Note 500 — Chapter X

William II to Nicholas II, Oct. 27, 1904, G.P., XIX, 303 f., No. 6118. Their correspondence was entirely in English, in the use of which they made frequent mistakes. Osten-Sacken reported on Nov. 4 a conversation with Bülow in which the latter, repeating the remarks of Holstein, declared that in case the British government objected to the coaling of the Russian ships by the German firm, “we should apparently be forced to ask the St. Petersburg cabinet whether we should refuse this objection and thus assume the risk of a war with England and become your [Russia’s] ally; or would Russia prefer to dispense with . . . . the coaling . . . . which in this case we should have to prohibit as incompatible with Germany’s neutrality” (Kriegsschuldfrage, Nov., 1924, p. 463).