Note 216 — Chapter V

Eckardstein has written in his memoirs that in his private correspondence with Holstein he took the latter’s peculiarities into account and used expressions that were adapted to his “complex mentality.” “For instance, I very often avoided using the word alliance and spoke of a defensive arrangement; then I emphasized that the whole affair was yet in embryo, although in fact the negotiations progressed very smoothly and were on the point of conclusion, etc. As soon as the negotiations began to run smoothly and lightly, Holstein became suspicious, and if the other party were willing to accede to our wishes, smelled a rat.” The truth seems to be that for this very reason Eckardstein sent home not less but more favorable reports of the British desire for an alliance than was really the case, and by stretching his instructions to the utmost in his ardent desire to ally the two Powers, may have been responsible for the contradiction mentioned above (Eckardstein, II, 273).