44 MY MEMOIRS

stantly avoided by England when practical issues were broached. The prestige we gained in 1870 helped us over our naval inferiority in our relations with the French. We admired in the French the pride of a beaten people which never forgets its honour for a moment, and we smiled many a time at the romance verve of their desire for revenge.1

Feeling against the Germans became intensified after the nineties owing to various reasons. We older men remember with peculiar feelings those days under William I, when we were still distinguished people in the world, and were well received. But this gloom which settled around us could hardly have been relieved by the " victory on both fronts" of Caprivi's imagination, and even of the General Staff's plans in 1914. For it arose especially from the unexampled growth of our overseas trade, and from

scene is characteristic of this. When we fell in h squadron off Salonika in 1876, both of us seeking _ for the murder of consuls, the French were not <+*^,,^ to mix in our society; they were not allowed to accept a glass of wine even when they were on active duty with us for several hours. Once when a French commander came on board I paraded the crew, and since he was impressed by it he could not but invite me to see the same on his ship. I went, and all the formal courtesies were gone through. When we went into the battery, however, gun-drill was taking place there, and the officer in charge gave the order: " Direction: Babord centre la fregate turque, tribord contre la fregate Kronprinz!" Whereupon the gun crews turned round and grinned at me with pleasure. The commander, however, dealt with the officer in private. No painful scenes occurred then as they did later during the public celebration of the opening of the North-East Canal in 1805 (a demonstration which was distasteful to me), when the French and the Russians behaved so unpleasantly.