PREVIOUS WRITINGS OF PAUL S. REINSCH The Common Law in the Early American Colonies, 1899. World Politics at the End of the Nineteenth Century as Influenced by the Oriental Situation, 1900. Colonial Government, 1902. Colonial Administration, 1905. American Legislatures and Legislative Methods, 1907. Intellectual Currents in the Far East, 1911. International Unions, 1911. An American Diplomat in China, 1913–1918, 1922. SECRET DIPLOMACY HOW FAR CAN IT BE ELIMINATED? BY PAUL S. REINSCH [Illustration] NEW YORK HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC. PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY THE QUINN & BODEN COMPANY RAHWAY, N. J. The principal conclusions based on the material contained in this book were presented by the Author at a joint meeting of the American Historical Association and the American Political Science Association, in his address as President of the latter, on December 28th, 1920. CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION 3 CHAPTER I. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY DIPLOMACY 22 II. OLD DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE 36 III. AFTER THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA 45 IV. NAPOLEON III, DISRAELI, BISMARCK 58 V. TRIPLE ALLIANCE DIPLOMACY AND MOROCCO 70 VI. ENTENTE DIPLOMACY 84 VII. THE CRISIS OF 1914 102 VIII. THE SECRET TREATIES OF THE WAR 116 IX. HOPES FOR IMPROVEMENT DEFERRED 129 X. THE DESTRUCTION OF PUBLIC CONFIDENCE 136 XI. PARLIAMENT AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS 149 XII. THE PUBLIC AND DIPLOMACY 166 XIII. A SURVIVAL OF ABSOLUTISM 181 XIV. RECENT AMERICAN EXPERIENCE 194 CONCLUSION 211 INDEX 225 SECRET DIPLOMACY INTRODUCTION Is secret diplomacy the evil spirit of modern politics? Is it the force that keeps nations in a state of potential hostility and does not allow a feeling of confidence and of wholehearted coöperation to grow up? Or is it only a trade device, a clever method of surrounding with an aura of importance the doings of the diplomats, a race of men of average wisdom and intelligence who traditionally have valued the prestige of dealing with “secret affairs of state”? Or is it something less romantic than either of these--merely the survival from a more barbarous age of instincts of secretiveness and chicane acquired at a time when self-defense was the necessity of every hour?