Not less large were the concessions made in South Central Africa. "The new agreement [regarding the interests of Germany and England in the African possessions of Portugal] was fully in accord with German wishes and interests. For these the British Government showed the greatest consideration. Sir E. Grey intended to demonstrate his good-will toward us, but he also wished to assist our colonial development as a whole." These arrangements were embodied in two treaties highly advantageous to Germany, which, however, the German Government, for some reasons of its own, had postponed signing, so that they remained unpublished up till the outbreak of the war. Had we in the inner spirit of the German Government, and the use it would make of our concessions, British Ministers might well have hesitated to go so far as they did. But that they conceded so much is the completest proof of their good-will and the most convincing refutation of the charges which the German Ministers and press have brought against them.
It would take too long to follow out in this article the constant efforts of the British Government during the fateful days before the outbreak of the war to avoid a conflict by means of Sir E. Grey's repeated plans of mediation and adjustment. The memorandum shows how earnestly he labored for peace at Berlin, at Petersburg, at Vienna, and how all his attempts were baffled by the settled purpose of the German Government to force on war.
THE POTSDAM CONFERENCE
Britain may, like other nations, have in the past sometimes indulged her ambition, sometimes abused her strength, sometimes embarked in wars that might well have been avoided. But on this occasion at least she is blameless. Never in her long history has she had so perfectly clear a conscience as in the case of this war. Her people neither contemplated it nor desired it. They were driven into it by the action of the German Government, which persisted in pushing it on even when Austria seemed willing to draw back. All had evidently been settled at that famous Potsdam conference, when (as the German Ambassador at Constantinople, before Italy had declared war against Austria, told his Italian colleague) the Emperor had inquired of his military and naval chiefs whether they were ready for the conflict for which, during some months preceding, preparations had been in progress. Neither when the war began did Britain wish to do more than prevent Germany from destroying Belgium and mortally wounding France. Sir E. Grey spoke truly for the nation when, as the memorandum records, he said: "We don't want to crush Germany."
Germany and Great Britain in 1912
Lord Haldane's Official Report of His Conciliatory Mission Prior to the War
Lord Haldane, the British Minister for War in 1912, was sent on a mission to Berlin in that year to confer with the German Chancellor, Dr. von Bethmann Hollweg, in the hope of reaching some agreement with Germany for a mutual reduction of armament, and for the establishment of conditions that would preserve European peace. The hope regarding armaments was not fulfilled, and the conversations that had taken place were not made public by either Government; but late in May, 1918, in view of the revelations of Prince Lichnowsky regarding Germany's responsibility for the war, the British Government at length published Lord Haldane's report. It is in the form of a daily record, beginning Feb. 8, 1912, and is here reproduced in full, with the exception of parts relating solely to British defensive measures:
At the interview with the Chancellor, which took place at 2 o'clock and lasted for more than an hour and a half, I began by giving him the message of good wishes for the conversations and for the future of Anglo-German relations with which the King had intrusted me at the audience I had before leaving. He was pleased with this message, and intimated that he would write through the German Ambassador to thank the King. I then said that perhaps it would be convenient if I defined the capacity in which I was in Berlin, and there to talk to him; and I defined it as above intimated. I proceeded to ask whether he wished to make any observations or desired that I should begin. He wished me to begin, and I went on at once to speak to him as arranged in a conversation I had had with Sir Edward Grey before leaving London.