the
Prime Minister and Sir Edward Grey and my other colleagues to go to
Berlin and undertake the task. Our Ambassador there came over to London
specially to discuss arrangements, and he returned to Berlin to make
them before I started.

I arrived in the German capital on February 8, 1912, and spent some days
in interviews with the Emperor, the Imperial Chancellor, the Naval
Minister (Admiral von Tirpitz), and others of the Emperor's Ministry.
The narrative of my conversations I have extracted from the records I
made after each interview, for the preservation so far as possible of
the actual expressions used during it.

My first interview was one with Herr von Bethmann Hollweg, the Imperial
Chancellor. We met in the British Embassy, and the conversation, which
was quite informal, was a full and agreeable one. My impression, and I
still retain it, was that Bethmann Hollweg was then as sincerely
desirous of avoiding war as I was myself. I told him of certain dangers
quite frankly, and he listened and replied with what seemed to me to be
a full understanding of our position. I said that the increasing action
of Germany in piling up magnificent armaments was, of course, within the
unfettered rights of the German people. But the policy had an inevitable
consequence in the drawing together of other nations in the interests of
their own security. This was what was happening. I told him frankly that
we had made naval and military preparations, but only such as defense
required, and as would be considered in Germany matter of routine. I
went on to observe that our faces were set against aggression by any
nation, and I told him, what seemed to relieve his mind, that we had no
secret military treaties. But, I added, if France were attacked and an
attempt made to occupy her territory, our neutrality must not be
reckoned on by Germany. For one thing, it was obvious that our position
as an island protected by the sea would be affected seriously if Germany
had possession of the Channel ports on the northern shores of France.
Again, we were under treaty obligation to come to the aid of Belgium in
case of invasion, just as we were bound to defend Portugal and Japan in
certain eventualities. In the third place, owing to our dependence on
freedom of sea-communications for food and raw materials, we could not
sit still if Germany elected to develop her fleet to such an extent as
to imperil our naval protection. She might build more ships,