Chapter X: The French Invade Morocco (2)

“_12th July._—Caffin (my land agent, who is also a miller,) tells me that war is an absolute impossibility for this country at the present moment as we have no supply of food whatever in store, and even a belief in war would be ruin. ‘We are all,’ he says, ‘living literally from hand to mouth. I have large contracts to supply flour at given dates, and last week was within twenty-four hours of shutting down my mill because it was impossible to buy wheat anywhere. I could not get a hundred sacks at Chichester for love or money, Chichester being the centre of our Sussex wheat supply, where in my grandfather’s time a thousand sacks were always to be had. England would starve in a fortnight; war is impossible.’

“_13th July._—Everybody believes Kitchener’s appointment to Egypt certain. If it is so, it can only mean that Grey has taken the bit between his teeth and means some form of Protectorate there. The Khedive is furious at the idea.

“_14th July._—Chapel Street. The ‘Pall Mall Gazette’ announces Kitchener’s appointment, not only as Consul General in Egypt, but also to command the army of Occupation and all the forces on the Nile, with a great flourish about some form of Protectorate. I cannot get the Egyptian Committee to make any vigorous protest.

“To Hugh Lane’s house in Chelsea where Lady Gregory is staying, for a tea party in connection with the Abbey Theatre. It is a nice house in Cheyne Walk, which is being redecorated for him by John, and contains two or three good pictures with others less good. Lane is Lady Gregory’s nephew, a young Irishman who began with nothing but his wits. She apprenticed him to Colnaghi at a hundred a year, where he learnt his business of picture dealing. He began his fortune, she tells me, by an accident. He happened to hear of a picture which was for sale in some remote country place, and travelled down to look at it, but, having no money to buy, although there was almost no bidding, was obliged to let it go for a very small price. When the sale was over, the bidders, who were all professional dealers, went to a public house, and he with them, and then it turned out that they had been standing in together not to bid, and they held a private sale of the picture amongst themselves, dividing the price realized between them, and as Lane was known to belong to Colnaghi’s he was included in it, and got £160 as his share. This started him, and he has now made a fortune and been knighted for presenting a collection of pictures to the Dublin Gallery. Also being a good-looking youth with much pleasant audacity, he has become a man of fashion in London. Among other fine ladies at his tea party to-day I found the Duchess of Sutherland, Lane playing his part of host nobly.

“Meynell dined with me, and we went on together to Stafford House, an amusing evening, as evenings there always are, and where I met a number of ancient friends, ex-beauties, and others who seemed pleased to see me. Among them Lady Desborough, who reminded me of the Sunday we spent together, hard on thirty years ago when she was Etty Fane, at Brocket. She was a beautiful girl then, not yet out, and is now probably forty- seven, and has seen much racket in the world, and there was Lady Randolph and Mrs. Jack Leslie and Lady Horner and a number more of that generation. The girls of the present generation have the disadvantage of the grotesque fashion now prevailing in dress in which no woman can look otherwise than a bundle, but there was no lack of amusement. At a certain stage in the evening, after much loud comic singing, the guests sat down in a circle on the ground, and certain performers from Paris danced the _Danse des Apaches_, which is the same which used to be called the _Can-can_, with other gymnastic eccentricities formerly confined to the Jardin Mabille, for our amusement; an astonishing display, which would have shocked us, I think, even at Mabille, in the days of the Second Empire and would certainly have been impossible in London in my young days at a public dancing hall, let alone in a drawing-room, but which now delighted us all without a suspicion of indecorum, young men and maidens applauding unrestrainedly, for such is our new kingdom of Heaven. It is not for me to find fault, and I suppose we enjoy our lives more.

“_16th July (Sunday)._—Newbuildings. Belloc dined with us. He says that Cromer is very angry at Kitchener’s appointment, declaring him to be a thief, which was, I believe, Mohammed Abdu’s opinion too. Cromer and Kitchener were never fond of each other, and it is certainly a preposterous choice to have been made if they have no design of annexation up their sleeves. According to Belloc there was a great effort made to obtain the place for Sir Charles Eliot, but it failed through the refusal of Lord Lansdowne to agree to it, Lansdowne had recalled Eliot from Uganda, and would not consent to his being employed again by the Foreign Office, for these things are arranged now by the two front benches in private agreement.

“_17th July._—A telegram from Gros Bois to tell me of the death of my dear old friend Wagram. It was signed by Alexandre and the two girls.

“_18th July._—Grey has declared, in answer to a question in Parliament, suggested by me, that Kitchener’s instructions, which he declines to produce, ‘will involve no change in the general policy of his Majesty’s Government.’ He said the same thing when Gorst succeeded Cromer. What he probably means is that, with the same pretence of preparing Egypt for self-government, the military occupation, which is all they really care about, will be maintained. There will, however, most certainly be a change of tactics, the entente with the Khedive will give place to an entente with the Khedive’s enemies, and there is already sign of it in a telegram from Cairo saying that the Nationalists are pleased with Kitchener personally. Osman Ghaleb writes from Paris sending me a message dictated to him by the Khedive. In this letter Abbas declares himself quite ready to grant a Constitution, and says that it was in reality he who caused the Suez Convention to be rejected by the General Assembly last year. Osman Ghaleb adds a private P.S. saying that Abbas talks of abdicating; but that would only mean the substitution of his son with a Regency giving complete power to Kitchener.

