Old Diplomacy: Reflections on the Foreign Office before 1914

Abstract

The nineteenth century Foreign Office has long been regarded as the epitome of ‘old diplomacy’. A closer examination of the evidence, however, suggests a different picture. Although for much of the century before 1914 the Office remained a compact and uncomplicated organisation, its procedures were subject to repeated reforms. In modern sociological parlance, the Office was a knowledge-based organisation with efficient information management procedures geared towards informed policy-making. The conduct of business lay in the hands of a relatively small and homogenous élite. This helped to produce some degree of uniformity of outlook, the ‘Foreign Office mind’. The foreign policy calculations of this élite revolved around concerns for the European equilibrium and Britain's global interests in the geo-strategic periphery. This involved a nuanced balancing act, which came to an end only in 1914, thus bringing to an end also Britain's ‘old diplomacy’

Acknowledgments

All references to Cabinet (CAB), Foreign Office (FO) or Treasury (T) documents relate to materials held at the National Archives, London (formerly the Public Record Office) unless otherwise stated.

Notes

 1. A.J.P. Taylor, The Trouble Makers: Dissent over Foreign Policy, 1792–1939 (London: Hamilton, 1957), pp.167–200. But see also H. Nicolson, Sir Arthur Nicolson, Bart., First Lord Carnock: A Study in the Old Diplomacy (London: Constable, 1930), pp.ix–x.

 2. R.B. Mowat, The Life of Lord Pauncefote: First Ambassador to the United States (London: Constable, 1929), p.33.

 3. C. Marvin, Our Public Offices: Embodying an Account of the Disclosure of the Anglo-Russian Agreement and the Unrevealed Secret Treaty of May 31st, 1878 (London: Anderson, 1882), pp.206–7.

 4. Appendix to the 5th Report of the Royal Commission on the Civil Service (1914): Minutes of Evidence (Cmd. 7749), 40579; Sir L. Collier, ‘The Old Foreign Office’, Twentieth Century, (1970), p.256. The hours of business were 11–6. See G.E.P. Hertslet (ed.), The Foreign Office List and Diplomatic and Consular Yearbook for 1914 (London: HMSO, 1914), p.5.

 5. V. Cromwell and Z.S. Steiner, ‘The Foreign Office before 1914: A Study in Resistance’, in G. Sutherland (ed.), Studies in the Growth of Nineteenth-Century Government (London: Routledge, 1972), p.167.

 6. FO 366/449, minute by Lingen, 22 May 1882; T1/13229/5227, Treasury minute, 5 Apr. 1854.

 7. Curzon Papers, India Office Library, Mss Eur. F.112/1B, Salisbury to Curzon, 23 Dec. 1897; see also D.C.M. Platt, Finance, Trade, and Politics in British Foreign Policy, 1815–1914 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1968), pp.20–22.

 8. Gladstone Papers, British Library, Add. Mss 44289, Rosebery to Gladstone, 2 Feb. 1886; also Lady G. Cecil, Life of Robert, Marquess of Salisbury (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1931), Vol. 3, pp.200–201.

 9. S. Low, ‘The Foreign Office Autocracy’, Fortnightly Review, 41/541 (Jan. 1912), pp.3, 5.

 10. This author once found the Cabinet papers relating to the Anglo-French entente in the original, sealed envelope amongst the Walter Long Mss, Wiltshire Record Office. See also K.G. Robbins, ‘The Foreign Secretary, the Cabinet, Parliament and the Parties’, in F.H. Hinsley (ed.), British Foreign Policy under Sir Edward Grey (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977), pp.3–21.

 11. Granville to Gladstone, 29 Oct. 1870, in A. Ramm (ed.), Gladstone-Granville Correspondence, 1868–1876 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1952), Vol.I, No.351; also Lord E. Fitzmaurice, The Life of George Leveson Gower, Second Earl of Granville, KG, 1815–1891 (London: Longman, 1905), Vol.II, p.64.

 12. Kimberley was thought by senior diplomats the most likely successor to Clarendon. See FO 391/23 (Hammond Papers), Paget to Hammond, 28 Jun. 1870.

