THE FRENCH INVADE MOROCCO
“_2nd Jan._, 1911.—The birthday honours list gives Jameson a baronetcy
who ought to have had a rope.
“_3rd Jan._—There has been a battle between the police, helped by sixty
men of the Scots Guards on the one hand, and two men on the other,
described as anarchists and assassins, who defended themselves in a
house in the East End of London for a whole day. Winston in his
character of Home Secretary put himself in command of the forces of the
Crown, and advanced under fire.
“_12th Jan._—Farid Bey has returned to Cairo and is to be prosecuted for
an introduction he wrote some time ago to one Ghyati’s poems. Also
Ismaïl Abaza, the only independent member, has been turned out of his
place in the General Assembly. All this is disheartening. There is much
discussion at Paris, Berlin and Petersburg as to the meaning of the
Potsdam arrangement made between Germany and Russia about Persia. It
would seem directed against the Anglo-French Entente, but does it not
also mean a further division of the spoils in Asia and Egypt? The danger
we have to face is a possible Anglo-German Entente. This would be fatal
and final—may God forbid it. [Compare Dr. Dillon’s ‘Eclipse of Russia.’]
“_26th Jan._—Farid has been sentenced at Cairo to six months’
imprisonment, a really outrageous sentence, for having written a few
words of introduction in a volume of poems, one of which contained
praise of Wardani. His defence is that he never read the poems, and
being a very busy man it is more than likely that that is the fact. The
sentence was, no doubt, dictated by Gorst to the Assize Judge whom he
appointed to deal with the case. It is just the same old way of
manipulating the law in political cases we used to know in Ireland.
“Dilke is dead. I hardly know what to say of him except that he was in
politics, what I most distrust, a Radical Imperialist. The extreme
Radicals here had come to look upon him as one of their stalwarts, and
only a few days ago Mackarness wrote to me proposing him as Chairman of
a new Egyptian Committee, knowing nothing of his past history at the
Foreign Office in 1882. Dilke remained very secretive about Egypt,
speaking constantly in the House on every other subject but not on this.
I advised Mackarness to ask Dilke whether he repented of his Egyptian
sin, and he did so and found him unrepentant. Dilke was possessed, as
the papers say of him, of ‘an almost encyclopædic knowledge’ on foreign
affairs especially, but he had long ceased to be a force in the House of
Commons though made use of now and then. The scandal of his connection
with the Crawford divorce suit stood always in the way of his regaining
office, and he had no wit or personal charm to attract to him a party
below the gangway. Politically and morally he seems to have formed
himself on the model of his friend Gambetta, a republican at home and an
Imperial expansionist abroad. It is not for me to cast a stone at him
for anything but his betrayal of Egypt to the Jews in 1882. Peace be
with him.
“_27th Jan._—Cotton, Mackarness, Rutherford and Rothstein came to tea
with me, to arrange about our Egyptian Committee, of which I am to be
Chairman, and our monthly newspaper, ‘Egypt.’ We are to publish a first
number as soon as possible.
“_28th Jan._—Lunched in Eccleston Square with Winston and Clementine;
Birrell also there, and we renewed acquaintance on the ground of my
former friendship with his father-in-law, Frederick Locker, and my
character as a poet. Birrell has a pleasant reputation in the House of
Commons as a gay trifler, covering his personal appearance of pedagogue
to the extent that his style of wit has been called ‘Birrellism,’ and he
made play on these lines in conversation during our meal, his forehead
still dotted with sticking-plaster, as sign manual of his adventure with
the suffragettes three months ago. I made him give a narrative of this.
He had been walking home alone, he said, and was crossing the open space
by the Duke of York’s column when he suddenly found himself in the
middle of a group of wild women who thrust their ugly faces close to his
and told him he was a bad, wicked man for not giving them the vote, and
hustled him so that he had to defend himself with his umbrella,
ineffectively, as they caught hold of his arms and the struggle between
them lasted six or seven minutes. Then a weak knee which he had gave way
and he fell down and was helpless, until Lionel Earle, who happened to
be passing in a motor, stopped and rescued him. He was considerably
mauled, and has been more or less on the sick list ever since. The
recollection of it excited him and he talked of it with resentment, and
now he had come to Churchill for sympathy and to consult how to meet the
assaults to be expected at the opening of Parliament on Monday. I was
sworn to secrecy while they discussed their plans of action. [On account
of my oath I do not transcribe it here.] My contribution to the
conversation was that I suggested that instead of being forcibly fed,
which savoured too much of the ways of the Spanish Inquisition, the
imprisoned women should have their own meals and their own medical
attendants, and that the Ritz Hotel should be engaged for their
accommodation, also that if I were a Cabinet Minister I would promise
everything and do nothing. Also that if assaulted as Birrell had been I
would go down on my knees and say ‘Ladies, have mercy on me, I am a poor
weak man and appeal to your chivalry; spare me in consideration of my
sex.’
“From this we went on to Ireland, about which Birrell was sensible and
interesting. He confirmed all that Dillon had told me about the improved
condition of the small farmers and especially of the labourers, for whom
cottages had been built. These had given superior ideas of comfort to
all. He also praised the new local administration which had superseded
the old system. It was surprising, he said, how quickly the small
tradesmen in the towns, who now managed it, have picked up the way of
dealing with local matters. The only real difficulty now in Home Rule
was the financial one, caused by the old age pensions. The English
Treasury would have to provide two more millions yearly for this, and
forego all charge for army or navy or interest on the National Debt.
