Von Holleben's Case

VON HOLLEBEN'S CASE

German Ambassador's Recall Explained by a Diplomat.

NO REFLECTION UPON HIS WORK.

When the Idea of a Change Appears to Have Occurred to the Kaiser - Old Time Personal Friendship Between the President and Baron Speck von Sternburg.

Most of the gossip started to account for Ambassador von Helleben's recall has been idle on its face. The explanation given to the Washington correspondent of the New York Evening Post by one of the highest authorities in the diplomatic circle in Washington is not a reflection upon Von Holleben for anything he has done or left undone, but the fact that Baron Speck von Sternburg is more the man for an emergency which the kaiser believes he sees confronting Germany. In other words, the new ambassador was selected before the decision was reached as to when the old ambassador should retire, and Dr. von Holleben's illness and request for an indefinite leave of absence furnished simply an opportunity which would have been sought if it had not presented itself.

The idea of making this substitution appears to have occurred to the German emperor not long after the designation of Sir Michael Herbert to succeed Lord Pauncefote and to have been suggested by that. During Mr. Roosevelt's life in Washington before becoming president he formed a very strong personal attachment for two or three of the younger men in the diplomatic corps, Chief Michael being the chief member of this group. Another was Speck von Sternburg. Both friends drifted away for a time, but the appointment of Sir Michael to the embassy was so obviously dictated by his own desire, the British government's recognition of the personal phases of the case and the knowledge, of which no secret was made here, that it would be a pleasure to the president to welcome his old companion back, that the kaiser in his impulsive way decided that he must make a quick move to checkmate England. Von Holleben was agreeable to the president, but not intimate with him; Sternburg, as the kaiser discovered, was both. This settled the matter, and plans for the change were laid without delay. The Venezuelan affair had been carried through to a point where whoever represented Germany of the commission was liable to be caught here for a rather long session. Von Holleben's health was not of the best. His retirement under these conditions, it was assumed, would bot excite much wonder, and his successor would start fresh with the Venezuelan arbitration at its beginning.

Baron Speck von Sternburg was not only one of President Roosevelt's companions in out of door tramps and sports in the old days, but when the Spanish was broke out Mr. Roosevelt found his counsel and assistance invaluable in starting his own military career. The baron had been a soldier at home and was able to assist most effectively in the preliminary training of the rough rider who was later to become both military and civil chief of the nation.

Of course it stands to reason no such relations can exist between a president of the United States and any foreign ambassador as often do between an old world sovereign and the personal representative of one of his "royal cousins." A president can have no favorites among either nations or diplomatists. He can do no "good turns," and no foreign representative fit for the duties of diplomacy would think of asking him for one, but public men have their human as well as their official sides, and conditions are liable to arise in which the interests of all parties are better served by having the ruler of a nation and a diplomatic guest on terms which will enable them to speak plainly to each other as man to man without the danger of being misunderstood and on this basis reach conclusions which can later be reflected in the set phrases of a formal correspondence.