Note 270 — Chapter VI

On this interview see the dispatch from Lansdowne to Monson, July 7, 1903, B.D., II, 294 ff., No. 357; also Delcassé’s interview in Petit Parisien, April 10, 1904, reprinted in Quest. dipl. et col., April 16, 1904, pp. 616 f. Delcassé’s conversation with Lansdowne had been prefaced by the talks between Cambon and Lansdowne during the previous year and also by a long talk on July 2, 1903, between Lansdowne and Etienne. Etienne had stated one of the reasons for an Anglo-French entente as follows (the account is from the hand of the British minister): “M. Etienne expressed his belief that the most serious menace to the peace of Europe lay in Germany, that a good understanding between France and England was the only means of holding German designs in check, and that if such an understanding could be arrived at, England would find that France would be able to exercise a salutary influence over Russia and thereby relieve us from many of our troubles with that country” (Lansdowne to Monson, July 2, 1903, B.D., II, 293, No. 356).