Crowe memorandum

In January 1907, Eyre Crowe, a senior clerk in the British Foreign Office's Western Department, wrote an unsolicited memorandum for his superiors setting out his reading of German foreign policy. Crowe argued that Germany was working toward hegemony, first in Europe and eventually in the wider world, and compared the threat it posed to Europe's balance of power to the earlier dangers posed by Philip II of Spain, the Bourbon kings of France, and Napoleon. He warned against making concessions to German demands, likening the situation to giving in to a blackmailer, and argued that yielding to threats would only invite larger demands while a resolute stand was usually enough to end them. Foreign Secretary Edward Grey called the memorandum most valuable and circulated it among senior figures in government, including the Prime Minister, though historians still dispute how much it actually shaped British policy toward Germany.