“_20th July._—Worth Forest. Things are happening fast in Europe, and it seems pretty certain now that Germany has made terms not only with France but with Russia, in order to break up their entente with us. The ‘Conversations’ which have been held at Berlin between Von Kiderlin Waechter and Cambon (Jules) are announced to have resulted in a claim made by Germany of the French Congo as a set off for Morocco, and at the same time the Spaniards are pressing things on at Alcazar and a French Consul has been insulted there. This means that the Germans are determined on having their naval station on the Atlantic whether we choose or not. The ‘Times’ has a warlike article to-day reminding Asquith of his bold words of a fortnight ago, and pressing him to make them good. I don’t suppose he will, for he is entirely occupied with his quarrel with the House of Lords, which has reached its crisis, while the Dock Strike continues, making the shortage of wheat in the country so great that Caffin tells me even a well-founded rumour of war would bring about a collapse. People don’t believe in war as a possible thing concerning England.

“The ex-Shah of Persia has landed at a Caspian port, and is raising an army obviously with the consent of the Russian Government. The Turkish quarrel with Albania has developed too, and almost anything may happen in that direction. It is impossible things can settle down without great changes and shiftings to the detriment of Mohammedan lands, and this makes me unhappy.

“Osman Ghaleb has written again, and I have sent a letter in reply, which I intend him to forward to the Khedive as my advice. It is that His Highness should write a formal letter to our King George, protesting against Kitchener, and asking for an _homme d’état_ to be sent to Egypt in Gorst’s place, one who shall work with him to set the Government of Egypt on a Constitutional basis. Such a letter, if published, will at least serve to reconcile the Khedive with the Nationalists.

“Dillon writes: ‘I have read your poem, the “Coronation Ode”; it is a fine powerful denunciation, rather too hard on your own country and your own people. If I were an Englishman I do not think I could so utterly have condemned England, much as I detest Grey’s policy. The Rosebery gang and the Tories have undoubtedly led England through the mire, as far as foreign policy is concerned, but in spite of all England remains the freest country in the world, and that is something.’ This may be true, but it is precisely the position taken by the Primrose League with its motto ‘_Imperium et Libertas_, Empire Abroad, Liberty at Home.’

“The Bearwood Estate, belonging to the Walter family, was put up for sale a few days ago, with a reserve of £150,000, but no bidding. Meynell tells me that the Walters have come to complete ruin, a wonderful event when one thinks of their career of glory as proprietors of the ‘Times’ and the power they wielded in the world, wielded and abused to the ruin of how many weak nations. The ‘Times’ was the source of their wealth, and it no longer pays its expenses and has passed into other hands.

“_23rd July (Sunday)._—Ryan came and also El Abd, president of the Egyptian Society of London, which has written to the Khedive demanding of him a Constitution for Egypt, but he declares the Khedive is not to be trusted.

“To dinner came Belloc and with him a French Jesuit, Father Courvois, who is the director of a kind of Catholic Socialism—an intelligent and agreeable man, who speaks excellent English.

“_24th July._—Osman Ghaleb writes from Paris, saying he has sent on my message to the Khedive, but he is unlikely to take my advice. On leaving for Italy the Khedive had told him that he had had a letter from Kitchener announcing his appointment, and saying that he hoped they would work together for the regeneration of Egypt.

“_25th July._—To London for a great luncheon given by the Eastern Association to the two delegates of the Ottoman Parliament, Bostani Effendi, senator, and Riza Tewfik, Deputy, a heavy affair with long- winded speeches by Admiral Fremantle and other ancient bores, and by the delegates, who spoke in very creditable English, but were afraid of saying anything precise about the actual situation. I had, however, a private talk with Riza Tewfik, who takes a gloomy view of the situation in Albania, and thinks that the war will extend to the other Balkan States, and perhaps to intervention by Austria. I asked him whether Germany would not prevent this, and he said: ‘Germany will give us advice and her moral support, but nothing more than that, as she has always done.’ He condemns the present Government at Constantinople in the strongest terms, he being the leader of the Opposition in the Chamber. He told me that the letter I sent him last October warning them of the folly of campaigning in Arabia, had been shown by him to Talaat Pasha and others, but they had paid no attention to it, though my advice had since been entirely justified. ‘For instance,’ he said, ‘what you said about paying the Arabs rather than fighting them. The whole quarrel with the Druses could have been settled for £200, and it cost us £600,000, beside the bloodshed.’ Riza’s fellow delegate, Bostani, is a learned Arabic scholar, member for Beyrout, who was made Senator last year. His speech was lengthy and terribly dull, but I found him pleasant to talk to.

