Page:Diplomacy revealed.djvu/30



Concentration of British Fleet in North Sea. Lord Fisher, First Sea-Lord, and Sir Philip Watts, Chief Constructor at the Admiralty, design the Dreadnought…… …… January-February.

Russian defeats by Japan. Port Arthur surrendered (January), Annihilation of Russian Fleet (May 27)……… January-June Massacres and Revolutionary movements in Russia………January-October The Kaiser pays a visit to Tangier and informs a deputation of Moroccan notable s that he looks upon the Sulton of Morocco as an independent Sovereign………… March 31. British Imperialist Press describes the visit as a challenge to the Anglo-French Entente and denies that Germany has any right to concern herself with the future of Morocco……… April.

Germany presses for another International Conference on Morroco following the precedent set by the Madrid Convention of 1880, British and French diplomacy resist a Conference……… ………April. The Sultan of Morocco invites the Powers Signatory to the Madrid Convention to a Conference…… ………May 30.

The British Governmcnt informs the Sultan that it will be noparty to a Conference. The Times denounces a Conference and attacks Germany and the Kaiser with great violence…… ……June. M. Deleassé, French Foreign Minister, fails to carry his colleagues with him in his opposition to a Conference and resigns... June.

M. Deleasse is interviewed by Le Gaulois, and forehadows the annihilation of Germany's trade and shipping through an Anglo-French naval coalition…………… July 12. Anglo-Japanese Alliance………… August. Treaty of Portsmouth between Russia and Japan.. September.

First steps towards Anglo Russian understanding………… Autumn. The French reactionary Press publish accounts purporting to describe the proceedings at the last Cabinet meeting of M. Delcassé with his colleagues (June) in the course of which the former is said to have communicated assurances of a British seizure of the Kiel Canal and a landing on German soil in the event of a Franco-German war over Morocco. Substantial accuracy of these revelations confirmed by Jaurès………………October.

First Dreadnaught officially laid down…………… October.