TRIPLE ALLIANCE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1619, 10 December 1912, Page 5

TRIPLE ALLIANCE.

—9 RENEWED FOR TWELVE YEARS. ! By Telegraph—Press AesoeSutlon—Copyright ■ ' Paris, December 8. Tho Vienna newspapers express general satisfaction at tho renewal of tho Triplo Alliance. ; It is stated that the renewal is for i twelve years. ' ' NAVAL CONVENTION SUGGESTED, j (Rec. December 9, 11.5 p.m.) • Berlin, December 9. The naval critics are discussing wliethef : : the Triplo Alliance should be supplement- ■ i ed by some kind of a naval convention applying to the Mediterranean, binding • ■ . ; Austria and Italy to provide compensations for Germany's increased military I expenditure. HISTORY OF THE ALLIANCE. j THE SECRET CLAUSES. i Tho Triple Alliance was concluded in consequence of the occupation in 18S1 of i Tunis by France (at tho suggestion, of . ' i Prince Bismarck), and tho consequent j isolation of Italy, who, feeling herself ] menaced by France, became a party to i tho then existing' alliauce for mutual de- V i fence between Germany and Austria. That ' Alliance, which was .directed against Bus- j sia, whose Eastern policy was held te . i threaten the balauco of power in Europe • ! was made in 1879 by a treaty arranged i within one year after tha Berlin Coil. : gress by Prince Bismarck and Count An< ) dTassv, and confirmed in '£0, and Italy ■ ; joined it in '82. Italy was also' influenced ; uy the possibility then apprehended that "i a' French Clerical attempt might be made i to restore the temporal -power of the Pope ' .! and so dismember Italy. The three allied nations agreed to defend the integrity of ' ; their Continental as then and j now existing, against any other or others f of the great Powers. In October '87, after a meeting between • ; < Bismarck and Crispi at.Frfedrichsrulie, a . ■ : still closer alliance in the nature of an ; offensive and defensive league between the i three Powers was concluded. The ternif ; of the treaty have never been ofiiciallj published, but it has been stated that ' Italy agreed, under certain contingencies, tho most probable of which was a war ' between France and Germany, to invadfl South-Western France with 203,000 men. ; During 1901 M. Henri des Houx professed : to give a secret clause of the treaty, according to which Italy bound herself te i place two army, corps at the (k'sr-csal oi j Germany in ca?o of a war with France, sending them into Germany across Aus- . trian territory/ In 1902 Count yon Billow, tho German Imperial Chancellor, declared that "none of tho partners to ; the Alliance was obliged by the Alliance ! to maintain its military or naval forces at a proscribed level'Vand that the ance did not exclude the possibility of. good relations between its partners and. other Powers." The Italian Government also gave assurances to Franco that in 110 case could Italy become either the in- ; strument or the auxiliary of an aggression against France. One mam object of tho Alliauce was the maintenance of > the balance of power in the Mediterranean, an object which undoubtedly had the sympathy of Great Britain, though : no formal pledge was entered into by the British Government. The Alliance does not cover colonial or transmarine issues. In June '91 -the Triple Alliance was formally renewed, and again in 96 until ; Mav 6, 1903. Oh June 28, 1902, the three t Powers agreed to prolong the Alliance for ten years. The revelations made by Prmce Bismarck in '96 as to the existence of a ; secret treaty of. "benevolent neut ™.it> between Germany and Russia unfal 90, when Count Capnvi succeeded Prince , Bismarck as Imperial Chancellor, caused i much oxoitemcnt m Austria and i™*y> of conr.se, but had-no effect on the Alliance. In '9G Rumania joined the Triple i Alliance, which guaranteed _ her tern- i torial integrity and the maintenance of the status quo on the Lower Danube. > ,