Arthur Bullard

The Diplomacy of the Great War Arthur Bullard

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1918. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VIII EIGHT YEARS OF TENSION, 1906-1914. A. MOROCCO--BOSNIA. The period which followed the Algeciras Conference was one of diplomatic insincerity. There were eight years of ever increasing tension. The storm-center swept back and forth from Morocco to the Balkans, but the issues were always fundamentally the same. Everyone talked of maintaining the status quo and conspired to alter it. Everyone gave lip-service to the balance of power and tried to upset it. Everyone preached peace and coveted the spoils of war. Great Britain was the most, outspoken defender of the status quo. But in these heated days it is a rare rule which works both ways. With Russia she sweepingly upset the status quo in Persia. She made no protest at changes in the map which benefited her other friend, France. But whenever Germany showed dissatisfaction with the existing frontiers, British statesmen were deeply shocked. "What we have, we hold," became a sort of watchword for a large class of Englishmen. It gave them a comfortable feeling of being real lovers of peace, who only kept their guns loaded out of fear of a German aggression. The Germans--rather fantastically--compared this attitude to that of a highway robber who refuses to give up his ill-gotten gains. It is hard for an outsider to reach a conclusion as to the validity of the British title to some of their possessions. They have always refused to discuss the matter. "Possession," according to their legal maxim, "is nine points of the law." And their fleet--their power to hold--was the other tenth. But the German case against Great Britain went much deeper than the attack on the validity of her title to all the seas and much of the earth. They were able to point out with entire truth that the Powers of the Entente had extend...