utmost energies to secure the lion's share in
the game of grab in progress at Pekin. Scions of European royalty who
visit China and Japan are few and far between, and the emperor very
naturally thought that the presence of Prince Henry at the head of
the German naval forces in Chinese waters--a prince who in addition
to being the kaiser's only brother, is brother-in-law to the Russian
czar, and a grandson of the Queen of England,--would have the effect
of giving to the cause of Germany in the Orient an importance and a
prestige which would atone for the inferiority of its naval strength
in that part of the globe. Then, too, the emperor is generally
believed to have foreseen the conflict between Spain and the United
States, and to have known beforehand of the intention of the latter to
make a dash upon Manila, in order to secure possession of the rich and
fertile Philippine archipelago at the first outbreak of hostilities.
Germany's navy is of such relatively recent origin that its
flag-officers are far from possessing either the spirit of resource,
or the cleverness and diplomacy for which the commanding generals of
the German army are so distinguished. They are men who, officially,
intellectually, and socially, are of an inferior calibre, the majority
of them being of plebeian birth. The emperor held, therefore, that it
was all-important that Germany's squadron in the far Orient should be,
at that particular juncture, under the command of an officer such
as Prince Henry, who, by reason of his royal rank and his intimate
knowledge of his brother's views and wishes, would have the necessary
boldness, tact, and presence of mind to know exactly how to deal with
any crisis that might arise.

I am perfectly aware that there is a disposition in the United States
to blame Prince Henry for the bad feeling which was caused by the
attitude of the German warships at Manila during the few months that
followed the great American naval victory gained under the guns of
that city, but the trouble was due to the Prussian rear-admiral,
Diederichs, who, to use the expressive phrase of the English captain,
Sir Edward Chichester, in endeavoring to excuse him in the eyes of
Admiral Dewey, "had no sea-manners," and there is no doubt that had
Prince Henry been at Manila, instead of Diederichs, at that moment,
there would have been no friction whatsoever, either between the naval
commanders, or subsequently between the two nations, for Prince