Birrell, however, foresees great difficulty in getting certain sections
of the Liberal party to agree to Home Rule on these generous lines. Much
would depend on how the Irish received the King on the occasion of his
visit to Dublin in the summer. If the King were not well received it
would be difficult to pass a Home Rule Bill. The whole thing depended
for its value to us on our getting the Irish to join with us in loyalty
to the Empire. I pricked up my ears at this but said nothing. I am sorry
to find that Winston is getting more and more Imperialist. I asked what
the King’s personal feeling was about Home Rule, and he said it was
favourable. ‘It is a common mistake,’ he said, ‘to suppose that the late
King was more in favour of it than the present King. The contrary is the
case. All King Edward would listen to was “something in the way of
councils,” whereas this one has quite colonial views about it. He is
altogether colonial about Home Rule and the Empire.’ It is useful to
know this, but is of evil omen to that other half of the British Empire
where my interest lies, the coloured half. As I was going away Churchill
called to me, ‘What will you say to our making a large increase in the
Cairo garrison and putting the expense of it on Egypt as a result of
your inflammatory pronouncements?’ ‘You may keep 100,000 men there if
you like,’ I said, ‘It will make no difference to the result.’
“_30th Jan._—Called on Weardale at his house in Carlton House Terrace
and asked him to join our Egyptian Committee. Our manifesto he entirely
approves, but like all of them, he is afraid of offending Grey by
putting his name to it. He looks upon Grey as an ignorant commonplace
man, quite incapable in foreign affairs, but he, Weardale, is interested
in the question of the Declaration of London, and dares not quarrel with
him on that account.
“_1st Feb._—We launched the manifesto about our paper ‘Egypt’ this
morning, with my sole name on it as provisional Chairman, none of my
fellow Committeemen being willing to attach their signatures. English
Radicals are timorous folk. Parliament met yesterday. The principal
incident was a protest made by one Ginnell, an Independent Irish
Nationalist, against the system of excluding private members from all
opportunity of speech.
“_5th Feb. (Sunday)._—Two young Egyptians, came from Oxford to see me.
They described the régime of political terror at Cairo as closely
resembling what I remember there in 1883, the city honeycombed with
spies, with delation, arrests and imprisonments under the new Press Law.
They told me also that two months ago the German Consul General at
Cairo, Prince Hatzfeldt, issued an invitation to young Egyptians to go
for their education to Berlin. This was published in the ‘Mowayyad.’
“Later Dillon looked in. I urged him to bring forward the subject of
Egypt in the Debate on the Address to-morrow, but he tells me Redmond
would not support any attack on Grey just now, nor will the Irish Party
move any amendment. The Labour members cannot be relied on. They are
choosing Ramsay Macdonald as their leader. Talking about Ireland he said
the King’s visit was most unfortunate; he would be badly received in
Dublin, but the King had insisted upon going there. Ginnell he described
as a clever but quite wild man, who would not conform to the rules of
the House of Commons. They had had to carry him out of the House on one
occasion by the arms and legs. At one time he had been his, Dillon’s,
private secretary. Of Birrell he has a high opinion.
“Meynell tells me the Pope has forbidden mixed marriages in Ireland
unless solemnized by Catholic rite, and has made the rule retrospective.
This will raise trouble, and is contrary to all the formerly received
canon law, where the declared consent of the parties followed by
consummation was considered to constitute a binding marriage even
without any religious ceremony.
“_6th Feb._—I have been arranging Lytton’s letters to me, some two
hundred of them, a really wonderful series, from 1865 to 1891, when he
died. They are as good as Byron’s or Shelley’s, and far better than
Trelawney’s, whose letters to Clare and Mary Shelley I have just been
reading. These last are disappointing, being for the most part very
badly written; the older ones school-boyish, the later less vigorous
than one would have expected from the old buccaneer Trelawney posed as
being. Both these women seem to have played with him; Mary certainly
did, and it does not appear from the letters that with Clare there was
anything more than a single brief passionate episode, never quite
realized.
“_9th Feb._—Rumbold and Lascelles lunched with me. We discussed the
fortification of Flushing, which is exercising the minds of diplomatists
just now. I told them of Usedom’s words about the eventual union of
Holland with Germany which interested them. As to the motives that might
induce Holland to unite with Germany, they suggested that the danger to
the Dutch Colonies from the Naval power of Japan might be one, as
Germany might guarantee these to Holland. Rumbold has a poor opinion of
Grey. When the revolution happened at Constantinople he expostulated
with Grey on its recognition by England, but Grey told him he did not
agree with him. There is no doubt Grey entirely misunderstood what was
happening, and was likely to happen. Lascelles told a story about Kaiser
Wilhelm’s infatuation for Lord Lonsdale, whom he regarded as the most
reliable of advisers about English things. Lonsdale had told the Kaiser
once that he, Lonsdale, was in King Edward’s black books on account of
his being unwilling to give up the Kaiser’s friendship. ‘I told the
King, however,’ said Lonsdale, ‘that this I would not do. I was ready to
lay down my life for the Crown as my ancestors had done, but not to
betray my friends.’ This is considered a good joke.
“_13th Feb._—To London to interview Miss Howsin, whom I have engaged at
five pounds a month to edit our paper ‘Egypt’ under my direction. She is
an intelligent young woman of about thirty-five.
“_15th Feb._—To see Maud Allan dance, a great performance, in the Palace
Theatre. It was finer than anything of the kind I have ever seen,
especially the Mænad prancing, which one cannot doubt is a true
reproduction of the old Greek way. She is a very beautiful woman.
