though Bebel had warned the House that the agitation of the_
German Navy League had for its object a war with England.

In 1906 and 1907 Edward VII. paid visits to William II., who returned
the compliment in November 1907. But this interchange of courtesies
could not end the distrust caused by Germany's increase of armaments.
The peace-loving Administration of Campbell-Bannerman, installed in
power by the General Election of 1906, sought to come to an
understanding with Berlin, especially at the second Hague Conference of
1907, with respect to a limitation of armaments. But Germany rejected
all such proposals[519]. The hopelessness of framing a friendly
arrangement with her threw us into the arms of Russia; and on August 31,
1907, Anglo-Russian Conventions were signed defining in a friendly way
the interests of the two Powers in Persia, Afghanistan, and Thibet.
True, the interests of Persian reformers were sacrificed by this
bargain; but it must be viewed, firstly, in the light of the Bagdad
Railway scheme, which threatened soon to bring Germany to the gates of
Persia and endanger the position of both Powers in that land[520];
secondly, in that of the general situation, in which Germany and Austria
were rapidly forcing their way to a complete military ascendancy and
refused to consider any limitation of armaments. The detailed reasons
which prompted the Anglo-Russian Entente are of course unknown. But the
fact that the most democratic of all British Administrations should come
to terms with the Russian autocracy is the most convincing proof of the
very real danger which both States discerned in the aggressive conduct
of the Central Powers. The Triple Alliance, designed by Bismarck solely
to safeguard peace, became, in the hands of William II., a menace to his
neighbours, and led them to form tentative and conditional arrangements
for defence in case of attack. This is all that was meant by the Triple
Entente. It formed a loose pendant to the Dual Alliance between France
and Russia, which _was_ binding and solid. With those Powers the United
Kingdom formed separate agreements; but they were not alliances; they
were friendly understandings on certain specific objects, and in no
respect threatened the Triple Alliance so long as it remained
non-aggressive[521].

[Footnote 519: See the cynical section in Reventlow, _op. cit._ (pp.
280-8), entitled "Utopien und Intrigen im Haag." For Austria's efforts
to prevent the Anglo-Ru