9190. UNTERREDUNG DES KÖNIGS MIT DEM GROSSBRITANNISCHEN MINISTER MITCHELL.
[Leitmeritz, 11. Juli 1757.]
Mitchell berichtet an Holdernesse, Leitmeritz 11. Juli: „I have this moment come from the King of Prussia. He tells me that he has just received letters from Prussia236-2 that the Russian fleet, consisting of 10 men-of-war, some bomb-ketches and many small vessels were actually blockading Memel, that they had landed some men, burnt villages and destroyed the country within their reach, that they had treated his subjects with great cruelty. Memel he looks upon as lost, and if the Russians are once masters of the Curische Haff, they will undoubtedly attack Kœnigsberg, Pillau and other maritime towns and fortresses in his dominions. Maréchal Lehwaldt writes that he has chosen the position he is now in, as the fittest to defend the Prussian dominions, trusting to assurances given by England that a squadron would have been sent to protect them by sea, and that he is now under this dilemma either of abandoning the country to be plundered by the Russians, in order to save<237> Kœnigsberg, or of abandoning Kœnigsberg and the towns on the seacoast to protect the country from the ravages of Maréchal Apraxin's army.
General Fermor commands the army that is to attack Memel, which cannot long resist,237-1 as the garrison consists of one bataillon of invalids only:
Maréchal Apraxin's army lies entrenched near Kowno, and the Prussian army under the command of Maréchal Lehwaldt is at Tilsit upon the frontier; in this position with an enemy in front, he is in no condition to detach any part of his army to succour Memel . . .“
Mitchell berichtet an Holdernesse, Leitmeritz 11. Juli (very secret): „After the communication which is contained in my other letter of this date, the King of Prussia said, with great warmth, he did not think he should have been so used by his ally, especially after the assurances given last summer of sending a squadron into the Baltic, that it had ever been and was still his opinion, if England had spoken as she used to do, this attack of the Russians by sea would have been prevented; that certainly a very small squadron would have kept both, them and the Swedes, quiet, that, after the assurances given and the many representations made from time to time for this Baltic squadron, he had been shifted off with fair words and general promises, that it was his misfortune to have allied himself with England in her decadence,237-2 and to have been used as no ally of England ever was. His Prussian Majesty then put me in mind of what England had done in the war of succession and in the late war to support the Queen of Hungary. He therefore concluded that it was not want of power, but want of inclination, and a hankering after the old system, that had occasioned these strange and, he thought, unjustifiable proceedings. . . .“
Nach den Ausfertigungen im Public Record Office zu London.
236-2 Vergl. Nr. 9190 mit Anm. 1.
237-1 Vergl. S. 241.
237-2 Vergl. S. 228. 230.