“In the evening, just before dinner, I looked in at 44 Belgrave Square and found George Wyndham there with F. E. Smith and Bendor, all three much excited. ‘Here you see the conspirators,’ said George. For some time past George has been organizing a revolt against Lansdowne and Arthur Balfour’s management of the Tory party in the matter of the Veto Bill, and yesterday they brought matters to a head by making a violent scene in the House of Commons, and refusing to let Asquith speak. Hugh Cecil and F. E. Smith are the leaders of the revolt with George. Bendor has turned Grosvenor House into an office, where they hold their meetings, and they are to give a banquet to old Halsbury to-morrow as the saviour of the Constitution. They are all in the highest possible spirits at the commotion they have caused and consider that they have forced Balfour’s hand. ‘You ought to have done it,’ I said, ‘two years ago, and you would have had the whole country with you, Army, Navy, Territorials, and all down to the Boy Scouts.’ The two others did not stay many minutes, and when they were gone George talked it over with me, promising an absolutely full account of it when the crisis should be over, but he had given his word of honour not to reveal certain things at present. Nevertheless, I gather from him that they suspect Arthur Balfour of having been all through in secret collusion with Asquith, and that perhaps now Arthur is in secret collusion against Asquith with them. It appears that just before the last election in January Asquith got the King to promise to create a sufficient number of peers to pass the Veto Bill, which the King promised, thinking the elections would go more against Asquith than they did. The King does not at all want to create the peers, neither does Asquith, though the King is in favour of Home Rule for Ireland. They hope that the peers will give in without that necessity, and have been looking all along for a compromise, but the extremists on both sides will have none of it, and now George says the country is in revolt, meaning the Tories in the constituencies. ‘If we had given in without a fight there would have been an end of the Tory Party.’ George thinks they have saved that at least. They are ready for actual armed resistance, or rather, they would like that. They have chosen old Halsbury for their nominal leader because of his great age (eighty-eight), otherwise there would have been jealousies. All the best men of their party are with them, including Austen Chamberlain, whom they did not expect. The only one who has disappointed them has been George Curzon. ‘He is a fool,’ said George, ‘for he might have been next Prime Minister.’ However, I am to hear _all_ as soon as the crisis is over. George thinks war with Germany quite possible, and he wants it.

“_26th July._—To Shaw’s new play, ‘Fanny’s First Play,’ last night, at The Little Theatre, with Meynell and Miss Montgomerie, an American beauty. The play was screamingly amusing, and I laughed till the tears ran down my cheeks. Mrs. Granville Barker, who was acting the principal character, sent me a message when it was over, and I went into her room and congratulated her, which I was glad to do, as she had heard that I did not like her in ‘The Witch.’

“To Lady C., who tells me Kitchener called on her yesterday, and quite contrary to his custom, spoke in high terms of me. This seems to show that he is trying to play the diplomat, and wants to conciliate his enemies, for he knows that I am a friend of hers and that she will repeat it. I asked her what he had told her about his mission to Egypt, and she said, ‘Oh, he did not want to go there, he wanted to stay at the War Office, and says he is getting old and Egypt will be his last post, but he is to organize everything, the army and all, and make a big thing of it.’ She tells me that she knew Kitchener when he was quite a young man. ‘I knew Horatio,’ she said, ‘forty years ago, when he had just left the French Army. He was in a very poor way then, so low that he had accepted an offer from Toole to go on the stage at £2 a week. Talking about his never having married, she said, ‘he had no time to trouble himself with ladies.’ He wouldn’t marry because he was determined to succeed in his profession, and he could not drag a wife about after him, and he had to be careful not to make scandals because of his men. I told her that I was afraid I should have to bring up the Mahdi’s Head against him, and, in fact, I had just been writing as strong an article as I could find words for about it, this very morning, for our next number of ‘Egypt.’

“I forgot to say that talking to George yesterday, he told me that once in talking to the late King about Ireland when he was Chief Secretary, the King had said: ‘We must either govern Ireland like an English county, or give them complete Home Rule; there is no middle course.’ This, I know, is George’s own view, yet in public he is always saying Home Rule is impossible and so is the other.

“_27th July._—George’s revolt is not likely to succeed. They held their public dinner to Halsbury last night, and were only able to muster some forty peers at it, while Balfour and Lansdowne have produced a list of 250, and these have threatened to vote for the Bill rather than have peers created to swamp them. The fact is the revolt is all too late.

“Dillon lunched with me and described the scene in the House of Commons on Monday, and Hugh Cecil’s behaviour. The _mot d’ordre_ for the Irish party had been that they were to sit absolutely silent during the row, which they knew was intended, but at the height of it, some of the Irish grew excited and began to shout, while Redmond turned on them and said in the hearing of the Tories, who sit with them on the Opposition benches, ‘If these damned Englishmen choose to make bloody fools of themselves, it is no reason for us not to behave.’ The sentiment was approved by some of the Tories, and one of them said to Redmond, ‘Though you did call us damned Englishmen I agree with every word.’

“Down to Worth Forest in the afternoon. Quite late a messenger from Glyn’s Bank made his appearance, having wandered all over the woods at Newbuildings, and on here, carrying £500 in gold for me, my provision for war. He, poor man, was nearly dead with his exertions in the heat, and I made him stay and dine with me and found him good company, with his reminiscences of the Bank and City affairs. He has been twenty years at Glyn’s. I gave him a full meal and plenty of wine, and sent him away happy somewhere about midnight!”

[This adventure, unique in the good man’s experience, has become a legend now in Lombard Street.]