“_17th Feb._—Lunched in Downing Street. [I had so far avoided going
there though often asked.] A large casual luncheon party of unexpected
guests, for luncheon is an occasion for Margot’s friends to drop in. I
found myself next to Julia McGuire, with Asquith beyond her, who came in
rather late, and chattered gaily during the meal. I had not seen him to
speak to since he became Prime Minister.
“Phil Burne-Jones dined with me and Meynell and his daughter Viola.
George Wyndham came in immediately after in uniform from the Speaker’s
banquet. He was in one of his most loquacious moods, and entertained us
with theories of Post-Impressionism and art in literature. He out-stayed
the rest and sat on with me well into the night, explaining to me the
troubles of his Conservative Party, which is at sixes and sevens,
Balfour away and no two of the others of the same opinion how to act on
the Veto Bill. ‘In the House of Commons,’ George said, ‘there is an
absolute dearth of ability. The Leadership in Balfour’s absence is
disputed by Walter Long and Austen Chamberlain, a choice of
mediocrities. Both look to Arthur’s succession, and Arthur is tired of
politics and affects to be unwell, though he has nothing at all the
matter with him, and has taken a holiday exactly at the crisis. Walter
is ambitious without ability; Austen plodding and industrious; neither
has any imagination. He, George, is the only one with brains, and he is
standing aside, as he does not care to give up his literature and social
amusements for the mere chance of being some day Prime Minister. Still,
it lies within his reach, he says, if he wishes it, and he wants my
advice. If he goes in for it, it will mean ten hours’ work daily, taking
on three or four Secretaries, spending all his money and abandoning
romance and friendship. What is he to do? If it was a question of saving
the Empire from ruin, he would, of course, do it. But can the Empire be
saved? His plan would be, when Asquith faces them with the Veto Bill to
dare him to do his worst, to say ‘You threaten us with a revolution, we
threaten you with a counter-revolution; create the five hundred peers if
you can, we refuse to have the constitution destroyed.’ If Arthur would
call a meeting in St. James’s Hall and declare war in this way he would
carry the country with him, only Arthur won’t. Arthur is not
sufficiently interested in the issue. He is disgusted with the way
things have gone, he does not want to fight. He takes too scientific a
view of politics. He knows that there was once an ice age, and that
there will some day be an ice age again. This makes him indifferent.’ My
advice to George was that if he cared about it enough to make a real
revolution on these lines it would be worth doing, but that otherwise he
had better enjoy himself.
“_19th Feb. (Sunday)._—Yesterday I stayed in all day writing. I have
done three articles for ‘Egypt,’ the leading article, ‘Secrecy in
Foreign Affairs,’ and ‘The Bagdad Railway,’ besides most of the rest of
the first number. I never had such work.” [The article on “Secrecy in
Foreign Affairs” was the reproduction of an old protest against the ways
of the Foreign Office which I had first made as long ago as 1885 at a
meeting at Islington Hall presided over by Frederic Harrison, and was at
that time a novelty in politics.]
“To-day Dillon came to luncheon and stayed three hours talking. He
approves of all I have written, especially about the Bagdad railway (see
‘Egypt,’ No. 1), and will get the new labour leader, Ramsay MacDonald,
to bring our Egyptian questions forward in Parliament. About home
politics, he told me the Opposition was all at sixes and sevens; they
had no leader. He did not believe in the Lords throwing out the Veto
Bill; the threat of creating the peers would be enough. The King would
write a letter to Asquith promising the necessary number, and the Lords
would give in. Still it all depends upon the King. I told him what I
have often told George—that the obstinacy of the Tory party about
Ireland was like the obstinacy of Pharaoh. They had been refusing for
the last thirty years to let the Irish go, and had sacrificed first the
House of Commons, now the House of Lords, and to-morrow very likely
would sacrifice the Monarchy, and all for nothing. This pleased him. We
talked about Asquith, whose intellectual power he greatly admires,
though he says his range of interest is too narrow to govern an Empire.
For myself I consider that Asquith has always been a wet Home Ruler, if
one at all. Asquith is above all things a lawyer, and knows how to talk
both ways.
“_21st Feb._—With Phil Burne-Jones to his studio. He has done several
nice little portraits on a very modest scale, the best being one of his
father. It is not great art, but respectable and good. He is a pleasant,
good fellow.
“Neville took me in the evening to a prize fight, where four or five
thousand persons had collected to see a battle in gloves between a black
man and a white man. It was very interesting, indeed exciting, as it
involved a question of race superiority. The white man (Lang) was an
English Australian, six feet and an inch high, with an immense width of
shoulders, and limbs which looked as if they could smash everything;
while the black man (Langford) was short, only five foot six, Neville
said, but astonishingly well put together head to heel, lithe and
strong. The contrast in build was great, but that of _morale_ was still
more remarkable, contradicting all my expectations. Lang was nervous,
and though he had never been beaten was manifestly afraid of his enemy,
who from the beginning took the offensive with a quiet, persistent
attack which demoralized the other, and a rapidity of striking power
which left him no chance. At the end of the fifth round Lang was smashed
flat, so that I thought him killed, and though he got up pluckily his
face was a mask of blood, and he staggered like a drunken man. The end
of the fight was disappointing. Lang, to save himself more punishment,
hit a foul blow. The black man, while pommelling him, happened to slip
down on one knee, and Lang struck him while down. This disqualified him
and ended the fight. It was a great triumph for the black, and I was
pleased to see that the feeling of the spectators was mostly on his
side, which was right, for he fought not only fairly, but with a certain
generosity, while the other showed poor courage. Neville tells me the
blacks as fighters have far better nerve than the whites, and are much
more dogged. A fight between two blacks generally goes over forty
rounds.” [The result of this fight was a surprise to me. I had expected
to see a gigantic black man subdued by the scientific persistence and
higher _morale_ of his smaller white opponent, a triumph of white mind
over black matter, but it turned out absolutely the reverse. It was the
black man that wore the white down by superior science and superior
courage.]
