ABSTRACT
The new Chancellor found at once that among the ‘civilians’, as the Emperor called them, there was serious alarm about the growing estrangement between Great Britain and Germany. The German ‘concession’ therefore required Great Britain to give up a programme of construction which had been accepted by Parliament as necessary for the safety of the country. The negotiations were continued in October. Sir E. Goschen had a conversation with Bethmann-Hollweg and Schon on 15 October. The German point of view was that a political agreement must accompany a naval agreement, and that in a naval agreement Germany could not consent to any alteration in naval law, but only to a slowing down in the rate of building. P. Metternich was given a general reply on 26 October 1909 that Great Britain awaited the German proposals for a naval agreement. Great Britain insisted upon a naval agreement as the first stage on the road to a political agreement.
