05 to 1914[2] show a constant impression that the Entente was a hostile
combination directed against Germany and engineered, in the earlier years,
for that purpose by King Edward VII. This impression of the Belgian
representatives is no proof, it is true, of the real intentions of the
Entente, but it is proof of how they did in fact appear to outsiders. And
it is irrelevant, whether or no it be true, to urge that the Belgians were
indoctrinated with the German view; since precisely the fact that they
could be so indoctrinated would show that the view was on the face of it
plausible. We see, then, in these dispatches the way in which the policy of
the Entente could appear to observers outside it. I give illustrations from
Berlin, Paris, and London.

On May 30, 1908, Baron Greindl, Belgian Ambassador at Berlin, writes as
follows:--

Call it an alliance, _entente_, or what you will, the grouping of the
Powers arranged by the personal intervention of the King of England
exists, and if it is not a direct and immediate threat of war against
Germany (it would be too much to say that it was that), it constitutes
none the less a diminution of her security. The necessary pacifist
declarations, which, no doubt, will be repeated at Reval, signify very
little, emanating as they do from three Powers which, like Russia and
England, have just carried through successfully, without any motive
except the desire for aggrandizement, and without even a plausible
pretext, wars of conquest in Manchuria and the Transvaal, or which,
like France, is proceeding at this moment to the conquest of Morocco,
in contempt of solemn promises, and without any title except the
cession of British rights, which never existed.

On May 24, 1907, the Comte de Lalaing, Belgian Ambassador at London,
writes:--

A certain section of the Press, called here the Yellow Press, bears to a
great extent the responsibility for the hostile feeling between the two
nations.... It is plain enough that official England is quietly pursuing
a policy opposed to Germany and aimed at her isolation, and that King
Edward has not hesitated to use his personal influence in the service of
this scheme. But it is certainly exceedingly dangerous to poison public
opinion in the open manner adopted by these irresponsible journals.

Again, on July 28, 1911, in the midst of the Morocco crisis, Baron
Guillaume, Belgian Ambassador at Paris, writes:--