2. The second cause of England's joining in this war is the effect of a
number of internal arrangements, some of them of minor importance, but
all leading in one direction and ultimately placing the Government of
Great Britain in a position from which it was difficult to retire. In
general terms these arrangements were based upon the idea of joining the
group of powers, French and Russian, which formed the counterpoise to
the Germanic group in Europe, the German Empire and Austria. At the same
time there was running through these arrangements the idea of detaching
Italy, whose Government was firmly attached to Germany, but whose
population was very doubtful, from the Triple Alliance of Germany,
Austria, and Italy, which had been the cardinal point in European
affairs for a generation.
The various steps by which Great Britain approached this position are
well known. In the first place, she came to an arrangement with France
whereby she should have a free hand in Egypt and France should be
supported by England in the occupation of Morocco. This was done behind
the back of Germany to the manifest loss of Germany's colonial ambition
and, what is more noticeable, England was openly paying a very high
price for the new state of affairs she hoped to create, for she had
pretty well a free hand in Egypt, already, while France's opportunity of
going to Morocco and exploiting a very large area of valuable
territory--something quite new and additional to her--depended upon
England's withdrawing her opposition.
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