Note 763 — Chapter XIII

“Rouvier . . . . we know does not wish a conflict with us,” . . . . “the Chamber of Deputies wishes above all to avoid war” (quoted from a dispatch from Bülow to William II, June 22, 1905, G.P., XX, 456, No. 6723). “The sooner we make it clear to him [Rouvier] what results the French refusal of the conference and the further support of the pretender must have, the more we diminish the dangers of the situation” (Bülow to Radolin, June 24, 1905, ibid., 466, No. 6730). That the German government was playing with war but did not intend to start one is also evident from a confidential letter from Holstein to the editor of the Kölnische Zeitung, June 28, 1905, which expresses completely the nature of the German policy. “. . . . In brief, I consider the danger of war for Germany at the present moment vanishingly small. It will be still more diminished if a conviction of our firmness prevails. We know now for certain that in the last ministerial council Delcassé declared: ‘Germany will not dare to fight, it is all bluff.’ This doubt about our determination could have led to a conflict if the other ministers had shared Delcassé’s views” (reprinted in Kölnische Zeitung, April 2, 1922).