 13. Hamilton Papers, British Library, Add. Mss 48612B, Rosebery to Hamilton, 14 May 1894. The Prime Minister, though, was still ranked below the two Anglican Archbishops. See CAB 37/75/48 Cabinet memorandum ‘The Prime Minister's Precedence’, 20 Mar. 1905.

 14. Curzon Papers, Mss Eur F/112/B, Salisbury to Curzon, 23 Dec. 1897.

 15. C.R. Middleton, The Administration of British Foreign Policy, 1782–1846 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1977), p.154.

 16. Fifth Report of the Royal Commission on the Civil Service, 1914 (Cmd. 7748), p.8.

 17. Figures compiled from: FO 366/677, Hertslet, 20 Jan. 1871; FO 881/4905, Hertslet, 15 Jan. 1884; FO 881/5458, Hertslet, Jan. 1884, Enclosure 5; Fifth Report of the Royal Commission (Cmd. 7748), pp.8, 12; Sir J. Tilley and S. Gaselee, The Foreign Office (London: Putnam, 1933), pp.47, 66, 315.

 18. Earl of Malmesbury, Memoirs of an Ex-Minister: An Autobiography (London: Longman, 1884), Vol.2, p.310; also Cecil, Life of Salisbury, Vol.3, p.203.

 19. Fourth Report of the Civil Establishment Commission, 1890 (Cmd. 6172), 29197.

 20. Kimberley Papers, Bodleian Library, Mss Eng. c.4383, Gladstone to Kimberley, 12 May 1894.

 21. FO 800/2 (Sanderson Papers), minute by Salisbury, c. 22 Mar. 1897. The feeling was wholeheartedly reciprocated. See C.H.D. Howard (ed.), The Diary of Sir Edward Goschen (London: Cambridge University Press, 1980), p.9.

 22. Fifth Report of the Royal Commission (Cmd. 7748), p.9; A. Cecil, ‘The Foreign Office’, in A.W. Ward and G.P. Gooch (eds), The Cambridge History of British Foreign Policy, 1783–1919 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1921–2), Vol.3, p.614.

 23. FO 366/761, minute by Lansdowne, 16 Mar. 1905, and further correspondence. See also A.C. Ewald, The Complete Guide to the Home Civil Service (London: Frederick Warne, 13th edn., 1881), pp.48–50.

 24. Appendix 5th Report of the Royal Commission, 1914: Minutes of Evidence (Cmd. 7749), 40880. For a sample consular entrance examination, see Foreign Office List 1914, pp.554–8.

 25. Sir L. Oliphant, Ambassador in Bonds (London: Putnam, 1946), p.10.

 26. T1/10369/4480, memorandum by Crowe, 5 Jan. 1905.

 27. FO 366/1141/3735, Leathes (Civil Service Commission) to Hardinge, 1 Feb. 1907; FO 366/786/4779, ‘Examinations for the Foreign Office and Diplomatic and Consular Services’, 29 Nov. 1911; Appendix 5th Report, 1914 (Cmd. 7749), 40783, 40796, 40882.

 28. For Cecil's argument see Collier, ‘Foreign Office’, p.616. In general, the Order-in-Council of 4 June 1870 resulted in higher educational standards in all grades of the Civil Service. See V. Cromwell, Revolution or Evolution? British Government in the Nineteenth Century (London: Longman, 1977), p.155.

 29. Anon., Foreign Office, Diplomatic and Consular Sketches: Reprinted from Vanity Fair (London: Allen, 1883), p.4.

 30. Fifth Report of Royal Commission, 1914, Minutes of Evidence (Cmd. 7749), 40972, 41018-24 and Appendix 84, pp.306–7; Z.S. Steiner, The Foreign Office and Foreign Policy, 1898–1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969), pp.220–21.

 31. Quoted in T.P. Conwell-Evans, Foreign Policy from a Back Bench, 1904–1918 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1932), pp.78–9.

