Triple Entente?

It was no mere spontaneous decision that prompted M. Paul Hymans, Belgium's astute and shrewd Foreign Minister, to propose last week a new Triple Entente* with Belgium taking Russia's place.**

Already Belgium has an alliance with France about which Britain has professed some anxiety. With Britain's southeastern seaboard within shellfire from the coast of Flanders, she has long made it a cardinal policy to protect the independence of the little kingdom. In Napoleonic times England warred on the Continent because of this danger, and for the same ample reason she again warred from 1914-18. The question which the chancellories of the world discussed last week was, will Britain agree to join the proposed entente in order to be better able to exert her protecting influence for little Belgium, or, in other words, to strengthen her hand on the Continent?

Premier Baldwin of Britain said nothing. Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Austen Chamberlain was likewise silent, although he was said to favor the principle. Large sections of the British public joined with the French and Belgians in heartily welcoming the suggestion of His Excellency, M. Paul Hymans, Foreign Minister of Belgium.

A few days later, Viscount Grey of Fallodon, once Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs as Sir Edward Grey, made a speech in Newcastle. Although Lord Grey has retired from politics he still wields considerable influence and what he said at Newcastle may be taken as an answer to M. Hymans:

"We will not stand for separate alliances. There is only one thing for which we are prepared to stand and that is the Covenant of the League of Nations."

*Entente is French for understanding which, in diplomatic parlance, has the further connotation of being unwritten. An alliance, in contrast, is a formal, written contract.

**The old Triple Entente was composed of Britain, France and Russia. The understanding between Britain and France was known as the Entente Cordiale.