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Izvolsky complained bitterly that " France has gone overbag and baggage to Austria." The annual general staffconferences provided for in the original military conventionwere not held (except in 1900 and 1901) until 1906onwards. The Russian military resented the peremptoryattitude of the French, who treated them like inferiors,and there was much wrangling and shuffling. Nevertheless,the core of the alliance came to lie in the jointmilitary plans, which were duly put into effect in August1914. The contrast between the Franco-Russian allianceand the Soviet-French alliance of 1935, which was neverimplemented by staff discussions, could not be morestriking.Public opinion was variable. In Russia the alliancewas in general popular, but many conservative circlesdisliked and feared French parliamentarism and socialism.Russian interests nowhere clashed with French, and theFrench financing of Russia which accompanied thealliance created very strong ties (see pp. 3 5 8-3 5 9). Frenchculture had always played a great role in Russia; whereasGerman cultural influences were offset by the rising tideof anti-German feelings, the mass of Russians knowinglittle or nothing of the French had no antipathy againstthem.In France, alliance with tsarist autocracy was alwaysunpopular with the left, and very pronouncedly duringthe 1905 Revolution. The Russian moneys expendedon the press could buy support, but could not buy outopposition. On the other hand, the small French investorwas at least favourably impressed by the fact that thetsarist government always paid the dividends due on itsmounting loans. Above all, what other alternative toRussia was there to make good the inferiority of Frenchman-power in comparison with German ?The alliance, though in origin directed against theTriple Alliance, was for its first dozen years mainly adiplomatic combination against England; in Egypt, Siam,China, the Persian Gulf. During the Boer war, after theblow to France at Fashoda (1898) and when Russia andEngland were more than ever at loggerheads in the FarEast, Delcasse (foreign minister from 1898 to 1905)431