 32. Fifth Report of Royal Commission (Cmd. 7749), 41018-24. For useful statistics see R. Jones, ‘The Social Structure of the British Diplomatic Service, 1815–1914’, Histoire Sociale, 14/27 (1981), pp.49–66, though he subsumes both branches of diplomacy under the label of diplomatic service. The same also applies to R.T. Nightingale, The Personnel of the British Foreign Office and Diplomatic Service, 1851–1929 (London: The Fabian Society, 1930) (Tract No.232).

 33. Sir G. Young, Diplomacy, Old and New (London: Swarthmore International Handbooks, 1921), p.31; FO 366/786/50765, parliamentary question, Noel Buxton, and minute by Cartwright, 14 Dec. 1911.

 34. FO 366/1145/10867, minutes by Cartwright and Maycock, 30 and 31 Mar. 1908; see also. Oppenheimer's bitter memoirs Stranger Within (London: Faber, 1961).

 35. A.H. Hardinge, A Diplomatist in Europe (London: Jonathan Cape, 1927), p.32; J.R. Rodd, Social and Diplomatic Memories (London: Arnold, 1922), Vol.1, p.40.

 36. J.D. Gregory, On the Edge of Diplomacy: Rambles and Reflections, 1902–1928 (London: Hutchinson, 1929), p.28; see also FO 881/7038*, Foreign Office memorandum, ‘Departmental Instructions’, 10 May 1898.

 37. Memorandum by Sanderson, ‘Observations on the Use and Abuse of Red Tape for the Juniors in the Eastern, Western, and American Departments’, Oct. 1891, copy in FCO Library.

 38. N. Stehrs, Knowledge Societies (London: Sage, 1994), pp.91–119.

 39. FO 366/724, minute and memorandum by Currie, ‘Instructions for Index-Makers’, Dec. 1890; T1/11278/5434memorandum by Hiscock and Behrens, [c.10 May 1911].

 40. FO 881/5452, memoranda by Villiers, 10 Nov. 1883 and 7 Jan. 1884. At the end of 1883 the arrears of papers awaiting registration amounted to 563,703; and this figure did not include papers after 1880. Villiers estimated that it would take ten clerks five years to work off the arrears.

 41. T1/10369/4480, memorandum by Crowe, 5 Jan. 1905.

 42. FO 366/761, minutes by Sanderson and Grey, 15 Jan. 1906; FO 371/799/16051, minute by Crowe, 28 Apr. on memoranda by Brand and Dickie, 15 and 24 Apr. 1909; FO 366/786/40089, minute by Crowe, 7 Aug. 1914; see also Steiner, Foreign Office, pp.80–82; S.E. Crowe and E.T. Corp, Our Ablest Public Servant: Sir Eyre Crowe, 1864–1925 (Braunston: Merlin, 1993), pp.88–93.

 43. FO 371/1557/11104, minute Crowe, 15 Mar. 1912.

 44. Ponsonby Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford, Ms.Eng.hist. c. 652, Ponsonby to Sanderson, 17 Oct. 1900, and memorandum Ponsonby, ‘Suggestions for reforms in the diplomatic service’, Oct. 1900; see also Fifth Report of the Royal Commission (Cmd. 7749), esp.39393-400. The memorandum is reproduced in Steiner, Foreign Office, pp.222–8; see also R.A. Jones, The British Diplomatic Service, 1815–1914 (Gerrards Cross: Smythe, 1983), p.164.

 45. Sir J. Tilley, London to Tokyo (London: Hutchinson, 1942), p.69.

 46. Hardinge Papers, Cambridge University Library, Vol.7, Chirol to Hardinge, 18 Oct. 1904.

 47. Hardinge Papers, Vol.3, Bertie to Hardinge, 4 Jun. 1902; Corbett Papers, Hampshire RO, Winchester, 17M78/151, Hardinge to Corbett, 17 Aug. [1905]. The collusion between Bertie and Hardinge is comprehensively treated in Steiner, Foreign Office, pp.70–78.

 48. As quoted in H. Roseveare, The Treasury, 1660–1870: The Foundations of Control (London: Allen and Unwin, 1973), p.67.

