German Diplomatic Documents 1871–1914 Volume 3

E. T. S. Dugdale (1876–1964) chose and translated these four volumes of selections from the stupendously large collection of diplomatic documents held in Berlin after the First World War. Dugdale was a keen shot, an academic, a pipe-smoking stamp-collector, and an ardent admirer of Dickens, who for a time made the translation of German texts his métier. On leaving Balliol, he had hoped to join the British Foreign Office; and to that end in the late 1890s spent two years in Germany perfecting his grasp of German – an experience which admirably qualified him for the more literary occupation. In the event, having married in 1902, he instead became an underwriter at Lloyds, and ended the War, wounded, as a captain in the Leicester Yeomanry. The four volumes of Diplomatic Documents were Dugdale’s chefs d’œuvre. The very many and generous contemporary reviews of these are as uniformly struck by their historical importance as by the skill of their presentation and choice.

Original Review of German Diplomatic Documents 1871–1914 Volume 3:'The third volume of Mr Dugdale’s translation...covers the period when Europe crystallised into two opposing groups of powers... The Kaiser and his advisers were unpleasantly disillusioned by the rapidity with which the Entente Cordiale was conceived and born...Chagrined that the lover [Great Britain] whose advances [for an alliance] Germany had spurned had dared to woo another, the Kaiser’s mischief-making now redoubled. [The Kaiser and his advisers] feared to be thought unworthy custodians of the national dignity. As the volume closes they are slipping fast towards the abyss that is soon to engulf them.The Daily Telegraph April 1 1930'...the documents are vastly entertaining and offer the means of checking up the justness of public opinion. It is inevitable that Germany will demand a reconsideration of the guilt of the Kaiser and nation in bringing about the World War as charged in the Treaty of Versailles...Of the documents which the Republican Reich decreed should see the tardy light of day, Mr Dugdale makes judicious and unprejudiced use...the comments of the alert, indefatigable Kaiser lend periodic emphasis and piquancy to the diplomatic correspondence.New York Times November 9 1930'The selection has been very judiciously made, the documents chosen are all of real importance, they are linked together by admirable brief editorial notes, and, taken together, present a very fair picture of the evolution of the European states system.' New York Herald Tribune January 1931'The third volume of the series covers a wide field in which the chief interest for South Africa lies..in the acquisition of Damaraland by the German Empire..' Cape Times

• Historical Preface Maurice de Bunsen. 1. The China-Japanese War and the East Asiatic Triple Alliance 2. The Kiao-Chau Occupation. Mr. Chamberlain’s Alliance Proposal, November 1897 to April 1898 3. The Anglo-German Conventions, June to September 1898 4. Samoa, August 1898 to November 1899 5. The First Hague Peace Conference, 1899 6. The Boer War, Preliminary Correspondence, 1899 7. The Boer War, October 1899 to November 1900 8. The Boxer Rebellion, June 1900 to March 1901 9. The British Alliance Proposal, 1901 10. The Anglo-Japanese Agreement, 1901-2 11. The Joint Action Against Venezuela, 1902–3 12. The Weakening of the Triple Alliance, 1902–3 13. The First Signs of the Triple Entente, 1903 14. The Russo-Japanese War, October 1903 to February 1905 15. The Khedevial Decree, March to June 1904 16. President Roosevelt’s Mediation Between Russia and Japan 1904–5 17. Attempt to Reconcile England and Germany, 1905 18. Morocco, April 1904 to June 1905 19. The Algeciras Conference, 1906 20. Macedonian Reform Proposals, 1907–8 21. Germany, America and China, 1907 –8 22. The German Navy Bill 23. The Attempt at a Naval Understanding, July to September 1908 24. Bosnia-Herzegovina and Bulgarian Independence, August to October 1908 25. The Daily Telegraph Article, October 1908 26. The Austro-Serbian War Danger, 1909 27. Prince Bülow’s Struggle for A Naval Understanding, 1908–9 28. The Bagdad Railway, 1908–11 29. The Eastern Question and Crete, 1909–10 30. Persia, August 1909 to May 1911 31. Bethmann Hollweg and the Naval Negotiations, August 1909 to May 1911.