“_25th Feb._—We have got our first number of ‘Egypt’ into print, every
word of it written by myself, except a review of Rothstein’s book by Sir
Henry Cotton. Miss Howsin, though enthusiastic and painstaking, is, I
fear, useless as editor, as she has had no literary experience.
“Savarkar’s case has been given in favour of the English demand, which
refuses to send him back to France. I am sorry for the poor young man,
whose real crime in Anglo-Indian official eyes has been his authorship
of the ‘History of the Indian Revolution.’
“_26th Feb. (Sunday)._—Newbuildings. Belloc to dine. Very cock-a-hoop
about the success of his ‘Party System,’ which has come very
opportunely. It is most amusing, though, unlike his books, is written
seriously. He tells me he gets constant letters about it and invitations
to lecture at £20 a night. We discussed, among other things, the
fortification of Flushing, which he declares the French Government would
make a _casus belli_, but I doubt the French fighting for it.
“_28th Feb._—Chapel Street. Beauclerk brought Lord Ronaldshay to
luncheon, a pleasant young man of thirty-five, who has travelled much in
Asia, and is now in Parliament, with aspirations of being some day
Viceroy of India. He was A.D.C. to Curzon for a year, and regards him
with much admiration, though understanding the weak points of his
character. My view of Imperial matters was entirely new to him, as it is
to most people, though it is really forty years old. He, like everybody
else, confuses the meaning of the word Empire, which has only quite
recently been applied to our white colonial system, which is no more
imperial than was the Greek colonial system in the days of Pericles.
Empire properly means what the Roman Empire was, the subjugation of a
number of races by a single race or a single man. This is the
Imperialism I repudiate, not the other.
“_1st March._—Called in Park Lane and found George Wyndham working up a
speech on the Veto Bill. He told me the party had made up its mind to
fight. The Lords would not pass the Bill, whatever threat of creating
peers might be used.
“_2nd March._—There is a new Ministry at Paris, Monis, Prime Minister;
Delcassé, Marine; and Cruppi, Foreign Affairs.
“Mrs. Harrison told me of a luncheon at which her husband had been
present at Morley’s, there being Alfred Lyall also there and Chirol.
Morley had put to them three questions. (1) Was the entente with France
less cordial than when it was made? (2) Was it possible to improve it?
(3) How could it be improved? All but Morley agreed that it had ceased
to be effective; that the French were disappointed at the results, and
that the only thing that could make it effective would be the
introduction of some form of conscription in England which would enable
us to place an army at the service of France in the case of a war with
Germany. Also that it is impossible we should raise such an army. The
Entente is pretty nearly dead.
“_3rd March._—The first number of ‘Egypt’ was distributed this morning,
sixteen hundred copies. It happened to be the bicentenary to a day of
the first issue of Addison’s ‘Spectator.’
“_5th March (Sunday)._—Newbuildings. Belloc to dinner. He assures me
Haldane has not got 50,000 men to send to Egypt if they want to do so.
He thinks it more likely that the condominium will be reestablished
there, with a joint French and English garrison.
“Eddy Tennant has been made a peer (yet another member of the Crabbet
Club arrived at high honours). He is also made Lord Commissioner of the
Church of Scotland.
“_7th March._—There was a pronouncement yesterday in all the papers from
Berlin and from Constantinople, in which it was clearly declared that
England will not be allowed to meddle with the Bagdad railway, a final
blow to Grey and the Foreign Office in exact confirmation of what I had
just written about Grey’s blundering. Happening to meet Belloc, I asked
if he had noticed it, and what would be the result. He said: ‘The danger
is that Grey may make a _coup de tête_ and rush into a war with
Germany.’
“_9th March._—There has been a debate on the Bagdad Railway. Dillon
writes excusing himself for not having taken part in it, but he has
arranged with Ramsay MacDonald that they are to act together.
“_10th March._—With Beauclerk to the National Gallery, where we looked
at the Lansdowne Rembrandt. This, though a good landscape, is not at all
worth the £100,000 Lansdowne has been offered for it, nor, I think,
100,000 pence. It is ridiculous giving long prices of this kind for
small unimportant pictures, however good, and here we have nothing very
wonderful. The new rooms at the Gallery do not display the pictures to
such advantage as the old ones, and the walls are decorated too much
like a railway restaurant.
“_12th March (Sunday)._—Chapel Street. Dillon came to lunch, and we had
another long talk about the Bagdad Railway, Persia, and Egypt. As to
Ireland, he thinks Home Rule will be come to by agreement, the younger
Tories seeing now that their party has been ruined by its obstinacy in
opposing it. He gave an interesting account of the Irish debate on
Thursday, an all night sitting, where, Asquith having been called away,
Churchill was for the first time left Leader of the House. A band of
young Tories, Hugh Cecil, Winterton, Castlereagh, and one or two others,
took the occasion to rag Winston, and succeeded in making him lose his
temper by continual noise and calling out ‘Rats!’ so that he was driven
to a standstill. It is strange to see him thus hoist with his father’s
petard.
“_14th March._—My cousin, Percy Wyndham, George’s father, is dead. Here
is a good photograph of him. It gives all his best qualities of honour
and benignity. I know of no one who in these had his equal. His death
leaves me without anyone now with a right to lecture or reprove me, for
he was my elder by over five years, and had the position with me through
life of an elder brother. George was with him when he died.