 49. Granville Papers (National Archives, London), 30/20/104, minutes by Granville, n.d., and Hammond, 7 Oct. 1870; R. Wemyss, Memoirs and Letters of the Rt. Hon. Sir Robert Morier, GCB, 1826–1876 (London: Arnold, 1911), p.247. An exception, however, was made for Darmstadt and Coburg, in deference to the Queen's family ties there, thus also confirming Royal prerogative in foreign policy.

 50. FO 366/678, minute Granville, 21 Dec. 1882. Details of the reorganisations of 1881 and 1882 can be gleaned from the memoranda ‘Establishment of the Foreign Office’ and ‘Diplomatic Establishment’, both 10 May 1889, in FO 95/505.

 51. Fourth Report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the Civil Establishments of the different offices at home and abroad, 1890 (Cmd. 6172), p.9; see also R. Moses, The Civil Service in Great Britain (New York: Columbia University Press, 1966), pp.159–81.

 52. FO 800/1 (Sanderson Papers), memorandum by Villiers, ‘Amalgamation of Foreign Office and Diplomatic Service’, 4 Jul. 1891, and minutes by Currie and Salisbury, 2 Jul. 1892. Kimberley's position is outlined in memorandum by Kimberley, May 1895, ibid. and incorporated in memorandum by Mowatt, Sanderson and Hervey, May 1895, in FO 366/760. For Hardinge's views see for example Bertie Papers, British Library, Add. Mss 63015, Hardinge to Bertie, 25 May 1903.

 53. FO 366/678, minute by Lister, 18 Apr. 1878; see also T.G. Otte, ‘“Floating Downstream”: Lord Salisbury and British Foreign Policy, 1878–1902’, in T.G. Otte (ed.), The Makers of British Foreign Policy: From Pitt to Thatcher (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), pp.101–3.

 54. Villiers to Sanderson, 27 Apr. 1903, in R. Jones, The Nineteenth Century Foreign Office: Administrative History (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1971), p.237.

 55. Report of the Cartwright committee (W.C. Cartwright, A.H. Oakes, R.P. Maxwell, W. Langley), 18 May 1904, and memorandum ‘Summary of Recommendations made by the Committee on Registration and Keeping of Papers’, n.d..

 56. T1/10369/4480, memorandum by Crowe, 7 Mar. 1905; FO 366/761, minutes by Sanderson and Grey, 15 Jan. 1906.

 57. Bertie Papers, Add. Mss 63016, Hardinge to Bertie, 9 Jun. 1904; Hardinge Papers, Vol. 7, Bertie to Hardinge, 5 Jul. 1905. For a comprehensive treatment of their manoeuvres see Steiner, Foreign Office, pp.73–6.

 58. H. Knatchbull-Hugessen, Diplomat in Peace and War (London: John Murray, 1949), pp.11–13. On the latter point see memorandum by Sanderson, ‘Observations on the Use and Abuse of Red Tape for the Juniors in the Eastern, Western, and American Departments’, Oct. 1891, copy in FCO Library.

 59. M.L. Dockrill, ‘The Formation of a Continental Foreign Policy by Great Britain, 1908–1912’, unpublished Ph.D. diss., London, 1969, p.15; Z.S. Steiner, ‘Foreign Office Views, Germany and the Great War, in R.J. Bullen et al. (eds), Ideas and Politics: Aspects of European History (London: Croom Helm, 1984), pp.38–41.

 60. B. Semmel, Imperialism and Social Reform (London: Allen & Unwin, 1960), pp.3–7; G.R. Searle, The Quest for National Efficiency: A Study in British Politics and Political Thought, 1899–1914 (London: Blackwell, 1990), pp.67-80.

 61. The thrust of K. Neilson's Britain and the Last Tsar: British Policy and Russia, 1894–1914 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995).

 62. Tilley and Gaselee, Foreign Office, p.131; for a useful snapshot of its predecessor, the Turkish Department under Currie, in the early 1880s, see Howard-von Recum Papers, Library of Congress, Washington DC, cont. 1, Howard diary, 1 Jan.–13 Jun. 1881.

