The famous “Kruger telegram” episode occurred during the
Chancellorship of Prince Hohenlohe.

For many years the sending of the telegram was cited as a convincing proof of the Emperor’s “impulsive” character, and it was not until 1909 that the truth of the matter was stated by Chancellor von Buelow in the Reichstag.  In March of that year he said: 

“It has been asked, was this telegram an act of personal initiative or an act of State?  In this regard let me refer you to your own proceedings.  You will remember that the responsibility for the telegram was never repudiated by the directors of our political business at the time.  The telegram was an act of State, the result of official consultations; it was in nowise an act of personal initiative on the part of his Majesty the Kaiser.  Whoever asserts that it was is ignorant of what preceded it and does his Majesty completely wrong.”

The Emperor’s telegram to President Kruger, despatched on January 3, 1896, ran as follows:—­

“I congratulate you most sincerely on having succeeded with your people, and without calling on the help of foreign Powers, by opposing your own force to an armed band which broke into your country to disturb the peace, in restoring quiet and in maintaining the independence of your country against external attack.”

The echoes of this historic message were heard immediately in every country, but naturally nowhere more loudly than in England; and the reverberation of them is audible to the present day.  In Germany, however, for a day or two, the telegram seems to have surprised no one, was indeed spoken of with approval by deputies in the Reichstag, and seems not to have occurred to any one in the light of a serious diplomatic mistake.  This state of feeling did not last long, and when the English newspapers arrived an entirely new light was thrown on the matter.  The Morning Post concluded an article with the words:  “It is not easy to speak calmly of the Kaiser’s telegram.  The English people will not forget it, and in future will always think of it when considering its foreign policy.”  The British Government’s comment on the telegram was to put a flying squadron in commission and issue an official statement urbi et orbi, calling attention to the Convention made with President Kruger in London in 1884, reserving the supervision of the foreign relations of the Transvaal to the British Government.

The Emperor himself appears to have recognized that he and his advisers had made a serious blunder, and that a gesture which, it is highly probable, was partly prompted by the chivalrous side of his character, was certain to be gravely misunderstood.  At any rate his policy, or that of his Government, changed, and instead of following up his encouraging words with mediation or intervention, he assumed an attitude of neutrality towards the war which soon after began.