“_28th July._—Asquith has given in about Agadir, pretending that he did not mean that the Germans were not to have a naval station on the North Atlantic coast. Rothstein, whom I saw three days ago in London, tells me that before Lloyd George’s war speech at the Banker’s dinner was made, a Cabinet was held, at which it was decided, with only one dissentient, Loreburn, the Lord Chancellor, that Germany should be defied about Agadir at the risk of war. Loreburn, however, went to the London Editor of the ‘Manchester Guardian,’ and told him about it, and got him to write in a pacific sense. The ‘Daily News’ had been notified by the Government in a contrary sense, and orders had been issued to the Northern Squadron. Their swagger, however, did not frighten the Germans, only made them angry, and as the French have not the least notion of going to war about Agadir to please us, Asquith has thought better of it, and now makes this explanation. War for this country is an economical impossibility, the Germans will have their naval station at Agadir or wherever else they choose.

“_29th July._—In the early morning we buried our box of gold in the middle of a fir wood under a sycamore tree, the only one there.

“Dillon has sent me the Hansard account of the debate on Thursday on Egypt, in which he took part. Grey made in it some valuable admissions, declaring that anything like a reactionary policy in Egypt was unthinkable. It will make it very difficult for Kitchener to play the tyrant. He will try to play the lapdog first.

“_30th July (Sunday)._—Having been away for two nights, on our return to-day to the Forest, we went to look whether our hiding-place had been disturbed, and to our astonishment found a toad seated on the box that contained the gold, a curious circumstance, like what one reads of in the middle ages.” [The box had been buried only a few inches below the surface, and the toad had made his way down to it. It will save future treasure hunters trouble to be told that the box and its contents have long left the forest precincts and been returned to Glyn.]

“_1st Aug._—Our annual Arab Sale, a smaller attendance than at any previous one.

“_3rd Aug._—Newbuildings. Ismaïl Pasha Abaza came with Surur Bey to consult me about what line should be taken at Cairo towards Kitchener, whether to oppose him or make the best of him. I advised opposing him. He gave me a long account of the Khedive’s troubles, being in his confidence. He explained that His Highness was as much opposed as anybody to the Occupation, but had not means of resisting. He had tried it many years ago, but had found himself without support, and had been obliged to yield. At present he was without a friend in Europe, and was on bad terms with the Government at Constantinople, and if he brought things to a quarrel with the Cairo Agency, he could not count on support anywhere. If he refused to sign the decrees forced on him they would govern the country without him; they would declare a Regency. I do not believe this, or that if he chose his occasion of quarrel wisely they would dare any such violent measures against him, but it would be no good to quarrel about trifles. I asked him about the Khedive’s relations with Gorst. He said that except at the beginning, when they had been really friends, Gorst had obliged him to do this and that just the same as Lord Cromer did, only politely instead of brutally. I recited to Abaza the old fable of the Wind and the Sun, which was new to him and amused him much. He declares the Khedive had been ready to grant a constitution two years ago, but Gorst would not hear of it, the Khedive had said as much to the Editor of the ‘Temps.’ I said that was not the right way of doing things. The Khedive ought to issue a proclamation to his people and show himself their leader. It is clear, however, that Abbas has no stomach for strong measures. In Egypt they are all dreadfully afraid of personal loss. If they are patriotic, the Nile water would be cut off from their estates, and other material injuries be inflicted on them. Abaza had had a personal quarrel with Gorst, and it was Gorst who had intrigued against his election for the Legislative Council. Abaza is pessimistic, but he reassured me on two points:

“(1) There is no party anywhere in Egypt favourable to the Occupation, unless it be with the foreigners and some of the Copts.

“(2) The Porte will never consent to make over Egypt to England in any legal way, nor in his opinion will Europe. It is against the Khedive personally that the anger is, and the danger of the Porte’s playing into English hands. Gorst was never in earnest about reforms, and was never really friendly to Egypt. I asked him whether the Khedive had not sufficient patriotism to disregard his material advantage, but all he could say was that if the Khedive could be sure that it would profit the country he would make the sacrifice, but at present he was convinced that nothing he could do would change the situation. It is this lack of real patriotism that stands in their way. These rich men hate the English Occupation, but will run no risks to get rid of it.

“_7th Aug. (Sunday)._—To Storrington to call on Miss Gordon, General Gordon’s niece, who is the acknowledged authority on all Gordon matters. She had read my account of the digging up of the Mahdi’s body in 1899, as published at the time, and said it was quite correct, except that the Mahdi’s head was really buried again in the desert. Two officers, she said, took it out with them when the trouble about it had been made in Parliament and buried it by night in the open desert, some miles away; they themselves did not know exactly where, so they could not have found it again if they had tried. She said this in so positive a manner that I feel sure her brother (Bill Gordon) must have been one of the two. All the rest of the story she confirmed in every particular. Bill had been specially employed by Kitchener to do the work of destroying the dome by blowing it up after it had been shelled, but he had had nothing to do with the digging up of the body, which was a piece of rowdyism done at night by some of the young officers. These kept the head, and gave it to Kitchener, who entrusted it to Bill to take down with him to Cairo when he returned there, where it was deposited, she believes, at a bank, Kitchener’s intention being to present it to a Museum, at least so it was supposed. Bill was immensely disgusted at the whole business. She talked with great enthusiasm about her brother, almost with tears, and anger at the way he had been treated and made use of by them, and in the end worked to death. She lives at Hove, but is staying with her sister (Mrs. Jones), who has a house called the Manor House, at Storrington.

