Der Kaiser in Tangiers (1905).
[Wilhelm II] undertook the Tangiers mission against his will. It was Holstein’s idea, backed by Bülow. They wanted to be rid of Théophile Delcassé, the virulently anti-German French Foreign Minister who had been responsible for the Entente Cordiale … The Wilhelmstrasse aimed to put a spoke into the developing Franch-British alliance … [The ‘Hamburg’] left port on 23 March [1905], “its political purpose somewhat shrouded mystery”. … In Tangiers William showed no inclination to land at all, and thought he had done enough when he pressed Red Eagle into the hand of his envoy [Von Kühlmann] … Kühlmann, however, had a telegram from Búlow which indicated that the story of the visit had already been released to the press … William was on dry land for around two hours. … Delcassé did indeed fall from grace … [On 4 Aug. 1905, when Bülow threatened to resign because of “Björkö”, William wrote to him:] “Do not forget that you staked me personally against my wish, in Tangiers on the success of your Moroccan policy. … I went on shore tp please you, because the cause of the fatherland demanded it, mounted a strange horse, in spite of my poor horsemanship, owing to my crippled left arm, and the horse was within an ace of costing me my life that you had staked. I rode through mobs of Spanisch anarchists because you wanted me to and your policy was to profit by it.” (G. MacDonogh, The Last Kaiser [Londen 2001], p. 283-289)