The Days of a Man 



D899 



So far as Great Britain is concerned, Sir Alfred 

 (now Lord) Milner and Joseph Chamberlain seem 

 to have been mainly the active agents in bringing 

 Imperial on war. Presumable motives were the Tory desire 

 expansxon ^^j. expansion of empire, and the hope of warding 

 off political disaster at home by military operations 

 abroad. Few wars, indeed, are begun without a 

 sordid basis — profit, domination, or fear of the loss 

 of power. As was said by some in England at the 

 time, "people do not go to war as children cut off 

 poppy heads, to see the white juice flow." The 

 conflict was costly, bloody, and prolonged — es- 

 pecially inimical, therefore, to British prestige. 

 For, in spite of small numbers, poverty, and isola- 

 tion, the Dutch farmers held their own in the field, 

 and victory, following nominal annexation, was 

 finally achieved by Great Britain only at great ex- 

 pense of life and money. 



An interesting feature of the situation preceding 

 the war w^as the apparent desire of the German 

 Kaiser — always carrying water on both shoulders 

 — to get into the game without actually fighting. 

 In a personal telegram to Kruger (as is well known) 

 he expressed his warm sympathy, even going so 

 far as to arouse the expectation of military in- 

 tervention by the Germans. And in London I was 

 told that when some one asked Marschall von 

 Bieberstein, former Prime Minister of Germany, 

 why he let such an ill-judged telegram go out, that 

 oflficial replied: "You ought to have seen it before 

 I edited it!" 



From the first, world opinion was adverse to the 

 British cause, though no formal protest came from 

 any quarter. My own reaction was that vividly 



n 656: 



The 



Kaiser's 



telegram 