 63. Lord Redesdale, Memories (London: Hutchinson, 1915), Vol.1, pp.110–11; see also M.A. Anderson, ‘Edmund Hammond: Permanent Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, 1854–1973’, unpublished Ph.D. diss., London, 1953, especially pp.227–71.

 64. FO 366/760, minute by Rosebery, 31 Dec. 1893. This did not always work well in practice. See I Documenti Diplomatici Italiani, Second series, Vol.26, No.597, Tornielli to Blanc, 5 Oct. 1894.

 65. Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge, O'Conor Papers, OCON 6/1/15, Sanderson to O'Conor, 6 Jul. 1898.

 66. FO 366/761 and 1136, minutes Hardinge, 3 Feb. 1906. See also Lord Hardinge of Penshurst, Old Diplomacy (London: John Murray, 1947), p.98: ‘My theory in the service was that “power” was the first aim’.

 67. Rumbold Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford, Rumbold dep. 13, Rumbold jr. to Rumbold sr., 15 Feb. 1908.

 68. Satow Papers (National Archives, London) PRO 30/33/5/5, Paget to Satow, 22 Aug. 1898. For his debt to Bertie see Bertie Papers, Add. Mss 63025, Hardinge to Bertie, 14 Sep. 1910; also B.C. Busch, Hardinge of Penshurst: A Study in the Old Diplomacy (Hamden, CT: Archon, 1980), pp.43–71.

 69. W.T. Stead's verdict, see Steiner, Foreign Office, p.103; also Ripon Papers, British Library, Add. Mss 43543, Fitzmaurice to Ripon, 18 Apr. 1906.

 70. Cromwell and Steiner, ‘Foreign Office before 1914’, p.188.

 71. Kimberley Papers, Ms.Eng.c.4401, Dufferin to Kimberley, 22 Apr. 1894.

 72. T.G. Otte, ‘“Almost a Law of Nature”? Sir Edward Grey, the Foreign Office and the Balance of Power in Europe, 1905–1912’, in B.J.C. McKercher and E. Goldstein (eds), Power and Stability: British Foreign Policy, 1865–1965 (London: Frank Cass, 2003), pp.107–8; K. Neilson, ‘“My beloved Russians”: Sir Arthur Nicolson and Russia, 1906–16’, International History Review 9/4 (1987), especially pp.526–36.

 73. Hardinge Papers, Vol. 93, Mallet to Hardinge, 11 Aug. 1913; E.T. Corp, ‘Sir William Tyrrell: The Eminence Grise of the British Foreign Office’, The Historical Journal, 25/4 (1982), pp.697–708.

 74. O. O'Malley, The Phantom Caravan (London: John Murray, 1954), p.157; see also Z.S. Steiner, ‘Elitism and Foreign Policy: The Foreign Office before the Great War’, in B.J. C. McKercher and D.J. Moss (eds), Shadow and Substance in British Foreign Policy, 1895–1939 (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1984), pp.19–55.

 75. The phrase is usually attributed to Harold Nicolson, though it was already in use in the 1880s. See anon, Foreign Office Sketches, p.3.

 76. K.T. Hoppen, The Mid-Victorian Generation, 1846–1886 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1998), p.92. For the concept of ‘cognitive maps’ see A.K. Henrikson, ‘The Geographical “Mental Maps” of American Foreign Policy-Makers’, International Political Science Review, 1/4 (1980), pp.495–530; T.G. Otte, ‘Eyre Crowe and British Foreign Policy: A Cognitive Map’ in T.G. Otte and C.A. Pagedas (eds), Personalities, War and Diplomacy: Essays in International History (London: Frank Cass, 1997), pp.14–16.

 77. FO 371/673/14511, minute by Grey, n.d., on Goschen to Grey, 16 Apr. 1909; see also Earl of Onslow, Sixty-Three Years (London: Hutchinson, 1944), pp.133–4; Neilson, Last Tsar, pp.48–50.

