The following pages were written mainly as a record for myself of days
in which one’s private interest crossed a wider national interest, and
which therefore seemed worthy of being set down with some care and
faithfulness. In passing them for publication now it is necessary for
me to apologise for their incompleteness in certain particulars. That
incompleteness is due to no fault of mine. It has been arranged to
rectify this by an edition at a subsequent date, when the contrast of
edition with edition will reveal other matters relative to these days.