Note 116 — Chapter III
Reading edition
On this question see a speech by Maura, minister of foreign affairs, in the Spanish Chamber, June 9, 1904, Sesiones del Congreso, Legislatura, p. 4959; Becker, pp. 429 f.; Tardieu, p. 635; Durand to Lansdowne, Jan. 3, 1903, B.D., II, 276 f., No. 332; Lansdowne to Durand, Jan. 5, 1903, ibid., 277, No. 333; Durand to Lansdowne, Jan. 17, 1903, ibid., 278, No. 335; Metternich to F. O., Dec. 31, 1902, G.P., XVII, 247 f., No. 5192; Groeben to F. O., Sept. 17, 1903, ibid., 353 f., No. 5198 and note; Monson to Lansdowne, April 22, 1904, B.D., III, 30, No. 30; Leon y Castillo, II, 179 f. There is a story that Silvela tried to change the basis of the accord in such a way as also to obtain Russian support for Spain against Great Britain and that he was willing to enter the anti-British camp. His proposal to spend eight hundred million pesetas in the building of a navy pointed in this direction; but that there is anything to the tale seems doubtful. See Mousset, pp. 137 ff.; Tardieu, pp. 635 f.; Anonymous, “Una nouva alleanza,” Nouva antologia, Aug. 1, 1903, pp. 511.