 78. FO 371/1371/38804, minutes by Grey and Crowe, 17 Sep. 1912, on Granville to Grey, 12 Sep. 1912.

 79. Balfour Papers, British Library Add. Mss 49729, Lansdowne to Balfour, 23 Apr. 1905; see also G.W. Monger, The End of Isolation: British Foreign Policy, 1900–1907 (London: Nelson, 1963), pp.187–92.

 80. Rodd Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford, box 14, Nicolson to Rodd, 27 Feb. 1911.

 81. FO 371/1117/3884, minute by Crowe, 2 Feb. 1911; T.G. Otte, ‘The Elusive Balance: British Foreign Policy and the French Entente before the First World War’, in A. Sharp and G. Stone (eds), Anglo-French Relations in the Twentieth Century: Rivalry and Cooperation (London: Routledge, 2000), pp.23–4.

 82. Minute by Nicolson, 21 Jul. 1911, in G.P. Gooch and H.W.V. Temperley (eds), British Documents on the Origins of the War, 1898–1914 (London: HMSO, 1927–38), Vol.7, No.409.

 83. The ‘City Speech’ of 20 Oct. 1905, quoted in G.M. Trevelyan, Grey of Fallodon (London: Longman, 1943), pp.90–92.

 84. Bertie Papers, Add. Mss 63018, Grey to Bertie, 15 Jan. 1906.

 85. FO 371/74/38956, minutes by Hardinge and Grey, n.d., on memorandum by Pearson, 18 Sep. 1906.

 86. FO 800/241 (Spring-Rice Papers), Tyrrell to Spring-Rice, 2 Jun. 1907.

 87. CAB 37/63/143 and 170, memorandum by Selborne, ‘Naval Estimates, 1903–4’, 10 Oct. 1902, and memorandum Ritchie, ‘Public Finances’, 23 Dec. 1902.

 88. Balfour Papers, Add. Mss 49747, Percy to Balfour, 18 Jan. 1905; T.G. Otte, ‘“Wee ah wee”?: Britain at Weihaiwei, 1898–1930’, in G. Kennedy (ed.), British Maritime Strategy East of Suez, 1898–2000 (London: Frank Cass, forthcoming 2004).

 89. FO 371/599/5138, minute by Spicer, 8 Feb. 1909, on Cartwright to Grey, 9 Feb. 1909.

 90. Bertie to Nicolson, 9 May 1912, in G.P. Gooch, H.W.V. Temperley (eds), British Documents on the Origins of the War, 1898–1914 (London: HMSO, 1927–38), Vol.10/2, No.388; FO 800/364 (Nicolson Papers), Nicolson to Goschen, 11 Mar. 1913.

 91. Bertie Papers, Add. Mss 63029, memorandum by Bertie, n.d. [25 Jul. 1912]; see also P.G. Halperin, The Mediterranean Situation, 1908–1914 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971), pp.99–109.

 92. Rodd Papers, box 14, Nicolson to Rodd, 30 Nov. 1912; FO 371/2023/33449, minute by Crowe, 23 Jul. 1914, on A. Hardinge to Crowe, 20 Jul. 1914; FO 371/2045/12291, White to Grey, 11 Mar. 1914.

 93. Rumbold Papers, dep. 13, Rumbold jr. to Rumbold sr., 15 Feb. 1908; Ponsonby Papers, Mss English history c. 659 and 660, Tyrrell to Ponsonby, 10 Jan. 1913 and 29 Jul. 1914.

 94. FO 800/340 (Nicolson Papers), Hardinge to Nicolson, 25 Nov. 1907.

 95. FO 371/503/23132, Marling to Grey, 17 Jun. 1908, and memorandum by Loraine, 16 Jun. 1908; D. McLean, Britain and Her Buffer State: The Collapse of the Persian Empire, 1890–1914 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), pp.111–16.

 96. Nicolson to Buchanan, 5 Dec. 1911, in G.P. Gooch, H.W.V. Temperley (eds), British Documents on the Origins of the War, 1898–1914 (London: HMSO, 1927–38), Vol.10/1, No.898; FO 371/2066/6896, Townley to Grey, 5 Feb. 1914; FO 371/2073/22510, memorandum by Clerk, ‘Anglo-Russian Relations in Persia’, 23 Jul. 1914; J. Siegel, Endgame: Britain, Russia and the Final Struggle for Central Asia, 1907–1914 (London: IB Tauris, 2002), pp.175–96.

