Page:Turkey, the great powers, and the Bagdad Railway.djvu/264

 Entente."[5] Mr. Lloyd George delivered a particularly venomous attack upon Russia for having disregarded her diplomatic engagements, and he announced in clarion tones that this desertion from the ranks of the Entente—even if condoned by France—would not cause Great Britain to alter one iota her former policy.[6] The "Slav peril" appeared to be more keenly appreciated, for the moment, in France and England than in Germany!

M. Jaurès, the brilliant French Socialist parliamentarian, believed that the Potsdam Agreement was an admirable instance of the menace of the Russian Alliance to the security of France and the peace of Europe. During the course of a bitter debate in the Chamber of Deputies he confronted the Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. Pichon, with this dilemma: "What is the situation in which you find yourself? You are going to be faced, you already are faced, with a fait accompli, a Russo-German convention on the Bagdad question. What do you propose to do? Well, you may pursue an independent course and continue to oppose the Bagdad Railway. In that event you will be in the unenviable position of opposing Germany in an enterprise to which Russia—whose interests are more directly involved—has given her support. Or, on the other hand, you may subscribe with good grace to this enterprise which Russia commends to you. What then will be your situation? For some years France has successfully resisted the Bagdad Railway. If during this time we have sulked at the enterprise, it was not of our own choice, but out of regard for Russia, because Russia believed her interests to be menaced. In short, we arrive at this paradox. You have created an extremely delicate situation between France and Germany by opposing the Bagdad Railway, in which you had no interests other than those of Russia. And now it is this same Russia which, without previously consulting you, places at the