modified his wish for the new Fleet Law, as originally conceived, and
that it should be delayed, and future shipbuilding should at least be
spread over a longer period.

The Emperor thought such an agreement would certainly make a great
difference, and he informed me that his Chancellor would propose to me a
formula as a basis for it. I said that I would see the Chancellor and
discuss a possible formula, as well as territorial and other questions
with him, and would then return to London and report to the King (from
whom I had brought him a special and friendly message) and to my
colleagues the good disposition I had found, and leave the difficulties
about shipbuilding and indeed all other matters to their judgment. For I
had come to Berlin, not to make an actual agreement, but only to explore
the ground for one with the Emperor and his ministers. I had been struck
with the friendly disposition in Berlin, and a not less friendly
disposition would be found in London.

The evening after my interview with the Emperor I dined with the
Chancellor. I met there and talked with several prominent politicians,
soldiers, and men of letters, including Kiderlen-Waechter (the then
Foreign Secretary), the afterward famous General von Hindenburg,
Zimmermann of the Foreign Office, and Professor Harnack.

Later on, after dinner, I went off to meet the French Ambassador, M.
Jules Cambon, at the British Embassy, for I wished to keep him informed
of our object, which was simply to improve the state of feeling between
London and Berlin, but on the basis, and only on the basis, of complete
loyalty to our Entente with France. It was, to use a phrase which he
himself suggested in our conversation, a _détente_ rather than an
_entente_ that I had in view, with possible developments to follow it