“_15th March._—The papers have been full of the Bagdad Railway all the
week, while Grey’s climb-down seems to have satisfied the German
Government, and now he has made another speech about disarmament. Both
speeches are very able, and Dillon tells me that the first about the
railway was admirable in style. Grey has a fine House of Commons manner,
which imposes on his hearers. Indeed, he seems to fulfil the ideal of
British statesmanship as it is described by Wells in his ‘New
Macchiavelli,’ a dignified attitude which is always ready under pressure
‘proudly and quite firmly to take the second place.’ The ‘Temps,’
however, calls his disarmament speech childish, which is also true,
inasmuch as it does not deal with the reality, that in order to
economize in war preparations you must have a peace policy abroad. It is
impossible to run high Imperialism on the cheap.
“As to Bagdad, I see Curzon has given notice of a motion in the House of
Lords to move for papers. This ought to clear the atmosphere and bring
to light at last the text of his secret treaty with Mubarak at Koweit in
1899. I have been looking through my diaries of 1898, and find that at
the time of Curzon’s going to India the young Tories, of whom he was the
leader on foreign affairs, looked to a partition of the Ottoman Empire
between England, Russia, and Germany, England to have the Arabic
speaking provinces. Curzon’s intrigue with Mubarak was one of his first
moves in preparation for it. My chief fear now is least the German
Government may after all weaken in its Bagdad policy and come to terms
with England for an immediate division of the Ottoman spoils. There was
a little paragraph the other day in the papers saying that Frank
Lascelles, who has been passing through Berlin on his way back from
Sweden, dined with the Emperor. May he not have been used by the Foreign
Office to negotiate this?
“_19th March (Sunday)._—Newbuildings. Belloc came to dinner. He says of
Grey’s arbitration alliance with America that such an alliance will
certainly bring about a rapprochement between France and Germany, and
the uniting of all Europe against us. He also says, speaking of the
threatened quarrel between America and Mexico, that the United States
have not a strong enough army to coerce the Mexicans.
“_20th March._—Beauclerk went up to London with me, and we went to his
rooms in Mount Street, where we met a certain Fielding, a mining
engineer, whom he had made acquaintance with in Persia. Beauclerk
explained the position of the Russians with a map on the Chinese
frontier. The Russians have two strong military stations on the
frontier, the one at Tashkend, the other at Kiahta, threatening Kulja
and Urga respectively. The Russian colonists cannot in any way compete
with the Chinese, and it is difficult to see what they want with
extending their Empire in the Chinese direction, except that just over
the frontier towards Kulja there is a valuable coal mine, which they
covet.
“_21st March._—Browne came to luncheon and brought with him Mirza Abdul
Ghaffar, of the Persian Legation, an intelligent man, with whom we
discussed the Persian and other Eastern questions for full three hours.
“_22nd March._—To the House of Lords to hear the debate on Bagdad. It
was a disappointing affair. Curzon made a long, dry, and pompous
exposition of the case, carefully avoiding, however, the point of real
interest, namely, his own intrigue with Mubarak Ibn Sbaa at Koweit. He
just mentioned that place, mispronouncing it Ko-ite (as one might say
‘go right’) instead of Quate, but only to say that it need not be
discussed. His whole speech was a shirking of the real matters in
dispute, and Morley, who followed him, in reply, was only too glad to
leave it so. I never saw anything feebler or less imposing than Morley
showed himself on this occasion, unless it was the same Morley twelve
years ago dealing with Kitchener at Omdurman in the House of Commons. He
seemed ashamed of himself there in the House of Lords, a little old
senile vestryman fumbling with his papers, ignorant of the whole case he
had to state, timid in addressing his brother peers, contradicting
himself and saying the wrong thing, at times quite inaudible. It seemed
absurd that he and Curzon between them had had the whole fortunes of the
British Empire in the East in their hands for the last dozen years, and
that the Empire should have survived it. The debate ended in the _non
sequitur_ of Curzon withdrawing his demand for papers.
“Beauclerk on Sunday repeated to me the account of Major Sykes having
fortified his house at Meshed. When Beauclerk stayed with him there
three years ago, Sykes had 200 Indian Sepoys as his Consular guard, and
he used to drill them daily to rifle practice. Also he had dug a mine
from his garden 100 yards long, passing under the street to that of the
Governor of the town, and had even undermined the Governor’s house. He
learned this from Sykes himself. [A pleasant instance of what
diplomatists call ‘peaceful penetration.’]
“_24th March._—Bain, the author of the ‘Digit of the Moon,’ dined with
me. He is less interesting than his books, a typical Anglo-Indian with
more knowledge than sympathy in Indian things, and no sympathy at all
with modern India.
“_25th March._—Dillon lunched with me to concert measures about ‘Egypt,’
which seems to have been put on the official black list at Cairo. I am
off now to Newbuildings till after Easter.
“_26th March (Sunday)._—Newbuildings. Belloc came to dinner with Maurice
Baring. Baring is intelligent and pleasant, but showed no extraordinary
brilliancy in talk.
“_11th April._—Moberley Bell’s and Alfred Lyall’s deaths are announced
to-day. Bell I never knew personally, but Lyall was for many years my
friend. He died suddenly of _angina pectoris_ at Farringford, where he
was staying, apparently in good health, at the age of seventy-six. He
had a successful Anglo-Indian official life, and twenty years ago was
much cherished in London society; but, as old people are obliged to do,
had dropped out of it latterly, and we had not met for the last eight or
nine years. Without being a poet, he wrote some good verse, and had much
knowledge of the East with as great sympathy for it as an Indian
official dared to show.