“To-morrow the great debate begins in the House of Lords, which is to seal its fate, old Halsbury leading the Opposition to Lansdowne, who has gone over to the Government, and is supporting the Bill which is to abolish the power of the Lords. It is a great occasion inadequately dealt with.

“_11th Aug._—Newbuildings. The Lords have voted their own death by a majority of seventeen, great numbers abstaining, a pitiful ending for an institution of such antiquity. They have played their game with inconceivable stupidity, making miscalculation after miscalculation. When the quarrel began they had the game in their hands. They might have declared for Irish Home Rule and defied the House of Commons, which was at that time quite discredited. They might have rejected or amended the budget as they chose, asserting their own necessary position in the Constitution, and effecting a _coup d’état_ which would have restored the Tories to power for another generation. But they idiotically referred the decision to a General Election. Then they counted on the King to help them, and they went in for a second election, having first abandoned the hereditary position of the House, which was the essence of its being. The revolt from all this absurd blundering came too late, and now they are laid out dead as door nails. Belloc maintains that the whole thing has been arranged from the beginning between Balfour and Asquith, and it looks like it. Irish Home Rule has now also, he says, been agreed upon between them.

“_22nd Aug._—Spent the day with George Wyndham in Worth Forest. George gave me a gloomy account of his campaign in the Lords, which, however, he says, he was very near winning. They did not count on so many traitors being found to vote their own destruction as the thirty-one who voted with the Government. They are especially angry against Curzon. It was all snobbishness, George said, on Curzon’s part. He could not bear to have his Order contaminated with the new creations. They are going to boycott him. I asked if he had really quarrelled with Arthur, and he said, ‘Yes, politically, but not privately.’ The peer he thinks most of is Willoughby de Broke, who when reproached with deserting his leader, Lansdowne, said: ‘As master of hounds, I don’t like killing a fox without my huntsmen, but it is better than losing my hounds.’

“_23rd Aug._—The Russo-German agreement about Persia is published in full text. It is clearly directed against England, but does not make the situation worse for Persia than it already was. [Compare Dr. Dillon’s ‘Eclipse of Russia.’]

“_1st Sept._—The world is much disturbed just now here in England with our strikes, in France with bread riots, and in Germany with warlike talk about Morocco. If there is no war between England and Germany it will be because we cannot fight economically, and because Germany is not ready for a naval war with us. I still think the Germans will remain at Agadir, and a full settlement of the Morocco disputes will be adjourned.

“_8th Sept._—The ex-Shah’s army has been defeated at Teheran and its leader executed. The complicity of the Russian Government in the attempt at counter-revolution is proved. The Morocco quarrel still goes on.

“_17th Sept. (Sunday)._—Stolypin, the Russian Prime Minister, has been assassinated at Kief in presence of the Emperor while at the opera. This may lead to serious consequences. Stolypin had been the head and front of the reaction in Russia, a tyrant of the worst kind, affecting liberal ideas, and at the same time ruling by spies and secret police and arrests and hangings and deportations to Siberia. His example has been followed by Morley in India, by Grey in Egypt. These modern Liberals are worse than any of the old-fashioned reactionaries. Stolypin’s assassin turns out to be a Jew, one of his own secret police, and the man specially entrusted with his personal safeguard. The outlook for liberty in the East is a bad one. If Germany agrees to a French protectorate in Morocco it will lead to England claiming a protectorate in Egypt, and to Italy claiming a protectorate in Tripoli. The situation seems to be that the German Government is not quite ready yet for war with France and England, while France, though unwilling to fight, is aware of this. Neither is likely to give in in any formal way, and the quarrel will be left open to be taken up again in two or three years’ time. An accident, however, might precipitate matters. The outlook for Egypt is bad any way things go, for I imagine that at the outbreak of war England would annex Egypt, or declare a protectorate as an excuse for governing by martial law and treating all patriotism as rebellion. [N.B. Compare this with what actually happened in December 1914.]

“_22nd Sept._—News has come of Arabi’s death, and the morning papers give obituary notices founded on Cromer’s ‘Modern Egypt’ and Milner’s ‘England and Egypt,’ official and untrue. I have written to Ali Bey Kamel, urging that some public recognition of the old National leader should be made by the new Nationalists on the occasion of the fortieth day, seeing that it is already too late to give him a public funeral, but most of them are too dull-witted to see how great an opportunity it is. At Cairo the death seems to have been kept unknown until the funeral was over.

“_24th Sept. (Sunday)._—There is ominous news to-day of a threatened invasion of Tripoli by the Italians. This taken together with a settlement of the Morocco quarrel between France and Germany which seems now to be pretty certain, has a very ugly look.

“_25th Sept._—My kinsman, Gordon Blunt, was here yesterday to say good- bye on his starting for Malta, where he is to be in command of the mechanical transport.

“_26th Sept._—Things look uglier than ever in regard to Tripoli. I feel certain it is part of a general agreement, come to very likely as long ago as last year, for the dismemberment of what remains of the Islamic States of North Africa, and probably brought to a head by the disclosure of the fact that Germany is not prepared for a war with France. The Italian Fleet has already put to sea, and Tripoli or Benghazi, or both, will be bombarded and a landing attempted. Turkey must fight, though at the immense disadvantage of the Italians holding the sea, and so cutting her communications with Constantinople. Germany is said to be persuading the Turkish Government to yield half the Sultan’s sovereign rights to Italy, but this they cannot do. It is a still more lawless affair than the French raid on Tunis of thirty years ago, and with less pretence of right. Indeed, no pretence is being made except that Italy needs compensation for France’s raid on Morocco. It can hardly not lead to a general dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. It is a thoroughly black outlook.

