Today’s cartoon is another Edward Linley Sambourne cartoon. This one is from late 1900 at a time when Transvaal President Paul Kruger had managed to leave Africa and was trying his best to raise support for the Boer cause from Europe.
The cartoon shows Paul Kruger, smoking a pipe and reading a
paper with a glass of wine by his side. The setting seems to be a bar of some
kind, and the waitress, glancing at him, seems rather concerned about him being
there. The clue to the meaning is the sing at the top of the wall, that reads
“Unter Den Linden”. This is a famous street in Berlin which ran from the
Kaiser’s palace to the Brandenburg gate. The significance of this is that
Kruger had to cool his heels in a bar, reading the paper and smoking his pipe,
because Kaiser Wilhelm II refused to meet him. The waitress’ expression is
probably indicative of the fact that his presence is a bit of an embarrassment.
Kaiser Wilhelm II was a complicated personality. His arm
was injured in the way he was delivered when he was born, and he suffered from
feelings of inferiority . He was at times very proud of his English connection
– he was the first grandson of Queen Victoria – yet at the same time he could
be very suspicious and jealous of Great Britain. After the failure of the
Jameson Raid, Wilhelm sent a telegram of congratulations to Paul Kruger, and
then was astonished when this was angrily condemned in Britain, and led to him
being ostracised by the British Royal Family for some time. This may be why he
distanced himself from the Boers.
After the war he would even claim that he had provided Lord
Roberts with the plans and strategy to defeat the Boers!
No comments:
Post a Comment