ady, and so they were obliged to back
down, but did so with a bitter feeling toward the "central empires,"
as Germany and Austria are called.

It has already been shown that England for a long time had been
suspicious of Russia, fearing that the northern power was aiming at
control of India. Of late this hostile feeling had been dying out,
especially as the friendship between France and Great Britain grew
stronger. It was impossible for Russia, France's partner in the Dual
Alliance, to remain unfriendly to England, France's ally in the
"Entente Cordiale." Both England and Russia felt that the growth of
Germany and the ambition of her war chiefs threatened them more than
they had ever threatened each other.

In 1907 Russia and England reached an understanding by which they
marked off two great parts of Persia for trading purposes, each
agreeing to stay in her own portion, and not disturb the traders of
the other country in theirs. After this Russia, England, and France
were usually found acting together in European diplomacy, under the
name of the "Triple Entente." The "balance of power" had been leaning
toward Germany and her allies, but the English navy, added to the
scales on the other side, more than balanced the advantage in land
forces of the Triple Alliance.

Three years later, Morocco again gave trouble, and France, with
England's backing and Spain's friendship, sent her troops among the
Moors to enforce law and order. Any one could see that with Tunis and
Algeria already in French hands, it was only a question of a little
while before Morocco would be theirs also.

This time Germany rushed her warship Panther to the Moorish port of
Agadir. This was a threat against France, and the French appealed to
England to know whether they could look to her for support. Russia was
now in much better shape for war than she had been three years before,
and notified France that she was ready to give her support. Therefore,
when Mr. Lloyd-George, the little Welshman who was really the leader
of the British government, stood up before a big crowd of English
bankers and told the world that "to the last ship, the last man, the
last penny," England would support France, it was plain that somebody
would have to back down or else start a tremendous European war.

It was now Germany's turn to give way. Strong as she was, she did not
propose to fight France, Russia, and England combined. So, although
the French gave Germany a few