Notwithstanding the fact that he is a Protestant, William is impressed by the greatness of the role that Leo XIII might play in Christianity; and, therefore, brings all the influences at his command to bear upon him. Through all his official and officious agents he tells him that atheistic France, in the hands of laymen, can no longer be the eldest daughter of the Church; that the Holy Father is the Head of Christianity throughout the world, and that in the East and Far East he should make use of those who are most Christian; that an Emperor who is a believer, even though he be a Protestant, is much better fitted to be the protector of Christians in China and in Turkey than a Republic without faith. The only possible influences in China and in Turkey are religious influences, but economic questions follow in their wake, and the German Emperor, King of Prussia, means to appear before the peoples of the Near and Far East, in the light of his spectacular proceedings at Kiel, of the triumphant audacity of Kiao-chao, and of the splendour with which he is going to invest his journey in Palestine, as the Controller of their destinies, the defender of their rights and the supplier of such goods as they may wish to purchase. It is possible that William II may be able to persuade Leo XIII that he should entrust him with the Holy Places and work together with him in China. In any event, the Catholics of Germany are now a long way from the _Kulturkampf_; they will vote the naval budget by an ample majority and Germany will become the great Naval Power, and at the same time the great Military Power, so that in the end she may become the wealthiest of the Commercial Powers: this is the dream of William, King of Prussia! June 5, 1898. [6] William II has become attached to the East, the scene of his chief diplomatic successes, a part of the world in which his Imperial word is law. He will continue to shower his favours upon it, and disturb everything there, so as to be able to fish in troubled waters. He will ransack everything for his purposes, even that very vague thing, homogeneous Turkey, based on the Mussulman faith. At this moment, he is planning I know not what kind of acceptance of the Cross by the Crescent, just as he planned Prince Henry's Chinese crusade. If the Cuban war did not detain him in Europe, he would have gone to Palestine, with a cavalcade of some sort which would have been an event in the history of Christianity. And he will do it yet.