Germany And England.

New York Times 100 years ago today, May 23, 1913:
    The German Emperor and the heir to the crown wore uniforms of the British Army, in which they hold honorary commissions, when they greeted the King of England and the Queen Consort on their arrival in Berlin to take part in the ceremonies attending the marriage of the Emperor's only daughter and Prince Ernest Augustus of Cumberland. The bride and her mother were in the group of royalties who welcomed the visiting sovereigns. All these personages are closely bound by the ties of blood relationship, while the Czar of Russia, who joined the party yesterday, is cousin of both the King and the Kaiser. They are intimately associated now, as they often have been before, in a domestic ceremony which also has the character of an international function. In the circumstances how remote the prospect seems to be of a war between England and Germany. Not only their sovereigns but the two peoples themselves are closely related, they have enormous interests in common, and in a commercial and financial sense they were never more dependent on each other than they are now.
    Hundreds of thousands of Englishmen and Germans who have been more or less disturbed by the rumors of international disagreements, which are happily less persistent than they were, must feel elated to-day by this inspiring symbol of peace and good-fellowship. Germany's need of expansion, to be sure, is not to be ignored. It is of natural and wholesome growth, but the need can be satisfied in another way than a conflict of arms, and a much better way. There is a good prospect that it will be satisfied without resort to warlike measures. The terrific disturbance in the Balkans has developed and culminated without any very grave dispute between the Powers. There can be no stronger augury of protracted peace in Europe than that. The rumors of a new Anglo-German understanding continue while King George is attending the wedding festivities of his cousins, and though international politics may be avoided in the conversations of the Kaiser and the King, we may reasonably hope that the rumors are true.