BALKAN WARS.) Relations between Russia and Austria continued to be ex tremely strained after the Balkan War, and a danger of war was liable to arise at any moment. A difference of opinion also arose between Germany and Russia when the sultan entrusted the German General Liman von Sanders with the reorganization of the Turkish army, and Russia protested. The final solution was that the German general continued to be responsible for the training of the Turkish army, but did not actually hold a military command.
The collaboration of Germany and Great Britain on Eastern questions made Bethmann-Hollweg, who exercised greater influ ence on foreign policy after the death of Kiderlen on Dec. 3o, 1912, hope to bring Great Britain and Germany permanently into closer relations. During the following months two important treaties were negotiated between London and Berlin. The aim of one of them was a new agreement on the future of the Portu guese colonies in Africa, and that of the other an arrangement for the further development of the Baghdad Railway (q.v.) with the help of British capital. Both treaties were drafted and only required ratification when the World War broke out.
The imperial province of Alsace-Lorraine had had a represen tative assembly in addition to the Statthalter since 1879, and union with Germany had brought with it important economic ad vantages. Even those Alsace-Lorrainers who had reconciled them selves to the idea of permanent union with Germany however demanded that their province should become a State with the same rights as the other German States. The repeal of the ex ceptional legislation applying to the imperial province, and in particular the so-called dictatorship clauses, in May 1902 was not enough for them. Bethmann-Hollweg only gave partial satisfac tion to these demands. The act of May 3o, 1911, gave the im perial province a considerable measure of autonomy in home affairs; in future it was to have three seats in the Bundesrat; but a Statthalter appointed by the emperor continued to govern the province. These concessions did not satisfy public opinion in Alsace-Lorraine, and the discontent of the population was un mistakably expressed in connection with the Zabern incident in Nov. 1913. (See also ALSACE-LORRAINE. ) German policy in the eastern districts had continually wavered between attempts to win over the Poles to Germany by granting them a certain measure of autonomy, and endeavours gradually to Germanize the country by buying out the great Polish land owners and settling German peasants on the land. On March 3, 1908, when Billow was still in power, an act was passed empow ering the Government to undertake the compulsory expropriation of Polish landowners to a maximum of 70,000 hectares. This act aroused so much feeling among the Poles that Bethmann-Hollweg scarcely ventured to enforce it, though it was not repealed.
' Generally speaking the home policy of the German empire after the dismissal of Bismarck was extraordinarily sterile. Both in the individual States and in the empire the influence of the Conserva tives and the Clericals steadily increased. The ever-growing and ever more strongly organized working class was hostile to the existing political order, and no serious effort was made to draw them into responsible collaboration. The capitalist employers did much to develop commerce and industry, but were entirely ab sorbed by economic considerations and did not attempt to collaborate in political life or to reconcile their particular interests with those of the community as a whole.