“_12th April._—Laid the foundation stone of my new Manor House in Worth
Forest.
“_18th April._—George Howard Lord Carlisle is dead. He was one of the
best of men, as well as one of the most domestically tried.
“_19th April._—Newbuildings. One Duse Mohammed, who has written a good
book on Egypt, cribbed, nearly all of it, from me and Rothstein, came to
see me. He is an odd creature, an Egyptian mulatto, he says, but knowing
no word of Arabic; a Mohammedan, but unable to recite the formula of the
faith; an Egyptian historian with almost no knowledge of Egypt. He tells
me he was circumcised a Mohammedan, that his name is properly Mohammed
Ali Ibn Abd El Salaam, but was taken to England by a Frenchman named
Ducey when he was ten years old, and has only once been in Egypt since,
namely from May 1882 till February 1883, when he returned to England.
There he went on the stage, and later in America, lecturing on
Shakespeare and writing for the Press. To test him I tried whether he
could recite the Fatha, but he was unable to so much as repeat the words
after me. It reminds one of the Tichborne claimant, who, asserting that
he had been brought up a Catholic, was unable to repeat the ‘Hail Mary.’
He has married an English woman and goes sometimes to church, but has
always refused, he tells me, to be baptized.
“_22nd April._—The French Government seems drifting into an invasion of
Morocco, just as Gladstone drifted into invading Egypt in 1882. Our fine
Liberals here are all applauding out of ‘loyalty to France’; this is
their thieves’ honour.
“_25th April._—Rothstein is furious about Duse Mohammed’s appropriation
of his work, which is more flagrant than I thought. Also, I fear, we may
have trouble about the management of our paper, as Keir Hardie wants to
run it his own way. Dillon advises me to get rid of the Committee.
“_28th April._—It has been decided by the Committee that ‘Egypt’ is to
remain under my sole political and financial direction with no other
interference than the advice of an Executive Committee, consisting of
myself, Ryan as Editor, Miss Howsin as Sub-Editor, Dr. Rutherford and El
Alaili. Ryan and Miss Howsin will be paid by me. This leaves me in sole
control.
“_1st May._—Newbuildings. Belloc dined with us last night. He has been
in Germany and has come back more than ever certain that in the next war
the French will beat the Germans. His new paper is to be called ‘The
Witness,’ with £2,000 to start it, and much promised help.
“_6th May._—The event of the past week has been the invasion of Morocco
by the French, a scandalous affair, exactly on the same lines of
financial speculation and Colonial and Imperial intrigue which were
followed by us in Egypt thirty years ago. Belloc tells me that the
French Government has this time defied the German Government. He has
information that a few days ago Delcassé (who manages French Foreign
Policy, though not Minister of Foreign Affairs) had the German
Ambassador at Paris invited, a very unusual thing, to attend a Cabinet
meeting convened to discuss the Moroccan question, and that, on the
Ambassador’s observing that the Algeciras Convention would have to be
respected and that the German Government’s information about Fez was
that there was no danger for Europeans there, Delcassé told him roundly
that France was determined to march on Fez, and this time would do so
whether Germany liked it or no. Belloc declares the French army to be
better than the German, and that Germany will not dare to go to war.
“_7th May (Sunday)._—Chapel Street. Dillon and the Persian Consul,
Ghaffar Khan, came to luncheon, and we had a long talk on Eastern
affairs. Ghaffar would like England and Germany to compose their
differences and unite in an alliance with Turkey and Persia, Turkey
abandoning Egypt to England, a fanciful idea, which would only mean an
end of all things for Islam in Turkey as well as elsewhere. There is but
one chance for Islam, and that is Germany’s friendship, not, of course,
a disinterested one, but still one that would protect them from the
other European Powers until Islam is strong enough to stand alone. I
explained the same thing to an intelligent young Egyptian from Oxford,
Abd el Ghaffar, who came to consult me. He is of St. John’s College. He
tells me there are about eighty young Egyptians in London, who are here
studying.
“Yesterday, while at Newbuildings, three aeroplanes passed over at a
great height, racing from Brooklands to Shoreham. We first heard shouts
of boys and then the rattle of the machines. They were near enough for
us to be able to make out with a glass that there was somebody in each.
The leading one was a monoplane, a much more workmanlike machine than
the others and extremely like a bird. Machinery, however, does not
interest me, and I have not the smallest wish to take a flight in one.
“_11th May._—Worth Forest. Gorst’s Egyptian Report is published, a lame
affair, which will do him little credit. It justifies all I have written
about him and the advice I have given to the Egyptians. He admits that
there was never anything at all serious in his Constitutional reforms.
There is no chance whatever for Egypt, and has not been since 1904,
except in the revival of Turkey’s military power and the intervention of
Europe.
“_14th May (Sunday)._—Newbuildings. Meynell is here, with his nephew,
Captain Butler, of the Royal Irish Fusiliers, Sir William’s son, an
exceedingly nice young fellow, of thirty, with all his father’s anti-
imperial ideas, an unusual phenomenon in a soldier; clever, original, a
Home Ruler and a pious Catholic, who would like to fight for the Pope. I
asked him how he managed to get on with his fellow-officers, having such
ideas. He answered, ‘They do not think, and I play polo.’ He is just
back from India where he saw a good deal of the German Crown Prince, who
was travelling there during the winter. He confirms Philip Napier’s
account of his unconventional ways. The Crown Prince would not pay
attention to the official big-wigs or be bored with German deputations,
but he made great friends with the English officers, ‘messing with them
like a subaltern and playing polo. We all liked him much.’ At Cairo,
according to Napier, he gave great offence, refusing to wear uniform on
solemn occasions or keep tiresome engagements. When he was to visit the
Khedive on one occasion he was not ready, being occupied with a lady,
and sent his Aide-de-camp on in the Khedivial carriage intended for him,
arriving too late himself in a taxicab (with the lady) in a suit of
overalls. Butler understands horses and took an intelligent interest in
everything here.
