and America, and, indeed, throughout the civilized world.  It was certainly the determination of Germany to build a great navy that led to the tension between her and England, and finally to the formation of the Triple Entente, as a counterpoise to the Triple Alliance.  It is 1900, not 1888, still less 1870, that marks the period at which German policy began to be a disturbing element in Europe.  During the years that followed, the principal storm-centres in international policy were the Far and Near East, the Balkans, and Morocco.  Events in the Far East, important though they were, need not detain us here, for their contribution to the present war was remote and indirect, except so far as concerns the participation of Japan.  Of the situation in the other areas, the tension and its causes and effects, we must try to form some clear general idea.  This can be done even in the absence of that detailed information of what was going on behind the scenes for which a historian will have to wait.

[Footnote 1:  The columns of The Times for 1899 are full of attacks upon France.  Once more we may cite from the dispatch of the Comte de Lalaing, Belgian Minister in London, dated May 24, 1907, commenting on current or recalling earlier events:  “A certain section of the Press, known here under the name of the Yellow Press, is in great part responsible for the hostility that exists between the two nations (England and Germany).  What, in fact, can one expect from a journalist like Mr. Harmsworth, now Lord Northcliffe, proprietor of the Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Daily Graphic, Daily Express, Evening News, and Weekly Dispatch, who in an interview given to the Matin says, ’Yes, we detest the Germans cordially.  They make themselves odious to all Europe.  I will never allow the least thing to be printed in my journal which might wound France, but I would not let anything be printed which might be agreeable to Germany.’  Yet, in 1899, this same man was attacking the French with the same violence, wanted to boycott the Paris Exhibition, and wrote:  ’The French have succeeded in persuading John Bull that they are his deadly enemies.  England long hesitated between France and Germany, but she has always respected the German character, while she has come to despise France.  A cordial understanding cannot exist between England and her nearest neighbour.  We have had enough of France, who has neither courage nor political sense.’” Lalaing does not give his references, and I cannot therefore verify his quotations.  But they hardly require it.  The volte-face of The Times sufficiently well known.  And only too well known is the way in which the British nation allows its sentiments for other nations to be dictated to it by a handful of cantankerous journalists.]