After short speeches from the Conservative spokesmen, Prince Billow replied
in what we do not hesitate to call a very extraordinary speech. Without impugning the authen- ticity of the interview, Prince Billow said he must "presume" that all the details had not been correctly reproduced, and then proceeded to contest the accuracy of several of the state- ments. The plan of campaign against the Boers was only a "few aphorisms on campaigning in general," nor had the General Staff any band in the document.—Incidentally Prince Billow repelled the charge that Germany had shown duplicity against the Boers. On the contrary, her Government had warned the Transvaal Government in May, 1899, that in the event of war with England it would stand alone.—Many other statements in the interview were too strong or too highly coloured—e.g., those about the question of intervention during the Boer War and German naval policy in the Far East—and Prince Billow especially deprecated the passage asserting that the majority of Germans are hostile to the British people, whereas he was convinced the whole Reichstag would agree with him in the belief that the German people desired to live in peaceful and friendly relations with Great Britain based on mutual esteem.
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