Russian and German Emperors at Baltic Port. No new political
move was then set on foot because it was absolutely necessary for the safety of Europe that the groups should remain as before. Now we know that the Franco-Russian alliance not only remains but has become "more so." We welcome this new Convention because it is an earnest that Russia will seriously do her best to fulfil her intention of re-creating her Fleet. Her programme involves an expendi- ture of £130,000,000. It is a great sum, but when one looks back on the past one sees that Germany could hardly have expected, or at least had no warrant for expecting, that her naval challenge to the world would be taken up by Great Britain alone. But we must not look ahead too far. The future Russian Fleet is still in the brains of Russian statesmen. The promise of it can have absolutely no effect whatever in the sense of modifying the determination of Great Britain to provide for her own safety by her own care and at her own expense.
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