The game of diplomacy . tate ofantagonism to England. Realizing this and relyingupon our alliance with France, we only had to exploitthis unusually promising diplomatic situation and veerfrom one side to the other just as it suited us. We hadonly to follow the example of Prince Bismarck, who inhis day had built his policies on Russo-English antago-nisms. But Nicholas character was not sufficientlydetermined to follow a consistent policy of any kind. >In the first years of his reign he exasperated William continually attacking and slighting his amour-propre,only later to make amends in
The game of diplomacy . tate ofantagonism to England. Realizing this and relyingupon our alliance with France, we only had to exploitthis unusually promising diplomatic situation and veerfrom one side to the other just as it suited us. We hadonly to follow the example of Prince Bismarck, who inhis day had built his policies on Russo-English antago-nisms. But Nicholas character was not sufficientlydetermined to follow a consistent policy of any kind. >In the first years of his reign he exasperated William continually attacking and slighting his amour-propre,only later to make amends in the political field by makinghim all sorts of ridiculous concessions at his slightestrequest. Acquiring the habit of seeing Nicholas alwaysready to give way to him in the fields of diplomacy,the Emperor William naturally believed he could go toany lengths. It is clear that our relations with Ger-many under such conditions would eventually concludewith a rupture. A few of the Russian statesmen tried to stop Nicholas 112. Count Osten-Sacken. FOREIGN POLICY OF NICHOLAS 11 following such a fatal policy. Count Witte and CountOsten-Sacken both did their utmost. But their effortswere in vain. Count Witte fell into disgrace and theactivities of Count Osten-Sacken were reduced tosmoothing over as much as possible the mistakes whichwere the direct result of the personal feeling between thetwo Emperors. If Count Witte had remained in power,it is more than probable that a rupture could have beenavoided without any humiliation for Russia. Germanymight not have dared plan her coup so deliberately. One day after war had been declared Witte asked me : Do you believe if I had remained at the head of thegovernment and Count Osten-Sacken had been in Berlinthat Germany would have dared to encourage Austriain her designs on Serbia ? Knowing the official mind of Berlin and the personalascendancy Witte undoubtedly held over the GermanEmperor, I could only answer in the negative. Un-fortunately Count
Size: 1389px × 1798px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublisherlondonhutchinsonco
