Fifteen years later the Jewish question also played a part in the curious Russo-German _rapprochement_ which nearly wrecked the Dual Alliance. Much light has been shed upon this incident by the recent publication of the late Tsar's secret correspondence with the German Emperor[52] and other Russian State documents, notably a Memorandum on the Jewish question drawn up by Count Lamsdorf in January 1906.[53] Negotiations for the adhesion of Russia to the Anglo-French Entente had been opened in the winter of 1903, but owing to the war with Japan and the revolutionary outbreak in Russia the Tsar's views on the subject had changed. Worked on by the German Emperor, he imagined himself a victim of English intrigue, and he concluded with the Kaiser at Bjoerkoeon July 23, 1905, the bases of a new Triple Alliance to consist of Russia, Germany, and France. While the Treaty was still unratified certain reactionaries in Russia seized the opportunity of endeavouring to give it a specially anti-Jewish bias. On the one hand the bureaucracy had persuaded themselves that the Jews were the main authors of the October Revolution, and on the other Count Witte and his colleagues in the Cabinet were furious at the renewed rebuffs they had received at the hands of the House of Rothschild in their efforts to raise new loans on the Paris and London markets.[54] It was in these circumstances that Count Lamsdorf prepared a Memorandum proposing to the Tsar that an agreement should be concluded with Germany providing for the special _surveillance_ of Jewish activities on the lines of a secret Protocol which had been drawn up by the two Powers on March 14, 1904, for the similar _surveillance_ and extradition of Anarchists.[55] At the same time the Count suggested that the Pope should be asked to adhere to this new Holy Alliance. This strange proposal was approved by the Tsar, who ordered the immediate initiation of negotiations with the Wilhelmstrasse. In due course this instruction was acted upon,[56] but in the following May Count Lamsdorf fell, and with the entry of M. Izvolsky into the Russian Foreign Office a new and saner direction was given to Russian Foreign policy. Nothing more was heard either of the Bjoerkoe Treaty or of the proposed Triple Alliance against the Jews. DOCUMENT. * * * * * THE PROPOSED ANTI-SEMITIC TRIPLE ALLIANCE. (The footnotes appended to the following document are those of Count Lamsdorf himself. Footnotes by the Editor will be found at the end.) _Secret._ ON THE ANARCHISTS.