Our new Minister of Foreign Affairs, upon coming to the Quai d'Orsay,
felt keenly the humiliation inflicted upon France by the persistent
weakness of our policy. From the outset he succeeded in foiling the
Sultan's dangerous scheme for securing a representative of the Holy See
at Constantinople which would have abolished at one stroke the whole
French protectorate over Christians in the East.
Cardinal Ledochowsky, Prefect of Propaganda, with the help of the
prospective Nuncio at Constantinople, and in order to emphasise the
collapse of French influence in the East, was making his plans in
readiness for William II to assume, solemnly and definitely, a
protectorate over the Christians. Already the Kaiser's trusty friend
at the Vatican had decided to instruct the Catholic clergy in Palestine
to render exceptional honours to the German Emperor on the occasion of
his journey to the Holy Places. But the Council of the Congregation,
in plenary session, has opposed the wishes of Cardinal Ledochowsky, and
so there will be no nomination of a representative of the Holy See at
the Court of the Grand Turk. The German Emperor must needs be content
with the honours "usually accorded to reigning princes." This is the
kind of rebuff that neither Abdul Hamid nor William II readily forgives.
One of the German Emperor's chief joys is to break things. To bewilder
people by the suddenness of his resolutions, to court all risks, to
proclaim his power, to sow the wind and reap the whirlwind: these are
the pleasures of the German Emperor, King of Prussia.
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