HL Deb 16 May 1890 vol 344 cc1061-2
THE EARL OF ROSE BERT

My Lords, I rise to ask the noble Marquess opposite a question of which I have given him private notice. I will offer him no apology for asking it, because although the subject to which it refers is evidently a ridiculous fabrication, it is none the less desirable he should have the opportunity of pointing out in his place in Parliament how entirely baseless it is. Yesterday in one of the morning papers there appeared a translation of a statement which appeared in a German newspaper, from which I will read an extract— It is an open secret that in the summer of 1888 the German Foreign Office requested England almost peremptorily to conclude an offensive and defensive treaty, and to join the Triple Alliance. By this pressing demand put forward and made the topic at all the clubs, and by Count Herbert Bismarck's appearance, Lord Salisbury was exposed to considerable embarrassment, which was increased by the innumerable questions put by the Opposition, and specially by Mr. Labouchere. The natural consequence was a marked estrangement; and the Anglo-German relations were considerably strained when the Emperor William II. ascended the Throne, and so it goes on. That is the only part of the statement to which I desire to call the noble Marquess's attention, and I do so for the purpose of enabling him to give it an emphatic contradiction.

THE PRIME MINISTER AND SECRETARY OF STATE FOB FOREIGN AFFAIRS (The Marquess of SALISBURY)

My Lords, I am much obliged to the noble Earl for having given me private notice of his question, and I have in consequence looked at the translation of the article to which he refers. It is the most extraordinary fabrication that I ever saw. The statement that in the summer of 1888— The German Foreign Office requested England almost peremptorily to conclude an offensive and defensive Treaty and to join the Triple Alliance is an absolute imagination. The German Foreign Office has never requested us, either peremptorily or otherwise, to conclude an offensive and defensive Treaty, or to join the Triple Alliance. The German Foreign Office and Prince Bismarck, to whom the matter specially refers, were cognisant of the institutions of this country, and knew that it was perfectly impossible for any English Minister to enter into an offensive and defensive Treaty or to join the Triple Alliance, and no such proposition has ever been made to us. I also desire to deny in the most absolute manner that there was any marked estrangement or any estrangement in the Anglo-German relations when the Emperor William II. ascended the Throne. They were then as they are now, and as they have been for a very long time, relations of the most cordial friendship, founded undoubtedly upon the wisdom of the rulers who have guided Germany, but founded still more upon the natural interests and sympathies of the two peoples.