, the isolation of Germany to-day is the deliberate work of England.

‘What,’ asked the Emperor, ‘is England’s grievance against Germany? In part the grievance of a people which sees another outstripping her in every one of her cherished activities. Germany is supplanting England in England’s old markets. Germany is getting the carrying-trade of the world. Look at the great Hamburg and Bremen lines, and consider the case of Liverpool. The German is showing himself the more clever manufacturer; his chemists are at work saving the byproducts; in the latest feat of mechanical skill, the making of automobiles, he has gone to the head. His education is better; his health is better; his stature is not diminishing. His army is unequaled; his navy is becoming dangerous; he is first in the field (or in the air) with a practical aerial ship of war.

‘But it is not so much the direct rivalry that begets for Germany the hostility of England, as it is an historical principle of British diplomacy. Ever since the day of Wolsey, consistently, without ever departing from it, England has founded her foreign policy on the leading principle that she must single out and oppose the Power at the moment paramount on the Continent. It would be easy to demonstrate this. Examine British policy, and you will find that always England is at work trying to unite the remaining nations of Europe in concerts against the dominant Power.

‘This principle has become so firmly a part of British policy that it is nowadays scarcely deliberate. It is instinctive. To-day Germany is the great Continental Power. To-day, therefore, England makes alliances, or seeks them, with every capital of Europe except Berlin.’⁵

Once more the Emperor surveyed the broad international scene, denying that he had any ambitions either in the Orient or in the Caribbean; asserting that England’s alliance with Japan would be fatal to her; and concluding by emphasizing the problem of the conflict of races.

‘The future,’ — the voice rang out, — ‘ the future belongs to the White Race, never fear! ’ His shoulders squared, his eye flashed, I could see the eagle above his head. ‘It belongs to the Anglo-Teuton, the man who came from Northern Europe — where you to whom America belongs came from — the home of the German. It does not belong, the future, to the Yellow, nor to the Black, nor to the Olive-colored. It belongs to the Fair-skinned Man, and it belongs to Christianity and to Protestantism. We are the only people who can save it. There is no power in any other civilization or any other religion that can save humanity; and the future — belongs — to — us!’

(The story of what happened to this extraordinary interview will appear in the June number)