THE ANGLO-FRENCH CONVERSATIONS
nt,—In a recent review of the second edition of my book :sea Power reviewer remarked that, in commenting on Sir Edward Grey's tivities relating to the Entente Cordiale and the despatch of the -E-P. to France in 1974, I was probably not familiar with Grey's atobiegraphy Twenty-five Years. Whether or not I Was acquainted ith that work before .writing Sea Power is of small consequence. 'hat is more to the point is whether -there is anything in Twenty-five ears that contradicts the facts I had marshalled or that invalidates conclusions- I had drawn from them. Your reviewer did not oduce any evidence of that kind. Can he do so?—Your obedient [Our reviewer writes: T124 seems to me to have gone too far in rowing responsibility on Sir Edward Grey personally for Anglo-. tench conversations, carried through (it is alleged) wiih " precipita- ," which were "of an importance that cannot be exaggerated," id which "brought about a revolution in Britain's method of 'tug war." Grey, as his Twenty-five Years makes clear, did not tiate, but inherited, these conversations (" Plans for naval and litarY co-operation had, I found, begun to be made under Lord nsdowne in 19o5, when the German pressure was menacing. The vol conversations had already been direct ; the military conversa- s had hitherto been through an intermediary." Twenty-five Years, 76-) Grey's part was to regularise the military conversations, or
r to get Haldane at the War Office to regularise them, and insist repeatedly, right down to August 1st, 1914, that they were elY contingent and did not commit either Government.]
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