French Naval Shift Alarms Germany.

New York Times 100 years ago today, September 21, 1912:
Massing in Mediterranean in Place of British Ships Is Called a "Diabolical Project."
TRIPLE ALLIANCE MENACED
In Fancy They See France Holding Italy and Austria While England's Fleets Smash Kaiser's Navy.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    BERLIN, Sept. 20.— Germany is highly agitated over the concentration of the French naval strength in the Mediterranean. The action, initiated by M, Delcassé, the Minister of Marine, who is still regarded as the Fatherland's evil genius, is interpreted as the latest move on the part of her enemies to insure the annihilation of the Kaiser's fleet on the day when Great Britain and Germany clash for the supremacy of Europe.
    The press of the entire country, under the leadership of the official press bureau, is engaged in a vigorous campaign, designed to expose the "perfidy" of France and awaken the Triple Alliance to "the new dangers" confronting it.
    The sole object of France, it is argued here, is to take possession of the Mediterranean for the purpose of menacing the interests of Italy and Austria-Hungary in those waters, so these junior partners in the Triple Alliance will be required to concentrate all their naval strength in the Mediterranean, leaving Germany to fight alone in the North Sea.

Call British "Hypocritical."
    British opposition to French supremacy in the Mediterranean is pilloried in Berlin as insincere and hypocritical, the English knowing full well that the whole scheme is part and parcel of their "diabolical project" to isolate the German fleet and compel it to meet the superior British navy without any allies or hope of them.
    The Germans, for the present, leave the Russian navy out of their calculations, but point out that when the Czar's new naval programme is carried out the Russian fleet will no doubt also be pressed into service against Germany.
    British diplomacy, in the present overwrought state of Germany's political nerves, is thought capable of anything, and the idea is deep-rooted that King George's Government is proceeding in cold blood to patrol all the waters of Europe, where dreadnoughts can float — the North Sea, the Baltic, and the Mediterranean — with the single-minded, purpose of driving the Kaiser's navy into a corner and smashing it.
    These are the undercurrents in the flood of editorial articles, now filling the columns of the German newspapers of all shades of party and opinion.
    Italy and Austria-Hungary, but Italy in particular, are urged to lose no time in grasping the significance of the Mediterranean menace. The Italians are assured that the French are trying to bully them into forsaking their allegiance to the Triple Alliance, which comes up for renewal in 1913, and make them see that their real salvation, lies in a partnership with England and France.

Hope Allies Will Wake Up.
    Germany fervently hopes that the common danger which is threatening Italy and Austria-Hungary in the Mediterranean, may have the highly desirable effect of bringing these somewhat lukewarm Triple Alliance comrades closer together, perhaps through the medium of a joint naval treaty. If the French challenge is not met by radical Italian-Austrian measures, it will, at any rate, not be the fault of Germany, which is exploiting the situation to the fullest possible extent. The German Foreign Office is an old hand and a past master at "bluffing," and it has identified itself this week with a striking editorial in the Frankfurter Zeitung, reminding the French that they still have land frontiers, and not to imagine that the millennium is in sight because M. Delcassé has decided to station dreadnoughts in the Mediterranean.