Page:Diplomacy and the War (Andrassy 1921).djvu/56

 questions which were the main causes of the mutual distrust; though these agreements coincide with the Anglo-French and the Anglo-Russian agreements, they did not imply, as in the two last mentioned cases, a new change of policy.

The naval question could not be solved. After the Morocco crisis, and after the last war in the Balkans, an attempt was made, in the year 1912, to arrive at a solution of this question, but without success. The rivalry on the high seas continued between the two world powers. As far as the question of the Straits was concerned, nothing whatever happened, and feeling in Russia towards us became worse from day to day.

The part played by General Liman von Sanders caused further anxiety. His activity was regarded as an attempt to improve the Turkish Army while placing it under German command. The danger of German predominance in Constantinople became very imminent. The German Government gave way, and thereby solved this question in the way in which she had solved manv other questions in a friendly spirit, but the result was onlv an increase of the distrust which had arisen in settling several other points at issue previously.

The Russian press was up in arms, especially the Nowoje Wremja, which, under pretext of the Russo-German trade agreement, started a campaign against Germany. The Russian military command invented one occasion for war after another. The Minister of War boasted that he was ready for battle, and called upon France openly to arm. The mobilization was