"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 feted 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.
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