btful compliment of having played the part of "a brilliant
second" to Germany.

It is needless to describe at length the Act of Algeciras (April 7,
1906). It established a police and a State Bank in Morocco, suppressed
smuggling and the illicit trade in arms, reformed the taxes, and set on
foot public works. Of course, little resulted from all this; but the
position of France was tacitly regularised, and she was left free to
proceed with pacific penetration. "We are neither victors nor
vanquished," said Buelow in reviewing the Act; and M. Rouvier echoed the
statement for France. In reality, Germany had suffered a check. Her
chief aim was to sever the Anglo-French Entente, and she failed. She
sought to rally Italy to her side, and she failed; for Italy now
proclaimed her accord with France on Mediterranean questions. Finally
the _North German Gazette_ paid a tribute to the loyal and peaceable
aims of French policy; while other less official German papers deplored
the mistakes of their Government, which had emphasised the isolation of
Germany[518]. This is indeed the outstanding result of the Conference.
The threatening tone of Berlin had disgusted everybody. Above all it
brought to more cordial relations the former rivals, Great Britain
and Russia.

[Footnote 518: Tardieu, _La Conference d'Algeciras_, pp. 410-20.]

As has already appeared, the friction between Great Britain and Russia
quickly disappeared after the Japanese War. During the Congress of
Algeciras the former rivals worked cordially together to check the
expansive policy of Germany, in which now lay the chief cause of
political unrest. In fact, the Kaiser's Turcophile policy acquired a new
significance owing to the spread of a Pan-Islamic propaganda which sent
thrills of fanaticism through North-West Africa, Egypt, and Central
Asia. At St. Helena Napoleon often declared Islam to be vastly superior
to Christianity as a fighting creed; and his imitator now seemed about
to marshal it against France, Russia, and Great Britain. Naturally, the
three Powers drew together for mutual support. Further, Germany by
herself was very powerful, the portentous growth of her manufactures and
commerce endowing her with wealth which she spent lavishly on her army
and navy. In May 1906 the Reichstag agreed to a new Navy Bill for
further construction which was estimated to raise the total annual
expenditure on the navy from L11,671,000 in 1905 to L16,492,000 in 1917;
this too