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i9i4] PRESIDENT POINCAR^’S ADVICE 293
This went on after we had left the dining-room. The
King, ordinarily so scrupulously correct and amiable,
did not even think of going round and talking to the
notabilities at the reception. He specially avoided any
conversation with the foreign Ministers. Standing
quite apart at the uncrowded end of one of the large
reception-rooms, sometimes he talked in low tones to
M. Poincare and handed him the telegrams he received,
sometimes to M. Viviani or to M. Wallenberg. The
President, seeing me close to him, came up and said to
me: " Monsieur, I had an opportunity this morning of
communicating to King Gustaf something that the
Emperor Nicolas II. had asked me to convey to him,
that is to say, the most formal and the most gracious
assurance of his good and unalterable disposition
towards Sweden and the Swedish Court. In particular I
was able to certify to the King that the Assanovitch
incident which had so affected Swedish public opinion,
had not the importance attached to it by this opinion.
His Majesty the King received this communication with
sincere pleasure, but he expressed the hope that from
henceforth explicit orders would be issued from St.
Petersburg to the Russian Legation in Stockholm, and
particularly to the military agent who is to succeed
M. Assanovitch, to take the greatest care to avoid
anything that might appear to bear the stamp of clandestine
or irregular proceedings. What I am telling you,"
continued the President, " is of very secondary
importance compared to the political events of the moment;
nevertheless, it is all the more necessary to reassure the
Swedes and to deprive the Central Empires of all
plausible causes for intrigue."
I entirely agreed with the President’s point of view,
and I assured him that from my arrival in Stockholm I
had planned to do all in my power to rectify the mistakes
committed by us latterly in Sweden. We went on to
speak of the political situation of the moment.
" The King has received some news from Berlin this
evening that has reassured him a little; according to
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