“_17th May._—Ryan enters on his duties as editor of ‘Egypt’ from the
15th. I like him much.
“_19th May._—A great fuss is being made in London about the Kaiser
Wilhelm’s visit, and a gala representation of that ancient play ‘Money’
is being given in his honour. I only hope this visit to London is not to
be another Reval meeting, with some ‘plot of peace’ involving the ruin
of some Eastern nation. That is always the danger on these gala
occasions. It is easy for robbers to make friends over a corpse, and
Morocco is there ready to their hands.
“_22nd May._—The French Prime Minister, Monis, and the War Minister,
Marceaux, have been, the one killed, the other seriously hurt by an
aeroplane which they were watching the start of in an air race from
Paris to Madrid yesterday. This may make a difference in the political
world, and just possibly save Morocco from being invaded by the French.
May God confound them! I fear it is as Belloc told me, the German
Government have either given in or come to an arrangement about Morocco,
for the occupation of Fez is no longer concealed, the price perhaps of
France’s and Russia’s withdrawal of their opposition to the Bagdad
railway. [Compare Dr. Dillon’s ‘Eclipse of Russia.’]
“_24th May._—The French have entered Fez, it is said, without
opposition, the whole story of Europeans whose lives were reported to be
in danger having proved to be a fable of the same kind as that invented
about Johannesburg at the time of the Jameson raid (N.B.—Jameson has
just been made a knight by our Liberal Government), and now the same
course of lying is to be pursued by the French about remaining there as
we pursued in Egypt.
“_26th May._—There has been a report of a threat issued by the Russian
Government to Turkey in regard to Montenegro, but to-day it is announced
that its arrogant tone is apologized for. Germany once more has
intervened.
“_28th May (Sunday)._—Newbuildings. Shane Leslie, Patrick Butler,
Francis Meynell, and Ryan were here for the week end, and yesterday
Mallock. Young Meynell is clever and interesting, and Butler a good
young man, with no little wisdom too. With Belloc and his wife who came
to dinner, an entirely Catholic party.
“_1st June._—The foolish Lords have passed the Veto Bill, and so have
committed suicide without a division and without glory. Never was a
position so frittered away. Arthur Balfour is principally responsible
for this, acting on the advice of the two Whig deserters, Rosebery and
Lansdowne. If he had stood firm two years ago and risked a civil war he
would have had all the physical force of the country with him, and
popular opinion, at least in England, too. There would have been no
civil war, and he would have come back to office and stayed there for
twenty years. It was the Whig obstinacy about Home Rule in Ireland that
prevented it, and has caused their ruin.
“_6th June._—A young Copt, Louis Aknoukh Fanous, came to consult me as
to how to bring about a reconciliation between the Copts and Moslems in
Egypt, in which I was very ready to help on two conditions—that the
Copts should declare themselves (1) honestly for evacuation and (2) for
the maintenance of the connection with the Ottoman Empire. He told me
that the younger generation of Copts were quite ready for this. They did
not want foreign rule, or to be separated from the Empire, where they
were more at home than they would be in any European hands. Only they
insisted that in their schools they should not be forced to learn to
read out of the Koran, and that they should have Sunday as their holiday
in the public offices, and should have a share in the provincial
administration. I promised to speak to the Nationalist leaders about
this. The young man is extremely intelligent, speaks English perfectly,
and took a degree in Oxford three or four years ago. His father is one
of the richest and most influential Christians in Upper Egypt.
“_11th June (Sunday)._—There is more trouble brewing in Albania, the
Catholic Mirdites having joined the Rebellion, and the Austrian
Government having issued a warning of a moderating kind to Turkey. It
would alarm me more if there was not news from Berlin which seems to
show that the Turks are still backed by Germany. Goltz has publicly
expressed his entire confidence in the Ottoman army, and the Emperor
William is to receive a deputation from the Ottoman Parliament. But for
this I should say the situation was very serious. The Bellocs dined with
us and Cecil Chesterton, with whom he is collaborating his paper, ‘The
Witness.’ They have asked me for some verse, and I have given them my
‘Coronation Ode.’ Belloc is delighted with it, and will print it on the
first page of his paper.
“_14th June._—There is a new complication in Morocco, the Spanish
Government having sent troops into the country in exact imitation of the
French.
“_15th June._—Newbuildings. Yusuf Bey el Moelhi and a friend, Doctor
Rashad, arrived to consult me in Egyptian affairs. He is all for
alliance with Constantinople and Berlin, and is starting for Berlin to-
morrow. He complains of the inefficiency of Hatzfeldt, the German
Consul-General at Cairo, and of the little pains taken by him to
strengthen German influence. Yusuf Bey is intelligent and patriotic,
but, like most of them, looks to money as the main object in life. It is
only the younger generation which has larger ideas. He has had my
‘Secret History’ translated at his own cost, but doubts whether it
will not be seized under the new Press laws.
“_17th June._—The Albanian quarrel seems arranged, and the Sultan
recited the prayer yesterday at the tomb of Sultan Mourad at Kossovo,
80,000 Albanian clansmen praying with him.