“_28th Sept._—Chapel Street. Halil Hálid was here in the afternoon. He tells me the Turks will certainly fight, but they have only 10,000 men in Tripoli, and no commander of ability. They have been betrayed there by the Freemasons belonging to the Committee of Union and Progress, who playing into the Italian hands, have neglected sending reinforcements. If this is so, and he says the Freemasons have it all their own way in Salonika, Turkey’s case has become hopeless. He says also that the Turkish Ambassador here has applied to Grey to intervene, but Grey has refused categorically.

“_30th Sept._—War is declared, and the Italians have landed troops at Tripoli, Benghazi, and in Albania. Also, and this is the worst feature of the case, there is a change of Government at Constantinople. Hakki Pasha has resigned, and is succeeded by Said and Kiamil, a combination sure to be in English interests as to Egypt, while Shefket, the fighting head of the Army, is no longer Minister of War. This means, I fear, a tame surrender, though the Tripoli Arabs will not accept Christian rule without fierce fighting.

“To ‘Man and Superman’ with Dorothy in the afternoon. A good play, like all of Shaw’s, but less amusing than ‘Fanny’s First Play,’ or ‘Arms and the Man,’ or ‘John Bull’s Other Island.’ These three are the most amusing plays ever written in any language.

“_1st Oct. (Sunday)._—With Meynell to call on old William Rossetti beyond Regent’s Park. He lives with his two daughters in a villa well filled with family mementos. Among the many drawings by Gabriel Rossetti I noticed two water colours by William Rossetti’s wife, who was a daughter of Madox Brown, which seemed to me gems, worth all the rest. It pleased him much when I told the old man so. He is hale and hearty, though eighty years old, with a clear, healthy complexion, somewhat bronzed and showing his Italian origin. His manner precise, with considerable dignity. He spoke of the Italian raid on Tripoli, and I was glad to find his sympathies were with the Turks. He had read my ‘Secret History,’ and approved all my ideas. We talked, however, most of the past, his brother Gabriel, Burne-Jones, Morris, and Watts, and he was interested to find my recollection of Watts going back four years further even than his own.

“_3rd Oct._—I am sick of Eastern politics and intend to take no more part in them when this Tripoli business is over. It cannot end otherwise than in the partition of the Ottoman Empire, a little sooner or a little later. There are too many hungry wolves in Europe to be satisfied with less, and it is thirty years since I began the battle. I feel inclined to say with Pitt: ‘Roll up the map of Islam.’

“_4th Oct._—To London for a Mohammedan meeting to protest against the attack on Tripoli. Lamington, in the Chair, made an unmeaning speech, excusing the Italians and excusing Grey, and exhorting all men to moderation, till the meeting rose against him. Two M.P.’s, Cox and Mason, made strong speeches, but Browne had been engaged beforehand for moderation. Then I was called for and rose, Lamington trying to stop me, but I persisted, and pointed out the uselessness of relying upon mediation and the German Emperor, and that if the war was to be stopped it must be by England alone. The English Mediterranean Fleet should be sent to Tripoli. Finally Farid Bey, just arrived from Paris, spoke amid much applause. They all came back to supper with me in Chapel Street, and we sat on talking till midnight. Meetings of this sort, unless they are indignation meetings, do less than no good. It was absurd to hold this one under a man like Lamington, a mere wet blanket.

“_5th Oct._—Tripoli was bombarded on Tuesday, 3rd, but it is still doubtful whether the Italians have landed troops. At Constantinople Saïd Pasha has formed a Ministry, but without Kiamil. Mahmud Shefket continues Minister of War. These absolutely refuse to give up Tripoli on any terms, and the war is to continue. It will be a fight between a whale and an elephant, and may go on interminably.

“Meynell brought Padraic Colum to dine with me. He is a modest and at the same time intelligent young man with no little good Irish wit and much feeling about poetry and knowledge of the poets. He recites well, and is what is called a genius, that is to say, one out of the common, altogether sympathetic, but with hands which crush one’s fingers with a grip of iron, all the more unexpected because he is a diminutive personality. Irish hand-shakings are a terrible experience.

“_9th Oct._—The newspaper news from Constantinople is very contradictory, as also from Rome. Halil Hálid told me last Thursday that the withdrawal of the Turkish garrison from Tripoli and the undefended state of the town was due to treachery on the part of the Freemasons at Constantinople, who were in secret agreement with Italian Freemasonry. All the Ottoman troops but 10,000 regulars were withdrawn a year ago and sent to Yemen. They hold Hakki Pasha responsible for this.

“_13th Oct._—Newbuildings. I have been pleased by an affectionate letter written me by George Curzon, a letter in which he recalled the ‘immortal wassail’ of the Crabbet Club. It was to thank me for a small donation I had made toward the rebuilding of the Royal Geographical Society’s rooms. It had given him all the more pleasure ‘because I know it to spring from personal affection which I most heartily and eternally reciprocate. In this respect we remain for ever young.’ Mark Napier and George Wyndham came to shoot, and Belloc dined with us, keeping it up till one o’clock in brilliant talk.

