Page:The guilt of William Hohenzollern.djvu/173

Rh He then struck out the sentence, and wrote: ""Would create for us the possibility of looking forward to a general treaty of neutrality in the future. I cannot to-day go into the details and basis of such a treaty, as England would give her views on the whole question.""

But this version also did not please him, and so he chose the English given above.

This searching for the right expression is very characteristic. Immediately before the war Bethmann-Hollweg was endeavouring to induce England to abandon France and Belgium to the superior strength of Germany. He would have only had a prospect of attaining this, if he gave England the most satisfactory assurances regarding German world and naval policy. Even then the prospect was not great, for, in contrast to the promises, there was the reality of the German fleet. Nevertheless, success might have been considered possible. Yet even then, when Germany was advancing towards that terrible crisis, Bethmann-Hollweg could not decide even to mention a naval agreement as a bait; he could produce nothing but a vague phrase about a " general treaty of neutrality for the future," which, of course, offered not the slightest guarantee that a victorious Germany would not turn its then irresistible superiority against England.

The offer was then very vigorously rejected by Grey as a scandalous suggestion for the conclusion of a bargain with Germany at the expense of France, whose colonies were to be surrendered to Germany. But even before the English Government received the news of the proposal, it had already warned Germany seriously,