Count Agenor Maria Adam Gołuchowski was a Polish statesman who inherited much of his father's wealth. Between 1895 and 1906 he served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Austria-Hungary. He was responsible for a period of détente in Austrian relations with Imperial Russia, harmed due to the Austrian and Russian struggle for control of the Bosporus. From 1907 he headed the Polish Group in the Herrenhaus, the upper chamber of the Austrian parliament.
Agenor Maria Gołuchowski
Gołuchowski at his desk, 1901.
Portrait of Gołuchowski, by Kazimierz Pochwalski.
Count Vladimir Nikolayevich Lamsdorf was an Imperial Russian statesman of Baltic German descent who served as Foreign Minister of the Russian Empire in 1900–1906, a crucial period which included the Russo-Japanese War and the Russian Revolution of 1905.
Count Vladimir N. Lamsdorf
As a result of the Russo-Japanese War, the Korean minister (ambassador) to Russia was left without orders or funding. Other diplomats lent him some money, and Vladimir Lamsdorf instructed that the Korean minister be funded for the duration of the conflict; in gratitude, the Korean minister "hastened to subscribe five pounds to the Russian fleet fund". Lee W. Stanley portrays this scenario in two panels: on the left, the minister shows his empty pockets and declares himself "brokio" (that is, 'broke', or without money); on the right, he sits among several bags of money with his feet on the desk and offers a five-pound note to a bearded man representing Russia. Note the pen and inkwell on the desk, indicating that he has just written a cheque, and the champagne bucket on the floor indicating that he is now wealthy.