“George told us all the secrets of the intrigue of the ‘Die Hards.’ What started the rebellion against Balfour was a letter, or the draft of a letter, he wrote agreeing to the creation of 160 peers to pass the Parliament Bill. This George Curzon, when he read it, dramatically tore up, exclaiming ‘That won’t do’; and this made the support he later gave Balfour all the more unaccountable, and hence the anger of the secessionists against him. Now George declares that, with the exception of Curzon and Long, they have all the Tory party with them of those that count and nine-tenths of the rest, still ‘Arthur will not resign.’ Mark and I think it is rather a dispute about nothing, as there is no chance of the Tory party getting back into office at any nameable date, though Belloc says they have a chance if they will attack the Insurance Bill boldly. This George says they intend to do.

“We had a grand discussion later about Morocco and Tripoli, and the chances of a European war. George’s view of the situation is this. He says that it is absolutely known to him through his former connection with the War Office that it was part of the Entente with France that, in case of war with Germany, an English contingent of 160,000 men should be placed on the Continent in support of the French Army. It was intended that this should operate at Antwerp, but later the plan was changed, and now the extreme north-west of the French line from Calais would be the scene of the English operations. The German plan of campaign, which he has also been shown, is to have a very extended line of attack, which should include southwards Western Switzerland, the main attack on France being intended from the southern end of the line. This the addition of the English contingent would enable the French army to meet. George declares he has seen the plans of military railroads already made in Switzerland in accordance with an arrangement concluded some years ago with the Swiss Government. We asked him what inducement had been offered to Switzerland for this, and he said that the Swiss Government was to be rewarded on the Italian frontier with those portions of the Italian Kingdom which ran up into the Swiss Cantons, and parts of Savoy. Italy had for some time past been dropping out of the Triple Alliance, and Germany no longer counts on her.

“I asked George whether in the late crisis about Agadir troops would have been landed in France, and he said that orders had been given for an expedition, though it was no longer possible to send more than 80,000 men instead of 160,000. These would have been placed under the nominal command of General French, though the man they really relied on at the War Office was another General (I forget his name) in whom George himself has full confidence. He says that when the Emperor William was here for the Queen’s Memorial, he, Wilhelm, expostulated with King George for interfering between Germany and France, and used the words ‘We wish to be friends with England, but if you force us, beware. Remember that Germany’s sword is sharp.’

“We three shot Buzland’s and Sheppard’s beats, and got nineteen wild pheasants, with 166 rabbits. George and all of us shot extremely well, notwithstanding our overnight discussions, the day hot as summer.

“_15th Oct. (Sunday)._—George went away early to London, being busy with his leadership of the ‘Die Hards’ and the Constitution of the new Halsbury Club. Mark and I have talked over George’s political prospects which we agree might yet be retrieved in his party if he could only be less self-indulgent. He is the imaginative brain of them all, having engineered the whole revolt against Balfour, and might have the Leadership if he would amuse himself less. As it is, he is likely to have to play second to dull men like Austen Chamberlain, and whipper- snappers like F. E. Smith. We have both spoken seriously to George about it, and I lectured Mark about his own imperialistic doctrines, arguing that after all honesty would be the best policy in foreign politics if they would only believe it. He is to spend a week at Glen with Grey, and I am anxious he should represent a more respectable view of Egyptian and other Eastern questions in the talks they are sure to have together. The Glen influence is a bad one for Grey. I asked Mark what his opinion of Grey was. He said he had seen much of him formerly on political platforms, and that he used to be a stupid fellow and a dull speaker, but had ‘greatly improved,’ he was ignorant and a second-rate man, though personally charming and most distinguished.

“_16th Oct._—The most important news of the last few days has been the revolution in China. It seems to be much on the lines of the Tai Ping rebellion which Gordon suppressed fifty years ago, a rising of the true Chinese against their Manchu rulers, only the present movement is led by a highly civilized and Europeanized young man, the same who was not long ago arrested and held captive at the Chinese Embassy in London and liberated in deference to English protests. The revolt has already affected a third of the Empire, with all the Central part, including Hankau.

“_17th Oct._—Worth Forest. Terence was here this afternoon. Talking of Tripoli he tells me that there is little prospect of any determined opposition being made to the Italians by the native Tripolitans. The Turks were so unpopular that they would have welcomed strangers against these only they would rather it had been any other than the Italians. Fanaticism, he says, is dead in North Africa, it being recognized that resistance to Christendom is useless. The Senussia may show some fight in the desert but not the people of Fezzan, who are traders and care little for anything except money. The Italians are less liked than any other of the Europeans. Terence is more likely to know about these things than any Englishman I know, and he is probably right. If so the case is a very hopeless one. Terence does not believe in the rumoured intention of our Government annexing Egypt. Annexation is not in the English programme, as it is found much more advantageous to govern Mohammedan lands indirectly through a Moslem prince. It is not any scruple of morality that prevents annexation, only a calculation of interest. My book, ‘Gordon at Khartoum,’ is being well reviewed.

“_19th Oct._—There is a scare at Berlin and Vienna that Egypt was to be annexed, but it is denied officially here and seems really to have had no foundation. I had a letter from Winston yesterday saying that he wanted to come here for a night and have a talk. He says in it, ‘I am glad to find that my belonging to a Government wicked enough to send Lord Kitchener to Egypt has not altered our relations.’

