THE NEW COURSE 61

probability of their being granted. Every fraction of a cruiser was disputed in the Reichstag, and the catchwords " zigzag courses " and " boundless plans/1 with which Eugen Richter worked against the navy in the Reichstag, were difficult to refute. Worse than this, every authority in the navy wanted and proposed something different. The aimlessness of it all was felt everywhere, and produced a chronic crisis. The confusion of opinions displayed itself, for instance, in the heterogeneous collection of vessels, from which one could not confidently expect any mutual co-operation in the event of war. In justice one must add that no navies at that time were at all clear as to how a modern naval war would develop.

After I had commanded the Preussen, and then the Wurttemberg, in the Mediterranean from 1889 to 1890, I was to have been made Director of Dockyards, but as the result of a remark made by Chancellor v. Caprivi to the effect that I should be kept in a position which would better prepare me for responsible commands, I was appointed by the Emperor to be Chief of Staff of the Baltic Station in the autumn of 1890. There I had ample opportunity of observing the conflicts between the Executive Command and the Admiralty, both of whom were working equally badly.

In the spring of 1891 the Emperor was once sitting with us officers after dinner in Kiel Castle; the old Moltke was there too. At the Emperor's suggestion a discussion took place as to how the navy should