In this connection the following dispatch of Baron Beyens (June
1912) is worth quoting:--
After the death of Edward VII, the Kaiser, as well as the Crown Prince,
when they returned from England, where they had been courteously
received, were persuaded that the coldness in the relations of the
preceding years was going to yield to a cordial intimacy between the
two Courts and that the causes of the misunderstanding between the two
peoples would vanish with the past. His disillusionment, therefore, was
cruel when he saw the Cabinet of London range itself last year on the
side of France. But the Kaiser is obstinate, and has not abandoned the
hope of reconquering the confidence of the English.[7]
This dispatch is so far borne out by the facts that in the year succeeding
the Moroccan crisis a serious attempt was made to improve Anglo-German
relations, and there is no reason to doubt that on both sides there was
a genuine desire for an understanding. How that understanding failed has
already been indicated.[8] But even that failure did not ruin the relations
between the two Powers. In the Balkan crisis, as we have seen and as is
admitted on both sides, England and Germany worked together for peace. And
the fact that a European conflagration was then avoided, in spite of the
tension between Russia and Austria, is a strong proof that the efforts of
Sir Edward Grey were sincerely and effectively seconded by Germany.
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