as now joined Germany.

AN AGGRESSIVE POLICY

And now let us watch this policy in action in recent events. In 1897
Germany demanded reparation from China for the recent murder of two German
missionaries. Troops were landed at Kiao-chau Bay, a large pecuniary
indemnity of about L35,000 was refused, and Kiao-chau itself with the
adjacent territory was ceded to Germany. That was a significant
demonstration of the Emperor's determination to make his country a
world-power, so that, as was stated afterwards, nothing should occur in
the whole world in which Germany would not have her say. Meanwhile, in
Europe itself event after event occurred to prove the persistent character
of German aggressiveness. On March 31, 1905, the German Emperor landed at
Tangier, in order to aid the Sultan of Morocco in his demand for a
Conference of the Powers to check the military dispositions of France. M.
Delcasse, France's Foreign Minister, demurred to this proposal, asserting
that a Conference was wholly unnecessary. Thereupon Prince Buelow used
menacing language, and Delcasse resigned in June 1905. The Conference of
Algeciras was held in January 1906, in which Austria proved herself "a
brilliant second" to Germany. Two years afterwards, in 1908, came still
further proofs of Germany's ambition. Austria annexed Bosnia and
Herzegovina. Russia immediately protested; so did most of the other Great
Powers. But Germany at once took up the Austrian cause, and stood "in
shining armour" side by side with her ally. Inasmuch as Russia was, in
1908, only just recovering from the effects of her disastrous war with
Japan, and was therefore in no condition to take the offensive, the Triple
Alliance gained a distinct victory. Three years later occurred another
striking event. In July 1911 the world was startled by the news that the
German gunboat _Panther_, joined shortly afterwards by the cruiser
_Berlin_, had been sent to Agadir. Clearly Berlin intended to reopen the
whole Moroccan question, and the tension between the Powers was for some
time acute. Nor did Mr. Lloyd George make it much better by a fiery speech
at the Mansion House on July 21, which considerably fluttered the
Continental dovecots. The immediate problem, however, was solved by the
cession of about one hundred thousand square miles of territory in the
Congo basin by France to Germany in compensation for German acquiescence
in the French protectorate over Morocco. I need not, perhaps, refer