To Riga, Latvia, came, some three months ago, Herr Doktor Adolph Koester, German Ambassador, lusty beerbibber. . . .
He found official Latvia strongly disposed to favor the Franco-British project of a Baltic state cordon dividing Russia and Germany. Poland, close ally of France, had bestowed numerous decorations on Latvian officials. At Riga British diplomats were arbitri elegantiarum How should the German Ambassador win Latvian sympathies?
Soon Herr Doktor Koester gave a true, orthodox German bier abend: a "beer evening" at which he and a group of high Latvian officials sat up with mossy...