Note 437 — Chapter IX

Monts to Bülow, April 16, 1904, G.P., XX, 53 f., No. 6403. Giovanni Giolitti, who was then Italian premier, has written as follows about this visit: “In Delcassé I noticed particularly his finesse and ability, as well as the insistence with which he attempted to loosen or weaken our bonds with Germany, without however putting forward anything at all in the nature of a definite proposal” (Memoirs of My Life [London, 1923], p. 183). On March 5, 1904, Sir Francis Bertie, British ambassador in Rome, wrote to Lansdowne as follows: “M. Ba[rrère] does all he can to create friction between Italy and Austria to alienate Italy from her partner in the Triplice” (B.D., V, 74). In contrast the British Ambassador in Vienna was in April, 1904, reassuring his Italian colleague about Austrian intentions in the Balkans now that Russia was in a far eastern war (Plunkett to Lansdowne, April 7, 1904, ibid., V, 80, No. 41).