politics than ever before and thereby caused many serious
dissensions between its members and the Government. A very strong
demand for absolute separation of church and state began to
crystallize which found its final result in May, 1904, in the
passage by the chamber of a bill prohibiting all instructions in
religious institutions by the end of a period of five years. The
attitude of the French Government toward the Catholic Church, of
course, was deeply disapproved by the pope, and when President
Loubet paid a visit to the King of Italy at Rome in May, 1904, and
thereby aroused the pope to an official protest, the French
Government promptly withdrew its representative at the Vatican.

May, 1903, brought to Paris King Edward of England on one of his
many visits to the French capital. This time, however, he appeared
there in his official capacity and was received with general
enthusiasm and expressions of the most sincere friendship on the
part of the French nation toward the English people. Throughout 1904
the difficulties between the French Government and the church
continued with increasing violence and in November of that year, a
bill finally was introduced separating absolutely church and state.

Relations between France and Germany became considerably strained
during 1905. France resented the advances which German diplomacy and
German commercial institutions had succeeded in making at
Constantinople and this resentment found its expression in a refusal
to finance any more Turkish loans. As an official explanation of
this attitude it was stated that the French Government objected to
supplying funds to the Turkish Government as long as the Turkish
Government continued to spend a large part of these funds for army
and munition purchases from German firms. More serious than this,
however, was Germany's official announcement that the empire would
insist firmly on an open-door policy in Morocco. But fortunately for
the peace of Europe this question at that time was settled by a
series of conferences which were concluded in the fall of 1905.

In July, 1905, the French Chamber of Deputies and in September of
the same year the French Senate finally adopted a bill for the
separation of state and church.

In January, 1906, France again severed diplomatic relations with
another power on account of commercial disputes, this time with
Venezuela.

In March, 1906, King Edward paid his first visit to the new
President, M.