An event of importance during the past week has been
the retirement, or, more accurately, the recall, of Dr. von Holleben, the German Ambassador in Washington. The New York correspondent of the Times dealt, both in last Saturday's and Monday's issues, with the event in telegrams which for trenchancy and plain speaking were in every sense noteworthy. An abler or more powerful piece of special correspondence than the telegram of Saturday could hardly be found in the history of telegraphic journalism. The correspondent insists that Dr. von Holleben was recalled because he had failed to do what the German Emperor required of him, and then points out that the Kaiser required the impossible :—" The Kaiser's conception of America and of what can or cannot be done here is essentially a false concep- tion. American opinion is not amenable to certain diplomatic influences nor to the innuendos of a reptile Press. With trivial exceptions there is no reptile Press here. A paper that can be bought is not worth buying." The real obstacle to the success of his policy is, he goes on, to be found not in Washington, but in Berlin. "Let him [the Kaiser] make a change there if he wishes a change here. The Imperial Palace, not the Washington Embassy, is the root of the mischief."
