And one more sign of evil omen--a
fearful tempest shook the Imperial yacht in Russian waters.
Let us, whose Emperor was a prisoner of the Germans in 1871, pray that
some day a German Emperor may be taken prisoner by the Russian
army--not like at Narva, but in all seriousness.
I said in my last letter that it might well be that William's journey
to Russia might result in stiffening the resolution of the Emperor
Alexander. And so it has proved, for scarcely had his Imperial guest
returned to Berlin, than a ukase raised the Russian Customs tariff and
imposed a new duty of 20 per cent. on German imports. A fine result
this, of that which the German Press, before William's departure,
described as the Russo-German Economic Entente, at a moment when, even
for the Berlin newspapers, the prospects of a political _entente_ were
somewhat dubious.
For this reason, Professor Delbrueck says quite bluntly, in the
"Prussian Annals," that William II's journey to Russia has been a
lamentable fiasco; that the Tzar declined to listen to any diplomatic
conversation; that he ridiculed and entertained his Imperial guest with
a series of military parades whilst the Russian general staff was
carrying out important manoeuvres on the western frontiers.
In the same spirit as that of the ex-deputy Professor, the whole German
and Austrian Press have been demanding that, for the peace of Europe,
the German and Austrian troops should be withdrawn from their
respective frontiers, so as to compel the Russian forces to do the same.
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