“People in Egypt are subscribing to the war in Tripoli, and the Indian Mohammedans have taken it up.

“_23rd Oct._—Ryan came, and with him Malony, fresh from Persia. Malony is engaged to marry a daughter of Sir Francis Elliot, our Minister at Athens. About Persia he is very hopeless, not on account of the Persians themselves, but because of Grey, who has sold them to Russia. The Russian Government is determined they shall not recover financially or politically, and Barclay, our English Minister at Teheran, is instructed by the Foreign Office to play into their hands, though he personally would help them. The British Government is reinforcing the Legation guard at Teheran with 200 troops from India, which will be a new pretext with the Russians for increasing their garrisons. Malony has been seeing much of my old friend the Bakhtiari Chief, Ali Kuli Khan, now holding the title of Sardar Assad, who Malony says often talks of me, and is a man of great ability. [He travelled with us for three weeks from Haïl to Bagdad in 1879. See ‘A Pilgrimage to Nejd.’]

“_25th Oct._—Cabinet changes are announced. Winston goes to the Admiralty, which will be an advantage to him as helping him out of infinite hot water he is in at the Home Office. I am writing to congratulate him, and have expressed a hope that if he bombards a town it will be Naples or Messina, rather than Constantinople or Jeddah. The Turks and Arabs have been fighting the Italians well at Benghazi, and at Tripoli the Turkish army has followed the same programme as Arabi’s did at Alexandria. It has retired out of reach of the ships’ guns, and is harassing the Italians on shore. At Constantinople the Parliament has met, and is for continuing the war. The Italians have committed atrocities in the way of drumhead court martials just as Beresford did in 1882.

“_27th Oct._—Winston answers me from the Admiralty through Eddy Marsh, his private secretary. ‘Winston wishes me to thank you and to say that he is very busy settling down here, but hopes to come and see you as soon as he can. Your wishes as to bombardments have been noted in the Department, and every care will be taken to prevent mistakes.’ I fear Winston is still on the best of terms with Grey, as I see in the papers that Grey stood godfather with F. E. Smith to Winston’s son and heir, the new Randolph, yesterday.

“_31st Oct._—The atrocities committed by the Italians at Tripoli have passed all that have ever been heard of for a century. On the pretext that the Arab inhabitants of the palm groves behind the town joined the Turkish army in its attack on the Italian troops, the whole of the native population, men, women, and children have been exterminated, to the number, it is reported, of 4,000 persons. This is absolutely against the laws of war, and puts the Italians in a position of piracy which Europe will hardly tolerate. They seem to have been pretty soundly beaten in the fighting and have been obliged to retire inside the town. The Italians are a cowardly people, utterly vicious and corrupt, and this cruelty is a part of their nature. It will deprive them of any right to pose as the champions of civilization in this war or of Christianity, while it will unite all the Moslem world against them and against England and France, who are supporting them. I ought to say, perhaps, the English and French Governments, for public opinion both here and in Paris condemns them. The Catholic bishops in Italy have declared themselves in favour of the war as a crusade, and it is said the Pope supports it, though Patrick Butler, who is staying with me, strenuously denies this. If true, I can only say what I have never in my life said, or thought to say, ‘To Hell with the Pope.’

“These abominable doings have been overshadowed by a still more important event in the world, a revolution in China, which is being entirely successful on the lines of the Turkish revolution of 1908.

“_3rd Nov._—Poor Lady Colin Campbell is dead.

“_4th Nov._—The news from Tripoli is sickening. A young English officer serving with the Turkish army as volunteer has telegraphed how he and another Englishman, a correspondent of the ‘Daily Mirror,’ were with the Turkish troops when they reoccupied the oasis outside Tripoli, and how they found hundreds of women’s corpses mutilated in the mosque with children’s corpses, the work of these cowardly Italian ruffians. It is the most hideous story ever told about any war, and must I think force our infamous Foreign Office to intervene, although Grey and Asquith have both been excusing the Italian Government in Parliament, and refusing all information. The Turks now have reoccupied the outer forts of Tripoli, and are summoning the Italians to surrender. The Italian fleet has sailed away, it is said, to do new murder in the Ægean, but I cannot think that this will be allowed. Good may yet come out of this monstrous evil, for there will be a revulsion of feeling, and the world will see how hideous Christianity has become divorced from its beliefs, a mere religion of rapine.

“Stead has written again asking me to attend a meeting he is getting up at Whitehead’s Tabernacle against the Italians. The November number of ‘Egypt’ is out, and will probably be suppressed at Cairo. I have promised Stead to get him a handsome subscription if he adopts my programme of coercing Italy, but I do not trust the man. One never knows whether there may not be some Russian intrigue at the back of his philanthropic agitations.

“_8th Nov._—The Italian horror gets worse and worse as more news comes in. Grey, in order to distract attention from Tripoli has come forward with a statement in explanation of our relations with Germany, and the newspapers are away after this new hare. It is an old trick he has played more than once, for though an ignoramus in foreign politics he knows exactly how to deal with the House of Commons. I am preparing my letter to Stead as a pamphlet, and shall call it ‘The Italian Horror.’