expansion of Russia wherever it was least dangerous. England feared Russia's advance into Asia in the direction of China or Persia far more than her territorial aggrandizement in the Balkans. Having induced Japan to check the advance of Russia in Manchuria, and having paralysed Russia's scheme in Persia (1907), England supported Russian ambitions in the Balkans. England was all the more ready to adopt this policy because she was thereby put in a position to defend herself the more easily against the danger that lay in Constantinople. If Russia had really succeeded in carrying od substantial territorial victories from Turkey, thereby penetrating the first line of defence of the Indian Empire, England would still have had time to form a second line of defence. In the event of the dreams of Peter the Great and Catherine II coming to be realized, in spite of the fact that Pitt, Palmerston and Disraeli had fought against their realization, England would attempt to re-create the empire of Alexander the Great. With Egypt at her back, she would lay hands upon Arabia and Mesopotamia, so that Malta, Cyprus and Egypt should become connected with India by an unbroken British Empire.
The new British system of alliances was faced by considerable difficulties. One of England's friends, Russia, had to make peace with another of England's friends, namely, Japan. Russia and Japan had to forget the bloody events of the recent past. The fact that England succeeded in carrying out this policy is in itself the highest praise of her diplomatic ability.
