Memories are short, and I suppose the announcement Of the
death of General Stuart-Wortley this week will have recalled to comparatively few of those who noticed it the famous Daily Telegraph interview with the Kaiser which helped to lose Billow. his Chancellorship, came near losing Wilhelm II his throne, and formed one of the milestones that marked the road to war in the first decade of this century. General Stuart-Wortley was the Kaiser's host at Highcliffe Castle in Hampshire, and it was to him that the German Emperor confided his desire to get his . views on this country published in some reputable , English paper. So it was arranged. The views were characteristic. The most inept passage of all, containing the statement that William II had in 1900 been kind • enough to send to Queen Victoria a military plan for the South African campaign then in progress, was equally unfortunate in its effects in this country, where the im- pertinence was not unnaturally resented, and in Germany, where nine people out of ten had wanted the Boers to beat the British. With an effort one realizes that the author and conceiver of the now historic ineptitude still lives.
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