The Kruger telegram was a message sent by Kaiser Wilhelm II to Paul Kruger, president of the South African Republic, on 3 January 1896. It congratulated Kruger on repelling the Jameson Raid, a botched raid against the Republic carried out by British colonial administrator Leander Starr Jameson. The raid, conducted by 600 men from the Cape Colony, was intended to trigger a rebellion against the Republic by British migrant workers, but resulted in a fiasco when the raiders were defeated by the Republic's forces. The telegram caused huge indignation in the United Kingdom, and led to a deterioration in Anglo-German relations.
The telegram
On receiving news of the Jameson Raid on 31 December 1895, the Kaiser reacted furiously, approving decisions to order a landing party of 50 marines to proceed to Pretoria to protect the Germans there and to dispatch a cruiser to Delagoa Bay. At a meeting on 1 January 1896 his behaviour towards his own Minister of War was so violent that the latter had difficulty in restraining himself from "drawing swords" and doubted that the Kaiser was "entirely normal" mentally. and the final version read:
In his Memoirs, the Kaiser claimed that the Kruger telegram had been composed by Marschall. According to the Kaiser:
The Kaiser also asserted that there was a subsequent Russo-French proposal for war against England.