"It is impossible to rase this natural fortress."

"It would suffice if the English garrison were withdrawn, and all the fortifications dismantled. Gibraltar will cease to exist as a fortress, and will be restored to Spain on definite conditions. However, as it is not the intention of the allies completely to destroy English influence in the Levant, Malta will continue to form part of the British Empire.

Thus England retains in the Mediterranean the most important point d'appui for her fleet."

"It will not be easy to get the English Government to accept these conditions. But you have not yet spoken of the demands of Germany--Antwerp does not touch England's interests directly."

"The policy of the German Government will culminate in ensuring settled commercial and political relations with England and her colonies and the rounding off of our own colonial possessions. We therefore demand Walfish Bay for German South-West Africa, the only good harbour, which, at the present time, being English, is closed to our young South African Colony. Besides this, we must insist upon the East African districts, which we gave up in exchange for Heligoland, being restored to us. This serious mistake in German policy must be rectified; for the abandonment of the Protectorate of Zanzibar to England was a blow, which not only paralysed the zeal of our best colonial friends, but also depreciated the value of our East African Colonies."

"If I understand you correctly, Your Excellency, your policy is directed towards setting Germany's colonial efforts on a firmer basis."

"I certainly regard this as one of the most important demands of our time. We must recover what the policy of the last centuries has lost by neglect. At the same time that Your Royal Highness's great ancestor waged war for seven years for a mere strip of land--for tiny Silesia, the far-seeing policy of England succeeded, at a smaller sacrifice, in getting possession of enormous tracts of territory far larger in their whole extent than the entire continent of Europe."

"But for centuries England has been a naval power, and obliged to direct her efforts to the acquisition of colonies over sea."

"And what was there to prevent Prussia, centuries ago, from becoming a naval power that should command respect? It was our misfortune that the mighty ideas and far-seeing plans of the great Elector were frustrated by the inadequate means at his disposal. Had his successors continued what he had begun, Great Britain's power would never have been able to reach such a height. We should have secured in time, in previous centuries, our due share of the parts of the world outside Europe."

The Prince looked thoughtfully before him. After a brief silence the Imperial Chancellor continued--

"Your Royal Highness may have heard that the Netherlands are firmly resolved, in the interest of self-preservation, to be incorporated with the German Empire as a federal state, like Bavaria, Saxony, Wurtemburg, Baden, and the other German states, after the Franco-German War.

The rich and extensive Dutch colonies would then also become German colonies; that is to say, they would enter into the political union of the other German colonies while remaining under the administration of Holland. Our intention of repairing the wrong done by England to the Boers has made a very good impression on the Dutch population. The Boer states will enter into the same relation to us in which they stood to England before the Boer War, and their independence will be restored to them."

"Meaning self-government with the recognition of German supremacy.

Certainly, they are kinsmen of the Dutch. But, my dear Baron, will not the German people be alarmed at the consequences of an extension of our possessions over sea? Larger colonial possessions necessitate a larger fleet. Think of the struggle which the allied Governments had to carry through Parliament even a modest increase in the German fleet!"

"I am not so much afraid of this difficulty, for the German people have learnt the value of the fleet. We have got beyond the tentative stage, and have paid enough for our experience. We must hold fast what we possess and recover what we have lost during the last decades through the unfortunately unbusiness-like spirit of our foreign policy. Then the German people will have renewed confidence in our colonial policy."

"But how will you raise the sums necessary to make our fleet strong and powerful?"

"Our negotiations with the friendly Governments of France and Russia are a proof that in these states, just as in the German people, there is a desire for a diminution of the land army; there is an equally strong feeling in Italy and Austria. The people would break down under the burden if the expenses for the army were increased, if we diminish our land army we shall have the means to increase our naval forces. Now, after a victorious war, the moment has come when the whole Continent can reduce its enormous standing armies to a footing commensurate with the financial capacities of its people. The external enemy is conquered; we must not think of conjuring up the internal enemy by laying excessive burdens on all cla.s.ses."

"You spoke just now of the unbusiness-like spirit of our foreign policy.

How is this reproach to be understood?"

