[Footnote 1: The German Government, by some means, learnt that I was in possession of a report of this secret speech of the Kaiser's, and a curious incident resulted. It was my intention, in September, 1908, to write a book pointing out that Germany meant war. With that object I gave to my friend Mr. Eveleigh Nash, the publisher, of Fawside House, Covent Garden, the opening chapters of the manuscript, together with the speech in question. He locked them, in my presence, in a drawer in his writing-table in his private room. Two days later, when Mr. Nash opened that drawer he found they had been stolen! German Secret Agents undoubtedly committed the theft--which was reported in certain newspapers at the time--for I have since learnt that my manuscript is now in the archives of the Secret Service in Berlin! This, in itself, is sufficient proof as showing how eager the Kaiser was to suppress his declaration of war. It was fortunate that I had kept a copy of the Emperor's speech.] CHAPTER III HOW THE PUBLIC WERE BAMBOOZLED Though the foregoing has been known to the British Cabinet for over six years, and through it, no doubt, to the various Chancelleries of Europe, not a word was allowed to leak out to the world until December 2nd, 1914--after we had been at war four months. The determination of the War Lord of Germany--whose preparations against Great Britain had been so slyly and so cunningly made--was at last revealed by the publication of the French Yellow Book, which disclosed that in a dispatch dated November 22nd, 1913, M. Jules Cambon, the French Ambassador in Berlin, reported a conversation between the Emperor and the King of the Belgians in the presence of General von Moltke, the chief of the General Staff. King Albert had till then believed, as most people in Great Britain had believed, that the Emperor was a friend of peace. But at this interview King Albert, according to an excellent summary of the dispatches published in the _Star_, found the Emperor completely changed. He revealed himself as the champion of the war party which he had hitherto held in check. King Albert learned that the Emperor had "come to think that war with France was inevitable, and that things must come to that sooner or later." General von Moltke spoke to King Albert "exactly as his Sovereign." He, too, declared that "war was necessary and inevitable." He said to King Albert: "This time we must settle the business once and for all, and your Majesty can have no idea of the irresistible enthusiasm which on that day will sweep over the whole German people." King Albert vainly protested that it was a travesty of the intentions of the French Government to interpret them in this fashion. He found the Emperor "over-wrought and irritable."