"Kaiser Central Factor Of Germany's Peaceful Policy."

New York Times 100 years ago today, June 8, 1913:
So Says Lord Blyth, Noted English Authority, After Analyzing the Results Achieved by Wilhelm II. Since He Has Been Germany's Ruler.Lord Blyth, author of the article on the German Emperor printed below, has for years been interested in public questions, on which he has written frequently. Among his writings are a number of articles on agricultural and commercial conditions in Great Britain, the House of Lords and the matter of cheapening postal and telegraphic communication. He has received a number of medals from different nations.
He was Treasurer to the Tuberculosis Congress and placed two farms at the disposal of the Government for ten years for the purpose of investigating the disease. He was Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Franco-British Exhibition in 1908.
By Lord Blyth.
    THE quarter of a century during which the German Emperor has held the reigns of power with the whole-hearted will of the great German people has happily been peaceful for them, and, as far as Europe is concerned, peaceful for us. Nevertheless the question rises to many lips: Has the Kaiser been and is he still a factor for peace or for war between the nations?
    The simple fact of peace having been maintained during his reign of twenty-five years speaks for itself. But certain questions require definite answers before we are fully assured of his present and future policy. First, has the Kaiser been the active centre of the peaceful element in Germany? Second, have his endeavors for peace been without arière pensée or mental reservation? Third, has he been a party to the maintenance of peace merely because he thinks that Germany is not yet strong enough to break it with advantage to herself?
    To these three queries I answer that I believe the Kaiser really has been the true and central factor of the past peaceful policy of Germany. At the same time I believe that he has had one governing thought running through all his policy, and that is to make Germany so strong that others dare not provoke her to war. This last answers the third query.
    Kaiser Wilhelm does not want war, not only because peace will pay Germany better, but because he sincerely prefers peace for its own sake. He must have fully realized the horrors of war and, besides, knows well enough that no matter how successful Germany might be in a great campaign, she has far more to gain in the future from a long era of peace than from the greatest victories on land or sea. Of this, her remarkable and ever-increasing prosperity since his accession must always be an outstanding object lesson to the Kaiser.
    Nobody who has been at all acquainted with the inner life of royal and military circles in Germany but will know that the Kaiser's authority and personality have certainly been the peaceful factor behind all the scenes of politics and Government.
    He has had the little excursions and ebullitions of such a dominant character and personality, but his influence nevertheless has been steadily and persistently exerted for peace.
    If I speak without actual personal knowledge of the Kaiser, I am by no means wanting in accurate knowledge of his sentiments. I may quote the information of a distinguished German friend of mine, now, alas, passed away, who had lived much in England, with whom I was in close and constant touch by letter and otherwise for nearly half a century, and who was a lover of our country second only to his own.
    This gentleman knew the Kaiser well, and had at least on one occasion the honor of entertaining him and the Kaiserin at his residence on the Rhine. His Imperial Majesty availed himself of that opportunity to make on this particular subject a confidant of my friend, and told him how much he deplored the warlike tone of the English press as shown in the utterances of some ten years ago. His Majesty at that time begged him to use his best endeavors among his many English friends to bring about in the English press a friendlier attitude toward Germany, adding that not only he but all the thoughtful minds of Germany had the greatest dread of war, but that their best efforts to avert such a calamity were being greatly hindered by the bellicose attitude of some of our newspapers.
    At my friend's suggestion, I saw some of the proprietors of our principal journals, upon whom I think I was able to make an impression by pointing out that it was the opinion. if not of the Kaiser himself, yet certainly of many of the higher dignitaries of his Court, that the great danger lay in the communications which were conveyed to the papers in England by the British correspondents residing in Germany, who at times were giving an altogether erroneous impression of the general feeling prevailing in Germany toward England, and that these utterances of our English press were naturally provocative of counter demonstrations in the German organs, which equally misrepresented the real feeling of the fatherland.
    Whatever may have been the language of our English press in days now gone by, there is at present happily but one tone pervading our newspapers, and that is in the direction of a more generous and friendly interpretation of the policy and actions of Germany.
    It has always seemed to me that a complete understanding is retarded mainly by the fact that the most ardent of our advocates in Germany who wish to be friendly do not recognize sufficiently the strength of Great Britain; and that the most ardent advocates of German strength show themselves to be indifferent to the fostering of friendship between the two countries. To be strong and friendly on both sides seems to me to be the pivotal condition of a permanent Anglo-German understanding.
    The Kaiser's love and reverence for his grandmother, Queen Victoria, are well known, and he must have been much influenced by her unfailing wisdom. He has, too, no doubt, the natural desire to follow the lead of his illustrious uncle, King Edward the Peacemaker, who was as popular abroad as at home, and while King George has afforded him a splendid example of what a model constitutional sovereign should be, he has also in three short years given to the Kaiser overwhelming evidence of his personal belief in the wisdom and necessity of Anglo-German friendship.
    These combined elements in the question must assuredly confirm the Kaiser in his sentiments of peace and good-will, not only toward this country, but also toward all other nations.