Ohne Rezept - kein Potezmit! Ballin informed me that Haldane had expressed himself to him as entirely ied with the outcome of his mission, and had stated that in about a week or two the first draft of the agree ment could be sent to usI assumed that it was a case of a belated birthday greeting, there fore I was not a little astonished when Ballin, after a short speech of congratulation, said that he had come as an emissary of Sir Ernest Cassel, who had just arrived in Berlin on a special mission and wished to be received, I asked whether it was a political matter, and why, if so, the meeting had not been arranged through the English ambassadorDIPLOMATIC PREPAREDNESS In perfect secrecy the material was collected which Admiral von Tirpitz was to present at the negotiations; it consisted of a short historical sketch of the development of the fleet and of the increasingly difficult tasks devolving upon it; the Naval law and its aims, enactment, and ex-  BETHMANN tension; finally, the contemplated Naval bill, its meaning and the method of putting it throughAnd so it came about that Admiral von Tirpitz and I realized that the whole proposal was merely a maneuverThe fight over the German Naval bill grew steadily hotterI then ordered that the ambassador in London be asked how he could have accepted and forwarded such a message under any conditionsFrom this the policy followed by him and the Foreign Office arose which led to the Agadir case, the last and equally unsuccessful attempt to main tain our influence in MoroccoPlans were made for the construction of three new Rhine bridges, at Riidesheim, Neuwied, and the Loreley, which were not completed until during the war they were named, respectively, after the Crown Prince, Hindenburg, and LudendorffAn investigation instituted at my order showed the material to be spurious and in ferior; the structure was in the worst possible state of decay and in danger of collapse ; a new one was neededHe knew, as I did, what blessings the canals *A German philologist who compiled a well-known boot of quota!
 tionsWin

ston Churchill, Min ister of the Navy, since the question was a naval oneNot until my reign were the plans of Emperor William I brought to realizationBallin fetched Cassel, who handed me a docu ment which, he stated, had been prepared with the approval and knowledge of the English Govern mentI read the short note through and was not a little surprised to see that I was holding in my hand a formal offer of neutrality in case Germany became involved in future warlike complications, conditioned upon certain limitations in the carry ing out of our program of naval construction, which were to be the subject of mutual confer ences and agreementsThis degradation which, it must be admitted, occurred under remarkable, extremely difficult circumstances is all the more difficult to under stand i;m view of the fact that the youth of Ger many, although it was impaired in  by overstudy, and not so toughened by sports as the English, achieved brilliant feats in the World War, such as were nowhere equaled beforeHis answer ran thusYou pronounce judgment too much ac cording to the letter of the law ; we according to the spirit and content of the lawI have ofter pointed out how unfortunate it was that we have not been able to introduce, in police cases connected with traffic, streets, etcHad we allowed THE KAISER'S MEMOIRS this it would have amounted to our consenting to permit England, Germany's principal foe, to grant us whatever she wished, after consulting her own interests, without receiving ourselves the guar anty of any equivalent concessionIn those days Berlin saw in Haldane's mission a rapprochement with England, toward which Germans were always bending their efforts; in reality, however, it was a reconnoitering expedition under the very roof of the German cousinThe degree to which Miquel wtas versed in all possible matters was astounding

