xposed to attack.
Already vainglorious boasts were made that Germany was the successor to
Britain upon the seas. "The Admiral of the Atlantic greets the Admiral
of the Pacific," said the Kaiser later in a message to the Czar. What
was Britain to do under this growing menace? So long as she was isolated
the diplomacy of Germany might form some naval coalition against her.
She took the steps which were necessary for her own safety, and without
forming an alliance she composed her differences with France and Russia
and drew closer the friendship which united her with her old rival
across the Channel. The first fruit of the new German fleet was the
entente cordiale. We had found our enemy. It was necessary that we
should find our friends. Thus we were driven into our present
combination.

* * * * *

And now we had to justify our friendship. For the first time we were
compelled to openly oppose Germany in the deep and dangerous game of
world politics. They wished to see if our understanding was a reality or
a sham. Could they drive a wedge between us by showing that we were a
fair-weather friend whom any stress would alienate? Twice they tried it,
once in 1906 when they bullied France into a conference at Algeciras but
found that Britain was firm at her side, and again in 1911 when in a
time of profound peace they stirred up trouble by sending a gunboat to
Agadir, and pushed matters to the very edge of war. But no threats
induced Britain to be false to her mutual insurance with France. Now for
the third and most fatal time they have demanded that we forswear
ourselves and break our own bond lest a worse thing befall us. Blind and
foolish, did they not know by past experience that we would keep our
promise given? In their madness they have wrought an irremediable evil
to themselves, to us, and to all Europe.

I have shown that we have in very truth never injured nor desired to
injure Germany in commerce nor have we opposed her politically until her
own deliberate actions drove us into the camp of her opponents. But it
may well be asked why then did they dislike us, and why did they weave
hostile plots against us? It was that, as it seemed to them, and as
indeed it actually may have been, we, independently of our own wills,
stood between Germany and that world empire of which she dreamed. This
was caused by circumstances over which we had no control and which we
could not modify if we had wish