With France we had accumulated, throughout some decades of animosity, any number of irritating questions, in Newfoundland, in Zanzibar, in Madagascar, in Siam, in Morocco, in Algiers, in Tunis, on the Congo, on the Niger, in Egypt, and the Soudan. Therefore, negotiations, beginning in the spring of 1903, were announced in 1904 as having produced "a comprehensive scheme" for the settlement of these issues, constituting hitherto "a standing menace to an international friendship."
The next step in this sphere was to agree with Russia, so as to terminate what Lord Curzon called "this long feud, which has been the source of so much anxiety, which has produced such incessant intrigues, and has involved such great expenditure to Russia, to India, and ourselves." Accordingly, in 1907, we made a treaty with Russia in regard to oriental matters, which the same authority described as the most important concluded by us for the last fifty years, and "pregnant with inexpressible influence upon the future." Lord Lansdowne reinforced this by saying that "the time has come when agreements of this kind are really inevitable." He added that this convention "marked the beginning of a new era in our relations with Russia," and that he trusted Russia to observe it with absolute loyalty.
Thirdly, if we are to take a line in European affairs, we shall obviously need forces competent, to some degree at least, to meet European necessities. Hitherto, the unavowed but underlying
