BALANCE OF POWER.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 73, 26 March 1906, Page 5

BALANCE OF POWER.

TRIPLE ALLIANCE THREATENED GERMANY GROWING ANXIOUS. (Wy Gable. —Press Association.—Copytigntt BERLIN, March 24. Several newspapers indicate that Germany is becoming increasingly uneasy at the weakening of the Triple Alliance owing to the friendly attitude of Italy and Austria to Great Britain. [As the "Star" pointed out on Saturday, the appointment of Signor Tittoni (ex-Minister for Foreign Affairs) to the Italian Embassy in London was in itself significant. The Triple Alliance is threatened from several quarters. The rapprochement between Italy and France, . which had in December, 1901, become a complete and friendly understanding in regard to all questions affecting the Mediterranean and Italian interests in Tripoli, was sealed in 1903 by the visit of the King and Queen of Italy to President Loubet. and by the conclusion of a treaty of arbitration between the two countries on December 25, 1903 This rapprochement, as Signor Prinetti, then Italian Foreign Minister, admitted in 1902, deprived some of the considerations which had led Italy to enter the Triple Alliance of much of their weight Similarly, the better feeling that prevailed between France and Great Britain during 1903, and found expression in Royal and Presidential visits, and in 1904 in the AngloFrench Agreement, had its natural result, together with the result of the RussoJapanese war, in modifying the manner in which the Dual Alliance between France and Russia was regarded. For it must be remembered that it was the rapprochement between France and Rupsia in 1887 that so largely led to the closer bond between Germany, Austria, and Italy.]