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FRANCO-ITALIAN FRIENDSHIP FORMED

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FRANCE AND ITALY COMPOSE MEDITERRANEAN RIVALRY

France and Italy in February, 1902, before the renewal of the Triple Alliance in that year, reached their arrangement respecting the Mediterranean.' With France a growing and successful colonizing power on the littoral of the Middle Sea, with possessions adjoining both Tripoli-on which Italy had her eye and Morocco-of which she had some hopes-, it was natural that the policy of the two Latin states should be potentially antagonistic. Nevertheless, their foreign offices had long been in close relations and each appreciated the value of the other's friendship. Primarily, also, France was ready to forego her possibility of eventually keeping Italy from acquiring Tripoli if the Consultá would return the compliment respecting French ambitions in Morocco. So each refrained from making the other trouble in a field where it was little interested. Probably it was during these negotiations that France received assurances as to Italy's freedom under the terms of the Triple Alliance from any duty of menacing her. Said Théophile Delcassé, minister of foreign affairs, in the French Chamber of Deputies, July 3, 1902:

We concerned ourselves with the extent to which this diplomatic act corresponded with the relations of interests and friendship so opportunely resumed between France and Italy. Our preoccupation was natural; I hasten to add that it was not lengthy, the Government of the king having taken care itself to clear up and define the situation. And the declarations which have been made to us permit us to acquire the certainty that the policy of Italy as resulting from her alliances is neither directly nor indirectly directed against France; that it in no case involves a menace for us either under a diplomatic form or by virtue of protocols or international military provisions; and that in no case and in no form can Italy become either the instrument or the auxiliary of aggression against our country."

The terms of the agreement of 1902 have not been published, but they were undoubtedly of the same tenor as the revision which took place at Paris on October 28, 1912, and which at that time was

The agreement was signed by MM. Delcassé and Prinetti.

'Journal Officiel, Chambre des députés, Débats parlementaires, séance du 3 juillet 1902, 2081.

substantially repeated in an arrangement with Spain. The FrancoItalian declaration of 1912 read:

The Royal Government of Italy and the Government of the French Republic, desirous of executing in the most friendly spirit their agreements of 1902, confirm their mutual intention of reciprocally not bringing forward any obstacle to the realization of all measures they consider it opportune to take (édicter), Italy in Libya and France in Morocco.

They agree likewise that the most-favored-nation treatment shall be reciprocally assured to Italy in Morocco and to France in Libya: the said treatment being applicable in the largest sense to the nationals, products, establishments and enterprises of both states, without exception.'

ANGLO-JAPANESE ALLIANCE TAKES FORM

After the lease of Port Arthur to Russia on April 9, 1898, Russia desired to connect the city with the Siberian railroad. For this purpose money was needed and Serge Witte, the Russian minister of finance, found the money markets of France and Germany tight at the time. "We must therefore seek a market for our national bonds in your country," he said to the British representative. "To make any issues a success we must first secure the goodwill of the British people. Russia is therefore planning to give your countrymen greater freedom to engage in the Russian coastal trade, to introduce British industries, and other commercial privileges." The plan, however, was not then carried out."

In 1900 Count Tadasu Hayashi took up his post at London as Japanese minister. In the spring of 1901 Baron von Eckardstein, German chargé d'affaires at London, suggested to Minister Hayashi a triple alliance between Japan, Great Britain and Germany respecting affairs in the Far East. Hayashi reported the remark to Tokyo and was authorized on April 16 to sound the British Government on his own responsibility. The next day, during a discussion, Lord Lansdowne thought an Anglo-Japanese arrangement might be ad

'Rivista di diritto internazionale, VII, 425-6 (1913) and Revue de droit international public, XX, Documents, 9. Italy signed the same text, mutatis mutandis, with Spain respecting the Spanish zone in Morocco on May 4, 1913.

Andrew M. Pooley, "The Secret Memoirs of Count Tadasu Hayashi" (New York, Putnam, 1915), 107-108.

KAISER AND ANGLO-JAPANESE ALLIANCE

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visable. In a conversation on May 15 the matter was further discussed. On July 15 Sir Claude MacDonald, British minister at Tokyo, who had just had an audience of King Edward VII, called on Count Hayashi and stated that the King considered an Anglo-Japanese arrangement desirable. He expressed a fear that Japan might make an alliance with Russia respecting the Far East. "In fact the German ambassador has been to the Foreign Office and said that there was a possibility of such action on the side of Japan," said Sir Claude.'

Other private conversations followed and on October 16 formal negotiations commenced. On November 13, 1901, Count Hayashi received telegraphic instructions to meet Marquis Hirobumi Ito at Paris and communicate to him all telegrams he had received. Ito was under tentative instructions to conclude a Russo-Japanese arrangement while in Europe. On learning of the progress made in the Anglo-Japanese negotiations Ito gave his approval and it was agreed that so long as negotiations were in progress at London no discussion of a convention should occur at St. Petersburg unless proposed by Russia. On November 20 Great Britain indicated that Japanese negotiations with Russia during the pour parlers with Great Britain would displease the latter. In reply to Hayashi's report of this conversation the Tokyo foreign office, the Kanumigaseki, said that Japan had no intention of playing a double game and stated that Marquis Ito had no official mission to Russia.

