MY RECOLLECTIONS OF BISMARCK- 1879-1881 593 



Alsace-Lorraine was annexed to the empire, did not apply 

 to these new provinces, and that the youth was detained as 

 a deserter. To this I replied that, although the minister's 

 statement was strictly true, the point had been waived 

 long before in our favor ; that in no less than eight cases 

 the German Government had extended the benefit of the 

 Bancroft treaties over Alsace-Lorraine; and that in one 

 of these cases the acting minister of foreign affairs had 

 declared the intention of the government to make this 

 extension permanent. 



But just at this period, after the death of Baron von 

 Billow, who had been most kindly in all such matters, the 

 chancellor had fallen into a curious way of summoning 

 eminent German diplomatists from various capitals of 

 Europe into the ministry of foreign affairs for a limited 

 time trying them on, as it were. These gentlemen were 

 generally very agreeable; but on this occasion I had to 

 deal with one who had been summoned from service at 

 one of the lesser German courts, and who was younger 

 than most of his predecessors. To my surprise, he brushed 

 aside all the precedents I had cited, and also the fact that 

 a former acting minister of foreign affairs had distinctly 

 stated that, as a matter of comity, the German Government 

 proposed to consider the Bancroft treaties as applying 

 permanently to Alsace-Lorraine. Neither notes nor verbal 

 remonstrances moved him. He was perfectly civil, and 

 answered my arguments, in every case, as if he were about 

 to yield, yet always closed with a "but" and did nothing. 

 He seemed paralyzed. The cause of the difficulty was soon 

 evident. It was natural that Bismarck should have a feel- 

 ing that a young man who had virtually deserted the Ger- 

 man flag just before reaching the military age deserved the 

 worst treatment which the law allowed. His own sons had 

 served in the army, and had plunged into the thickest of 

 the fight, one of them receiving a serious wound ; and that 

 this young Alsatian Israelite should thus escape service 

 by a trick was evidently hateful to him. That the chancel- 

 lor himself gave the final decision in this matter was the 



I. 38 



