Note 266 — Chapter VI

King Edward’s trip was a bold move, for Paris was the center of anti-British feeling, and some members of the British government were doubtful about its success. But the King initiated the visit and took the entire responsibility for it, feeling certain that he would be well received. In his first public speech, more optimistically than truthfully, he declared: “There may have been misunderstandings and causes of dissension in the past [between the two countries], but all such differences are, I believe, happily removed and forgotten, and I trust that the friendship and admiration which we all feel for the French nation and their glorious traditions may in the near future develop into a sentiment of the warmest affection and attachment between the peoples of the two countries. The achievement of this aim is my constant desire.” Quoted in the London Times, May 2, 1903, M. Paul Cambon’s estimate of the significance of the King’s visit is as follows: “Of course, King Edward helped immensely. His visit to Paris in the spring of 1903 really made it [the Anglo-French entente] possible. . . . .” See interview with Cambon in ibid., Dec. 22, 1920. On the visit see Captain the Hon. Sir Seymour Fortescue, Looking Back (London, 1920), pp. 279 ff.; Quest. dipl. et col., XV, 656 f.; Lee, II, 221 ff., 236 ff.; Barclay, p. 218; Viscount Esher, The Influence of King Edward and Essays on Other Subjects (London, 1915), pp. 57 ff.; Pinon, p. 114; Herbert H. Asquith, The Genesis of the War (New York, 1923), p. 30; Metternich to Bülow, June 2, 1903, G.P., XVII, 590 ff., No. 5376; Crozier, pp. 272 ff.; Newton, pp. 275 f., 278 f.