 97. The main thrust of K. Wilson, The Policy of the Entente (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp.82–4.

 98. Neilson, Last Tsar, pp.289–90.

 99. FO 800/73 (Grey Papers), Grey to Nicolson, 24 Feb. 1909; FO/371/2094/32814, minute by Nicolson, n.d., on Granville to Grey, 18 Jul. 1914.

100. FO 371/1987/5608, Goschen to Grey, 5 Feb. 1914. For the negotiations, see Neilson, Last Tsar, pp.334–40, and Siegel, Endgame, pp.186–96.

101. FO 371/1988/12716, minute by Nicolson, n.d., on Buchanan to Grey, 23 Mar. 1914; also F. Kiessling, Gegen den “grossen Krieg”?: Entspannung in den internationalen Beziehungen, 1911–14 (Munich: Oldenbourg, 2002), pp.244–5.

102. FO 371/1348/34756, India Office to Foreign Office, 15 Aug. 1912.

103. De Bunsen Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford, box 15, Nicolson to De Bunsen, 16 Feb. and 30 Mar. 1914. See also the important piece by Neilson, ‘My Beloved Russians’, pp.521–54.

104. FO 371/2056/30091, minute by Crowe, 4 Jul. 1914, on Findlay to Grey, 3 Jul. 1914; FO 371/2092/15312, minutes by Oliphant and Crowe, 7 and 8 Apr. 1914, on Buchanan to Grey, 3 Apr. 1914; Benckendorff to Sazonov, 20 May/2 Jun. 1914, Un Livre Noir: diplomatie d'avant guerre d'apres les documents des archives russes (Paris: Librairie du Travail, 1922), Vol.2, pp.324–6; M. Rauh, ‘Die britisch-russische Marinekonvention von 1914 und der Ausbruch des ersten Weltkrieges’, Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen, 41/2 (1987), pp.37–62.

105. FO 371/1642/11813, minute by Crowe, 17 Mar. 1913. As a trial-balloon, however, Crowe and Nicolson drafted the outline of an Anglo-German agreement. See FO 800/243 (Crowe Papers), ‘Suggestions for an Anglo-German Agreement’, n.d. [c. Mar. 1912].

106. FO 800/241 (Spring-Rice Papers), Grey to Spring-Rice, 22 Dec. 1905 and 19 Feb. 1906; see also K. Neilson, ‘“Control the Whirlwind”: Sir Edward Grey as Foreign Secretary, 1906–1916’, in Otte (ed.), The Makers of British Foreign Policy, pp.129–30.

107. Memorandum by Hardinge, ‘On the Possibility of War’, ? Apr. 1909, G.P. Gooch and H.W.V. Temperley (eds), British Documents on the Origins of the War, 1898–1914 (London: HMSO, 1927–38), Vol.5, Appendix 3; for the background see Neilson, Last Tsar, p.307.

108. FO 371/605/16587, minute by Mallet, n.d., on Buchanan to Grey, 26 Apr. 1909; and FO 800/342 (Nicolson Papers), Hardinge to Nicolson, 25 May 1909.

109. FO 800/162 (Bertie Papers), Mallet to Bertie, 13 Apr. 1905. For Bülow's reaction see S.L. Mayer, ‘Anglo-German Rivalry at the Algeciras Conference’, in P. Gifford and W.R. Louis (eds), Britain and Germany in Africa: Imperial Rivalry and Colonial Rule (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1967), pp.225–6.

110. Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge, Spring-Rice Papers, CASR I/1/2, Bertie to Spring-Rice, 26 Dec. 1902; Bertie Papers, Add. Mss 63015, Cranborne to Bertie, 12 Apr. 1903.

