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“Baseless Allegations”: Wilhelm II and the Hale Interview of 1908
Ralph R. Menning, Carol Bresnahan Menning
Journal:

Central European History / Volume 16 / Issue 4 / December 1983

Published online by Cambridge University Press:

16 December 2008, pp. 368-397

Print publication:

December 1983
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In a conversation with Charles Hardinge aboard H.M. Yacht Victoria and Albert in April of 1907, King Edward VII raised the question of inviting Kaiser Wilhelm II to visit England. In 1904, the British monarch had paid a state visit to Germany, and now he felt the time had come to return his imperial nephew's hospitality. Hardinge relayed the King's suggestion to Foreign Secretary Edward Grey. “The King thinks that this invitation should be greatly appreciated by the Emperor William and the German people,” the undersecretary wrote, “and would tend to improve the relations between the two countries without giving our friends any real cause for suspicion or alarm.” While Hardinge was unenthusiastic about the idea of the Kaiser coming to Britain, he nonetheless conceded that “this visit has to be paid sometime or other,” and supposed that it might “mitigate any ill-feeling” created by the negotiations leading to the Anglo-Russian entente.

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