"Quite literally, Your Royal Highness! The bargain which gave up Zanzibar to get Heligoland would never have been possible if our diplomacy had shown the same far-sightedness and intelligence as the English in economic questions, which I can only designate by the honourable t.i.tle of a 'business-like spirit.' This business-like spirit is the mainspring of industry and agriculture, of trade and handicrafts, as of all industrial life generally, and it is necessary that this business-like spirit should also be recognised in our ministries as the necessary condition for the qualification to judge of the economic interests of the people. In this respect our statesmen and officials and our industrial cla.s.ses can learn more from our vanquished enemy than in anything else. England owes her greatness to being 'a nation of shopkeepers,' while our economic development and our external influence has been hindered more than anything else by the contempt with which the industrial cla.s.ses have been treated amongst us up to the most recent times. In England the merchant has always stood higher in the social scale than the officer and official. Amongst us he is looked upon almost as a second-cla.s.s citizen compared with the other two. What in England is valued as only a means to an end is regarded by us as an end in itself. The spirit of that rigid bureaucracy, of which Prince Bismarck has already complained, is still unfortunately with few exceptions the prevailing spirit in our Empire, from the highest to the lowest circles; the lack of appreciation of the importance of economic life is the cause of the low esteem in which the industrial cla.s.ses are held. The sound business-like spirit, which pervades all English state life, cuts the ground from under the feet of Social Democracy in England, while with us it is gaining ground year by year. I am convinced that our German people have no need to fear Social Democracy, for in reforming social cancers those who govern are of more importance than those who are governed."

"There may be much that is true in what you say, Herr Chancellor. But the extension of our colonial possessions will, first and foremost, benefit trade, and the merchant will naturally become of greater importance with us. There is already talk of great plantation societies to be started with enormous capital."

"It is just against the formation of these societies that I intend to exert my whole influence, Your Royal Highness. We could commit no more fatal error than to allow the state-privileged speculation in landed property, which has produced such unwholesome fruits in the old civilised states, to exist in our colonies. Real property must be no object of speculation, it must remain the property of the state.

Agriculture belongs to the cla.s.ses, who at the present time suffer most from economic depression. Nothing but an increase of the protective duties can preserve the agricultural population from the threatening danger of economic ruin. Increase of protective duty will bring with it increased profit, combined with a further increase in the value of land, which is also an article of traffic. Then the increase of land values will at the same time create an increase of the rents to be obtained from landed property, and for this reason I cannot help fearing that, in spite of an increase of protective duties, agriculture will have to suffer in the next generation from the further increase in the value of land and the higher rents that will be the result.

"In our colonies we must not fall into the same error that has produced the socialist question in modern civilised states. The earth belongs to those creatures who live on it and by it in accordance with a higher law than human imperfection has framed. Therefore the soil of our earth must be no object of traffic. Its growth is inseparable from that of the body of the state. I dare not hope that it will be allotted to me or my contemporaries to solve this question, yet I shall never tire of using all my influence to prevent at least a false agrarian policy in our young colonies. Injustice dies from its results, for injustice breeds its own avenger. Mankind committed a fatal wrong in permitting the land that supported them to become an object of speculation. This noxious seed brings noxious fruits to light. It must be the highest task of all governments to carry out land reform--the great problem that decides the destiny of a world--by all possible legislative measures. Now that, in all human probability, peace is a.s.sured, now that external dangers no longer threaten the existence of our Empire, there is nothing to exonerate us from the serious and sacred obligation to commence the greatest and most powerful work of reform that humanity can undertake. Then our path will lead us--from the conquest of nations to self-conquests."

At this moment the door of the room opened, and a royal messenger, introduced by the adjutant on duty, handed the Prince a letter decorated with the imperial crown and the initial of the imperial name.

The first glimmer of dawn entered the open window, and through the tops of the venerable trees of Hampton Court Park was heard a mysterious rustling and whispering, as if they were talking of the wonderful changes of fortune, of which they had been the mute witnesses since the remote days of their youth.

The blue eyes of the Hohenzollern Prince were shining proudly, while they scanned the imperial missive. For a few moments a deep silence prevailed. Then the Prince turned to the Imperial Chancellor--

"It will be a great day for us, Your Excellency! His Majesty the Emperor will enter London at the head of the allied armies. Peace is a.s.sured.

G.o.d grant that it may be the last war which we shall have to wage for the future happiness of the German nation!"