Negotiations continued from that time on without interruption. The first Anglo-Japanese alliance was signed January 30, 1902, and was to last five years. However, the Russo-Japanese war began on February 8, 1904, and the next summer a correspondence obviously intended to put Russia at odds with Great Britain was initiated by the Kaiser with the Tsar. On October 27 the Kaiser, criticizing the quality of British neutrality, spoke of a new danger which "would have to be faced in community by Russia and Germany together." The next day the Tsar wrote that "the only way, as you say, would be that Germany, Russia and France should at once unite upon an arrangement to abolish Anglo-Japanese arrogance and insolence." 3 Further discussion ensued and they actually signed a treaty August

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24, 1905. But on August 12, 1905, the Anglo-Japanese alliance was renewed in a form revised to include within its scope British India and the intervention of a third power in the current war, and the Russo-German rulers let their scheme fall into abeyance. The alliance was again revised July 13, 1911, on the initiative of Great Britain who at the time was about to sign a treaty with the United States providing for the peaceful settlement of all disputes. The alliance text of 1905 was so worded that, in the event of war between the United States and Japan, Great Britain might find it her duty to participate on the Nipponese side. It was a point of British honor to have no conflicting engagements, and her ally showed her own goodwill by readily consenting to the change.

ORIGIN OF THE ENTENTE CORDIALE

Edward VII succeeded to the throne of the British Empire on January 22, 1901. A man of 69 years, he had long been a student of European affairs and was welcomed as one who would prove a tranquilizing influence among the powers. Even his nephew the Kaiser, who did not like him, wrote in a moment of candor that "Uncle Albert's... wish for peace is quite pronounced, and is the motive for his liking to offer his services wherever he sees collisions

The text of the treaty as published in a correspondence dispatch of the Associated Press of February 28, 1918, read: "POLYARNAYA ZVEZDA" (Polar Star), "BJÖRKE, 24 August, 1905.

"Their Imperial Majesties, the Emperor of All Russia on the one hand and the Emperor of Germany on the other, with a view of insuring the peace of Europe, have agreed to the following points of a treaty regarding a defensive union: Should either of these empires be attacked by any other European power the ally shall come to its aid in Europe with all its land and naval forces.

"Point 1.

"Point 2.

common enemy. "Point 3.

The contracting parties obligate themselves not to make a separate peace with the

The present agreement shall come into force at the signing of a peace between Russia and Japan and shall remain in force until a period, the date of which shall be fixed upon a year in advance.

"Point 4. The Emperor of All Russia, on the coming into force of the above treaty, shall take necessary steps to inform France of said treaty and shall propose that France should join the same as an ally.

(Signed) (Countersigned)

"WILHELM,
"NICHOLAS.
"VON TSCHIRSKY,
"BENKENDORV,
"A. BIRILEV."

The text was communicated to Serge Witte by the Tsar on the former's return from Portsmouth after the Russo-Japanese peace negotiations (Bernstein, Willy-Nicky Correspondence, 127–128). Witte himself stated to his friend B. Glinski, editor of the Russkoye Slovo: "It was I who was responsible for the annulment of the double treaty, for both offensive and defensive war, concluded between Nicholas II and Wilhelm at Björke." (See also Emile Joseph Dillon, The Eclipse of Russia, 312–370, 393-415.)

HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS OF NATIONS

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in the world." He therefore naturally threw his weight in favor of an Anglo-French cordial understanding.

An address advocating an arbitration treaty between France and Great Britain was delivered on March 27, 1901, by Thomas Barclay before the French Arbitration Society. Barclay forthwith organized and conducted an active propaganda for Anglo-French friendship which culminated in the signing of a general arbitration treaty on October 14, 1903.

Edward VII was a frequent visitor to Paris and did much to cultivate the friendly feeling which had thus been privately inspired. In May, 1903, he visited Paris in his official capacity and President Emile Loubet of France returned the courtesy on July 6-9. At that time the decision to negotiate a settlement of all outstanding frictional questions was decided upon by the ministers of foreign affairs of the two countries. The decision then taken had, however, been cultivated in diplomatic circles for several years. Pierre Paul Cambon had gone to London as French ambassador in 1898, and had had not a little to do with preparing the ground. "When my brother," said Jules Martin Cambon, then French ambassador at Berlin, to Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg on June 11, 1911, in urging a similar attitude on the part of Germany, "was appointed ambassador to London, the situation between France and England was very delicate; one morning by mutual agreement it was resolved to examine the difficulties which divided the two countries, to take account of the legitimate grievances of both; they were discussed in good faith, and the entente cordiale resulted from that." 2

The negotiations begun in July, 1903, were concluded by the series of documents signed on April 8, 1904.

ANGLO-RUSSIAN CONVENTION RESPECTING ASIA

Great Britain continued the effort to improve political conditions, turning to Russia with whom relations in Asia had proverbially been difficult. The spirit behind the ensuing negotiations was well expressed by Baron Greindl, Belgian minister at Berlin, in a letter to

Bernstein, The Willy-Nicky Correspondence, 47.

• Ministère des affaires étrangères. Documents diplomatiques, 1912. Affaires du Maroc, VI, page 350.

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