German Alliance Barred By Japan.

New York Times 100 years ago today, August 27, 1913:
Britain Wanted to Combine with Two Powers Against France and Russia.
REVELATIONS IN A DIARY
Publication of the Late Count Hayashi's Memoirs, Begun in Tokio, Stopped by the Government.
    LONDON, Aug. 26.— The revelation that the diplomatic negotiations which finally resulted in the Anglo-Japanese Alliance first contemplated an Anglo-German-Japanese Triple Alliance and that Germany was largely instrumental in starting them, but was shut out by Japan, is made in the diary of the late Count Tadasu Hayashi, ex-Japanese Ambassador to Great Britain and twice Foreign Minister, part of which was recently published.
    The Jiji Shimpo of Tokio printed portions of the diary, but the Japanese Government prohibited further publication, and the Censor suppressed telegrams sent by foreign correspondents in Japan giving details of the statements.
    The diary shows that the British Government, under the Premiership of the late Marquis of Salisbury, was in favor of the inclusion of Germany in the alliance, but that Japan opposed it. Count Hayashi, in order to bring about the Anglo-Japanese alliance, hinted that Japan was ready to ally herself with Russia if Great Britain were unwilling to become her ally.
    According to the diary, Baron Hermann von Eckhardstein, at the time Chargé d'Affaires of the German Embassy in London, made several visits to Count Hayashi in the Spring of 1901. In proposing the formation of a triple alliance between Great Britain, Germany, and Japan, he said he knew that the British Government and such personages as Joseph Chamberlain, Arthur J. Balfour, Lord Lansdowne, the Duke of Devonshire, and the Marquis of Salisbury were in favor of it. He said that the German nation was strongly anti-British, but not the German Government. He added that King Edward, Emperor William, and Imperial Chancellor von Bülow had recently had long conversations on the subject at Osborne, Isle of Wight, and were anxious for such a triple alliance, Count Hayashi approached Lord Lansdowne, then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, suggesting an Anglo-Japanese agreement on a policy in China. Lord Lansdowne in reply said he thought a third power should be included. A programme was roughly drafted at that time, and this afterward became the Treaty of Alliance.
    Japan suggested that a third party should be omitted from the alliance because Anglo-Japanese interests were identical. Great Britain, however, for some time clung to the idea of a triple alliance, according to Count Hayashi, as she was anxious for an alliance with Germany in order to isolate the Franco-Russian alliance in any action it might take in the Far East or elsewhere. In the end Japan's wishes prevailed.
    The continuation of the diary, which might have shown why Count Hayashi opposed the inclusion of Germany, has not been published.