Upon my return from Constantinople in 1889 I described to the Prince at his request my impressions of Greece, where my sister Sophie was married to the heir-apparent, Crown Prince Constantine, and also my Constantinople impressions. In doing this, it struck me that Prince Bismarck spoke quite disdainfully of Turkey, of the men in high position there and of conditions in that land. 1 thought I might inspire him in part with essentially more favourable opinions, but my efforts-were of little avail. -Upon asking the Prince the reason why he held such an unfavourable opinion, he answered that Count Herbert had reported very disapprovingly on Turkey. Prince Bismarck and Count Herbert were never favourably inclined toward Turkey. and they never agreed with me in my Turkish policy—the old policy. of Frederick the Great.
During the last period of _his tenure of office as Chancellor, Bis-marek declared that the maintenance of friendly relations with Russia, whose Tsar reposed special trust in him, was the most importent reason for his remaining at his post. In this connexion it was that he gave me the first hints concerning the secret reinsurance treaty with Russia. Up to then I had heard nothing about it, either from the Prince or the Foreign Office, although it happened that
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.