ork
together in the interest of the whole, and that nothing any longer
stands in the way of the realization of this high ideal save those
national bitternesses, jealousies, and hostilities.... As far as
Venezuela is concerned, that is passing over ... but with respect to
the future it fills me with anxiety when I think how easy it is to
stir up the fire of international jealousy, and how hard it is to
quench it." It was all the harder in view of the fact that the King,
from the very beginning of his reign, adhered tenaciously to the
political idea of using the old French revanche notion as the cardinal
point of English policy.

In April, 1903, the King began a series of political trips to
Portugal, Spain, France, and Austria, while Berlin, very strangely,
was not visited by him. Each one of these visits resulted in political
agreements, into which Vienna alone declined to enter, and which,
after a return visit on the part of Loubet, at that time President of
the French Republic, and after a surprising visit in Paris on the part
of certain members of the English Parliament, led to the significant
English-French agreement of April 8, 1904, a treaty which culminated
in the balancing of Morocco against Egypt and made it possible for the
English Government, as soon as it chose, to regulate the Morocco
question in such a way that it would necessarily bring about a
conflict between France and isolated Germany. The ally of King Edward
was the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Delcasse, who, on the
basis of the agreements made with England, had likewise concluded
treaties with Spain and Italy, which, as he confidently assumed,
insured the penetration pacifique, i.e., the conquest, unhindered by
Europe, of Morocco. How this plan presently fell through and how
Delcasse was overthrown shall not be related here; on the other hand,
attention should be called to the intimidating efforts to which
England resorted for the purpose of exerting pressure upon Germany.
The first effort of this nature took the form of an address delivered
on Feb. 3, 1905, by Arthur Lee, a Civil Lord of the English Admiralty,
who threatened the German fleet with destruction; the second effort
came after Emperor William had landed in Tangier on March 31 and after
Delcasse had been overthrown, and took the form of an appearance of an
English fleet before Swinemuende, on which occasion it was officially
asserted that the resolution had been adopted back in May