THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXVII, Issue 10640, 8 May 1913, Page 3

THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE.

SECRET GLAUSES. The Triple Alliance was cot eluded in consequence of the occupation in 1881 of Tunis by France—at the sug- ; gestion of Prince Bismarck—and the consequent isolation of Italy, who, feeling herself menaced by Prance, became a party to the then existing alliance for mutual defence between Germany anil Austria. That Alliance, which was directed against Russia, whose Eastern policy was held to threaten the balance of power in Europe, was made in 1879 by a treaty arranged within one year after the Berlin Conference by Prince Bismaitck and Count Andrassy and confirmed in *BO, and Italy joined' it in ’B3, Italy was also influenced by the possibility then apprehended that a French Clerical attempt might be made to restore the temporal ■ power of the Pope, and so dismember Italy. The three allied nations agreed to defend the of their Continental possessions, as then and now ing, against any other or others of the great Powers. In October s’B7. after a meeting between Bismarck and Crispi at Orispi at Friedriohsrube, a still closer alliance in the nature of an offensive and defensive league between the three Powers was concluded. The terms of the treaty have never been officially published, but it has been stated that Italy agreed, under certain contingencies, the most probable of which was a war between France and Germany, to invade South-Western France with 200,000 men. During 1901 M. Henri des Hous professed to give a secret danse of the treaty, according to which Italy hound herself to place two army crops at the disposal of Germany in case of a war with France, sending them into Germany across Austrian territory, in 1903 Count von Bulow, the German Imperial Chancellor, declared that “none of the partners to the Alliance was obliged by the Alliance to maintain its military or naval forces at a prescribed level ” ; and that the Alliance did not exclude the possibility of good relations between its partners and other Powers.” The Italian Government also gave assnrnaces to France that in no case could Italy become either the instrument or the auxiliary of an aggression against France. One main object of the Alliance 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 ’9l the Triple Alliance was formally renewed, and again in ‘96 until May 6th, 1903. On June 28th, 1902, the three Powers agreed to prolong the Alliance for ten years, and in December last it wss again renewed for a farther twelve years. The revelations made by Prince Bismarck in ’96 as to the existence of a secret treaty of ‘‘benevolent neutrality” between Germany and Russia until ’9O, when Count Gaprivi succeeded Prince Bismarck as Imperial Chancellor, caused much excitement in Austria and Italy, of course, hut had no effect on the Alliance, In ’9B Rumania joined the Triple Alliance, which guaranteed her territorial integrity and the maintenance of the status quo on the Lower Danube.