Mr. E. T. S. Dugdale has done great service to
all who are interested in pm-War diplomacy by making an orderly selection from the German Diplomatic Documents, 1871-1914, of which the German Foreign Office has printed many volumes. Mr. Dugdale adopts a chronological plan, and in the second volume now published (Methuen, 21s.) he treats of the years 1890-98, from Bismarck's fall to the Spanish-American War. The British diplomatic documents now in course of publication begin where this volume ends, so that no comparison with them is possible, except in special cases. But the German despatches abound in references to British Ministers and their policy, and, incidentally, show that Lord Salisbury's reputation as a cautious and pacific statesman was well deserved. The famous " Kruger telegram " from the German Emperor, on January 3rd, 1896, was drafted by a Foreign Office clerk and the sting in its tail, stressing the " independence " of the Transvaal, was inserted by Marschall, the Foreign Minister himself. * * * *
Previous page