111. FO 371/82/20308, minute by Hardinge, n.d., on Egerton to Grey, 9 Jun. 1906.

112. Minute by Hardinge, 23 Feb. 1906, on memorandum Grey, 20 Feb. 1906, in G.P. Gooch and H.W.V. Temperley (eds), British Documents on the Origins of the War, 1898–1914 (London: HMSO, 1927–38), Vol.3, no.299. On this point see T.G. Otte, ‘“Almost a Law of Nature”? Sir Edward Grey, the Foreign Office and the Balance of Power in Europe, 1905–1912’, in Goldstein and McKercher (eds), Power and Stability, pp.87–8.

113. Memorandum by Crowe, 1 Jan. 1907, in G.P. Gooch and H.W.V. Temperley (eds), British Documents on the Origins of the War, 1898–1914 (London: HMSO, 1927–38), Vol.3, Appendix A, p.417.

114. FO 371/82/20308, minute by Hardinge, n.d. on Egerton to Grey, 9 Jun. 1906.

115. FO 371/683/11613, minute by Hardinge, n.d., on Rodd to Grey, 22 Mar. 1909.

116. Rodd Papers, box 14, Rodd to Grey, 4 Sep. 1911.

117. FO 371/2117/4556, minutes by Crowe and Clerk, 2 Feb. 1914, on Mallet to Grey, 1 Feb. 1914; FO 371/2118/10324, minute by Crowe, 11 Mar. 1914, on Mallet to Grey, 4 Mar. 1914.

118. Rodd Papers, box 14, Rodd to Grey, 16 Oct. 1911.

119. Nevertheless, Italy continued to act in concert with Vienna and Berlin when it suited her, as in the case of the creation of an independent Albania, much to the displeasure of Clerk and Crowe. See FO 371/1893/10250, minutes by Clerk and Crowe, 9 Mar. 1914, on Elliot to Grey, 8 Mar. 1914.

120. FO 371/399/27154, minutes by Campbell and Grey, 5 Aug. 1908, on Cartwright to Grey, 1 Aug. 1908.

121. FO 371/599/5138, minute by Spicer, 8 Feb. 1909, on Cartwright to Grey, 5 Feb. 1909.

122. FO 800/193A and B (Lowther Papers), Hardinge to Lowther, 1 Dec. 1908, and reply, 3 Feb. 1909. Count Aloys von Aehrenthal, (1854–1912), Austrian Minister for Foreign Affairs.

123. FO 371/1899/6901, minute by Nicolson, n.d., on de Bunsen to Grey, 13 Feb. 1914; Paget Papers, British Library, Add. Mss 51253, Paget to Nicolson, 7 Oct. 1912; also F.R. Bridge, ‘British Official Opinion and the Hapsburg Monarchy, 1900–1914’, in McKercher and Moss (eds), Shadow and Substance, pp.108–9.

124. Steiner, Foreign Office, p.213. For the general background see D. Cannadine, The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990), pp.35–54.

125. N. Ferguson, The Pity of War (London: Penguin, 1999), especially chapter 3.

126. Memorandum by Hardinge, ‘On the Possibility of War’, Apr. 1909, in G.P. Gooch and H.W.V. Temperley (eds), British Documents on the Origins of the War, 1898–1914 (London: HMSO, 1927–38), Vol.5, Appendix III.

127. It is interesting to note that a whole range of Bismarckiana were published in English around 1900. See C. Lowe, Prince Bismarck (London: Allen, 1895); M. Busch, Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History (London: Clark, 1898); J.W. Headlam, Bismarck (London: Putnam, 1899); also FO 371/1374/14421, minute by Crowe, 6 Apr. 1912.

128. Grey to Nicolson, 24 Feb. 1909, and Goschen to Grey, 18 Feb. 1909, in G.P. Gooch and H.W.V. Temperley (eds), British Documents on the Origins of the War, 1898–1914 (London: HMSO, 1927–38), Vol.5, Nos 573 and 583.

129. T.G. Otte, ‘“The Winston of Germany”: The British Foreign Policy Elite and the Last German Emperor’, Canadian Journal of History, 36/4 (2001), pp.501–2; Howard (ed.), Diary of Sir Edward Goschen, pp.23, 60–61.