At the outset, during the sojourn of the Tzarewitch at Berlin, whilst
he was being carefully coddled by the Emperor, the chancellor, Von
Caprivi (who boasts of having no initiative of his own and of acting
only under the orders of his master), was inspiring accusations, and
making them himself before the military commission, charging the war
party in Russia with secretly plotting against Germany. One would like
to know where the war party in Russia can possibly be at the present
moment?
At the same time that William II was endeavouring to recover and
restore amicable relations with the Tzar, he had every intention of
carrying through his schemes of military re-organisation and the
increase of the army, which, as Von Caprivi was wont to say after His
Majesty, constitute essential safeguards against a Russian invasion.
Now, the good Germans welcomed the son of Alexander III; they meant to
prove to William II how useless they considered the increase of the
army, inasmuch as the Tzar, with whom lies the final arbitrament of
war, had shown his desire for peace by sending his son to Berlin. The
Tzar, whose statecraft is great and profound, had clearly foreseen what
the German people would think of the presence of his son in their
midst; he showed them by this means that the increase of the army is
useless, and that all the agitation and complications which William
provokes, the oppositions and the struggles which he himself creates
amongst the forces that he lets loose, give rise to dangers, far
greater than any with which Russia could ever threaten Germany.
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