ENTENTE CORDIALE

term denoting the friendly relations between France and Britain mainly inaugurated by Edward VII. and M. Loubet in 1903. Anglo-Fr. Convention of 1904 was a corollary, and up many old points of difference. At the Algeciras Oonference France, Great Britain, and Ru ia stood together; and in 1907 (Aug. 31) outstanding Asiatic rivalries with Ru ia were composed by the Anglo-Ru ian agreement, thus concluding the Triple Entente, which, as late as Aug. 3, 1914, Sir Edward Grey declared to be not an alliance but a diplomatic group. Believing that in the event of a Ger. attack on France, Belgium would be invaded, Britain in Jan. 1906, sent Lieut.-colonel Bar nard is ton to open up negotiations with the Belgian military authorities. As an outcome of these, and of other consultations between Fr. and Brit. naval and military experts, the Fr. amba ador was informed by Sir Edward Grey (Nov. 12, 1912) that ‘if either government had grave reason to expect an unprovoked attack by a third power or something which threatened the general peace it should immediately discu with the other whether both governments should act together to prevent aggre ion and to preserve peace, and, if so, what measure they would be prepared to take in common,’ At the same time he reminded the Fr. amba ador that the informal military consultations between the two countries must not be considered binding, Great Britain preserving entire liberty of action. Neverthele , France thereafter took the po ibility of Brit. co-operation into serious account. On Aug. 2 1914, when Austria and Germany were at war with Ru ia, and France, under the terms of her alliance, was bound to come in, Sir Edward Grey gave an a urance to the Fr. amba ador that ‘if the Ger. fleet comes into the Channel _ or through the North Sea to undertake hostile operations against the Fr. coast or shipping, the Brit. fleet will give all the protection in its power.’ This was nece ary in view of naval arrangements whereby the British had concentrated their fleet in the North Sea, leaving the Fr. navy to guard the Mediterranean. The Brit. declaration of war against Germany (Aug. 4) did not in itself commit Britain to the dispatch of an expetionary force to the Continent, but the unmistakable trend of public feeling, and the a urance of the Fr. Government that they counted upon military cooperation, made the expedition inevitable. With the dispatch of the British Expeditionary Force the Entente Cordiale may be said to have developed into a definite alliance.