Further important changes in the German Foreign Office and Diplomatic
Service were announced at Berlin on Monday evening. Herr von Tschirschky, Foreign Secretary since January, 1906, becomes Ambassador at Vienna, and is replaced by Herr von Sabi], Ambassador at St. Petersburg, while Count Wedel, the outgoing Ambassador at Vienna, succeeds Prince Hohenlohe-Langenburg as Statthalter in Alsace and Lorraine. The significance of these changes cannot yet be precisely determined ; but the removal of Herr von Tschirschky is interpreted as evidence of the unimpaired influence of Prince Billow, with whom his relations were not altogether harmonious. Herr von Schon's Parliamentary aptitude—his predecessor's weak point—is as yet an unknown quantity. He is a man of considerable private fortune, the son of a wealthy South German merchant, he has served for thirty years in the Diplomatic Service, and is said to be high in the favour of the Emperor. Count Wedel is credited with a desire for a rapprochement between France and Germany, which his new sphere of activity will give him special opportunities of promoting.
