[Footnote 528:  Lack of space precludes an account of the Cretan Question, also of the Agram and Friedjung trials which threw lurid light on Austria’s treatment of her South-Slav subjects, for which see Seton-Watson, Corruption and Reform in Hungary.  Rohrbach, Der deutsche Gedanke in der Welt (1912), p. 172, explains the success of German efforts at the Porte by the belief of the Young Turks that Germany was the only Power that wished them well—­Germany who helped Austria to secure Bosnia; Germany, whose Bagdad Railway scheme mercilessly exploited Turkish resources! (See D. Fraser, The Short Cut to India, chs. iii. iv.)]

The death of King Edward VII. on May 6, 1910, was a misfortune for the cause of peace.  His tact and discernment had on several occasions allayed animosity and paved the way for friendly understandings.  True, the German Press sought to represent those efforts as directed towards the “encircling” (Einkreisung) of Germany.  But here we may note that (1) King Edward never transgressed the constitutional usage, which prescribed that no important agreement be arrived at apart from the responsible Ministers of the Crown[529]. (2) The agreements with Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and Portugal (in 1903-4) were for the purposes of arbitration. (3) The alliance with Japan and the Ententes with France and Russia were designed to end the perilous state of isolation which existed at the time of his accession. (4) At that time Germany was allied to Austria, Italy, and (probably) Roumania, not to speak of her secret arrangements with Turkey.  She had no right to complain of the ending of our isolation. (5) The marriage of King Alfonso of Spain with Princess Ena of Battenberg (May 1906), was a love-match, and was not the result of King Edward’s efforts to detach Spain from Germany.  It had no political significance. (6) The Kaiser’s sister was Crown Princess (now Queen) of Greece; the King of Roumania was a Hohenzollern; and the King of Bulgaria and the Prince Consort of Holland were German Princes. (7) On several occasions King Edward testified his friendship with Germany, notably during his visit to Berlin in February 1909, which Germans admit to have helped on the friendly Franco-German agreement of that month on Morocco; also in his letter of January 1910, on the occasion of the Kaiser’s birthday, when he expressed the hope that the United Kingdom and Germany might always work together for the maintenance of peace[530].

[Footnote 529:  I have been assured of this on high authority.]

[Footnote 530:  Viscount Esher, the Influence of King Edward:  and Other Essays, p. 56.  The “encircling” myth is worked up by Rachfahl, Kaiser und Reich, p, 228; Reventlow, op, cit. pp. 254, 279, 298, etc.; and by Rohrbach, Der deutsche Gedanke in der Welt (ch. vi.), where he says that King Edward’s chief idea from the outset was to cripple Germany.  He therefore won over Japan, France, Spain, and Russia, his aim being to secure all Africa from the Cape to Cairo, and all Asia from the Sinaitic Peninsula to Burmah.]