Topic 10
CLASHES WITH THE KAISER

IT is not generally known that on at least three occasions — twice before the Great War and once since — Colonel Roosevelt and the Kaiser clashed.  The Venezuela incident is more or less widely known, largely through Mr.  Thayer's excellent book.  But the clash of wills at the time of Colonel Roosevelt's visit to Berlin, and his refusal to take the Kaiser's part in 1914, are not at all well known.

The Colonel told of the clash in Berlin en route for Boston one Sunday in 1916.

" It is," said he, "not generally known that I had a little friction with the Kaiser when I visited Germany.

"When I reached Berlin I found an invitation for ' Mr.  Roosevelt' to be the Kaiser's guest at Potsdam.  Mrs.  Roosevelt was travelling with me.  I asked at the Embassy what the invitation meant — if it included her.  When I found it did not, I declined, and said I was stopping at the Embassy.

"The invitation was repeated.  My answer was that Mrs.  Roosevelt and I were to be the guests of the Embassy.  I was travelling as any American gentleman might travel with his wife and I did not propose to go any place where she would not be welcomed or could not go.  The next day ' Colonel and Mrs.  Roosevelt' were invited.  By maintaining my point I had made it.

"While I was his guest, Wilhelm, a delightful host, was very frank in telling what he thought of other Americans who had visited him — Andrew Carnegie and others.  Later he sent me photographs he had taken of some of them with bits of his opinions of them written on the backs.  They were not opinions calculated to please the subjects of the pictures.

" I suppose he was advised that he should not have done this, for the return of the photographs was requested.  I said, 'Oh, no, His Majesty the Kaiser gave the photographs to me and I propose to retain them.' I suppose I was the one man in the Empire at the time who could refuse to obey his wishes.

"Anyway, I kept the photographs.  They have been mounted on glass so one can read the inscriptions.

" I clashed again with the Kaiser directly the War broke out," the Colonel went on.

"Then I was called upon by a young member of the German Embassy staff in Washington — a count — I cannot recall his name now.

"'I am instructed by His Majesty the Kaiser,' said he, ' to present his compliments to Colonel Roosevelt, to say to him that he has very pleasant recollections of his visit to Berlin and Potsdam and to say that he hopes Colonel Roosevelt will appreciate Germany's position and can be relied upon to see the justice of it.'

' You will please present my compliments to His Majesty the Kaiser,' I answered; 'say to him that I, too, have very pleasant recollections of my stay in Berlin and Potsdam, and his many courtesies to me, his guest, but that I also have a very lively recollection of courtesies extended to me by His Majesty, the King of Belgium, whose guest I also was.'

"He clicked his heels together, saluted and left.  I have not heard from him or the Kaiser since.

" I imagine the Kaiser also had recollections of the Venezuela matter.  He was convinced that I was bluffing when he was told I would maintain the Monroe Doctrine.  Von Holleben, then Ambassador, told him so; so reported to the Foreign Office.  I insisted on our rights, and finally told the Ambassador that Admiral Dewey and his ships would be ordered to sail for Venezuelan waters within twenty-four hours if in the meantime I did not receive definite assurances that Germany had abandoned its intentions.  Dewey was then in West Indian waters.

"Von Holleben then concluded that I was not bluffing, and his cable reversing himself caused a panic in the German Foreign Office.  Soon after this he was recalled in disgrace.  He was in so bad only one German official was at the ship to see him off.  On his return to Germany he dropped out of sight completely.

"The one man who sized me right and who put Berlin on the right track was Carl Buenz, then Consul General in New York.  He lived out Long Island way and had visited me at Sagamore Hill.  He was shrewd enough to size up the situation accurately.  He told the Embassy it was in error and warned it to beware, that I was not bluffing.

"Lately, you will recall, Buenz has been indicted for plotting to put bombs on English ships — some of those German war plots.

" Dewey at that time had instructions to be ready to move on a moment's notice."

Subsequent to this conversation Henry A.  Wise Wood, noting that the accuracy of some of Colonel Roosevelt's published utterances on the Venezuela matter had been challenged, wrote to Admiral Dewey.  Dewey's reply, published at the time, corroborated fully all that the Colonel had said about holding his ships in readiness for action.

"That, gentlemen," said the Colonel, calling attention to the Dewey letters, "is another of those instances where proof of things you know to be so comes to you when you need it from unexpected quarters.  It is passing strange how, somehow or other, truth will out."

Once, later, Colonel Roosevelt mentioned Carl Buenz.  Buenz, who was out on bail on the plot charges, was old and, as it proved, hopelessly ill.  He wished permission to return to Germany in the hope that he might there get relief, or, failing that, die in his old home.  To get this permission he asked the Colonel's assistance.

" I surely shall do all that I can for him," he said, " but I fear that all won't be much.  He is entitled to consideration, not because he plotted, as I assume he did, but for the really valuable service he did this country as well as his own in the Venezuela matter.  Whatever else he may have done, this should not be forgotten.  I hope he gets what he asks, but I am afraid he won't."

The Colonel's fears proved true, and Buenz, later convicted, died in the Federal Penitentiary at Atlanta.