“_19th June._—Dr. Rifaat, a Nationalist exile, arrived from Paris; he,
too, to consult me. He is an extremist in his views, very hostile to the
Khedive, and without much confidence from any quarter in the future. He
looks upon the Ottoman connection as the best chance for Egypt, but is
gloomy about the Ottoman Empire. The Egyptians are easily cast down,
just as they are too ready to shout victory.
“_20th June._—Drove over to Greatham to call on Meynell at his new home
there, a most beautiful site. He has just secured between Parham Park
and the Amberly Marshes eighty acres of waste land, where he intends to
found a family colony, wild heath, overgrown with fern, for which he has
paid no more than £20 an acre. We found him in high delight at his
sudden good fortune as a landed proprietor, a good fortune he deserves,
and made our picnic under a clump of hollies, discussing the sites of
cottages he intends to build.
“Belloc’s paper is published under the title ‘The Eye Witness,’ with my
‘Coronation Ode’ occupying the most prominent position.
“_21st June._—Old Riaz Pasha is dead, the last of the old Pasha gang in
Egypt. He began life as a dancing boy of Jewish origin at the Court of
Abbas I, and has ended in high consideration and respect, though his
subservience to English policy had lost him latterly the popularity he
enjoyed twenty years ago, a patriot according to his lights, but these
were never clear. I liked him personally much. _Allah kerim_.
“_22nd June._—Coronation Day. We drank the King’s health and the Queen’s
and all the Royal Family’s, not, I fear, very devoutly.
“_28th June._—Hassan Bey Sabri, an old disciple of Abdu’s, came to see
me. He belongs, if anybody in Egypt does, to the English party,
expecting to be one of the nominated members of the Legislative Council,
and is a follower of Saad Zaghloul. He thinks there is some new Liberal
policy being planned for Egypt. Gorst, poor fellow, is dying, and his
successor is to be Arthur Hardinge, and if the Nationalists will only be
quiet, and not oppose English policy, something in the way of a
Constitution will be given them. Personally I always liked Gorst, and
used to find him more amenable to my ideas than Cromer, but he has
proved a bad friend to Egypt, because, knowing her better than Cromer,
he was better able to betray. Arthur Hardinge is a man of the same
school, both having been Cromer’s pupils, Hardinge probably the cleverer
of the two. The Legislative Council will be allowed to pass laws, and
even to control finance, as far as these relate to internal affairs. I
asked him what his ultimate plan was, and he said he wanted evacuation,
but not yet. I found him an honest man but timid, and as such in favour
of half measures. Talking about Mohammed Abdu’s death and in answer to
my question whether he thought the Mufti had been poisoned, he said he
was sure of it. He had been with Abdu at Alexandria on the 13th of June
(Abdu died on 11th July) and he had suspicions then which have since
been confirmed. He believed the same plan had been pursued with Abdu as
with Seyyid Jemal ed Din, cancer had been communicated by means of a
poisoned toothpick.
“_2nd July (Sunday)._—There is a sensational announcement in the
‘Observer’ of the landing of German troops in Morocco. Belloc, who dined
with us, declared the French Government will not fight. The French
Government are in the throes of the reconstruction of their Cabinet,
Monis having resigned, and the moment has been well chosen by the
Germans for their coup.
“_5th July._—The ‘Daily Telegraph’ has a paragraph saying that Kitchener
is to have Gorst’s place at Cairo.
“_7th July._—The position in Morocco is very serious. I have been
talking it over with Belloc. He is sure there has been an understanding
between the German and French Governments about Agadir, and that the
quarrel will be settled at our English expense. Agadir, he says, is of
great importance to Germany, as the only possible seaport on the
Moroccan Atlantic coast, and is of no importance to France in any
hostile sense. The hostility is all towards us. Also he says that the
French and Germans are too much afraid of each other to go to war, and
that France will not join us in any attempt to expel Germany from its
African position (at Agadir) unless we can guarantee her the support of
a hundred and fifty thousand men landed on her frontier in France, a
force we are unable to provide. We shall have therefore to make up our
minds either to submit to the German seizure of Agadir or to go to war
with Germany alone or find her compensation elsewhere. Where can we find
such? Our Government seems aware of the position, for Asquith made a
declaration yesterday in Parliament that England had interests of her
own in Morocco separate from those entailed on her by her engagements to
France. The question may possibly lead to war, though more likely to
Germany’s keeping Agadir.”
[This shows, as an early link, the connection between France’s invasion
of Morocco in 1911 and the great war of 1914, with the part we played in
it as France’s ally, supplying a contingent in a land campaign against
Germany.]
“_9th July (Sunday)._—Lady Gregory is here. She has been very successful
this year with her plays, having cleared £500 by her theatrical visit to
London, and got £3,000 of subscriptions, while Yeats has received a
Government pension of £150. The King and Queen are in Ireland, where
they are having a loyal reception carefully prepared for them, though
the Dublin Corporation has refused to vote a penny or authorize an
address.
“Belloc dined with us. His view that the occupation of Agadir was
arranged beforehand between the French and German Governments seems the
correct one. They seem to be on excellent terms with each other, and it
is we that are to be left out in the cold. There is sufficient danger of
war to have made me write to my bankers about it.
“_11th July._—Newbuildings. The anniversary of the Bombardment of
Alexandria. Miss Howsin came from King’s Mead, where she is staying with
Mrs. Mackarness, to talk over the affairs of ‘Egypt.’ I hear from Osman
Ghaleb that the Khedive is making overtures of reconciliation to the
Nationalist Party, being angry at the idea of Kitchener being re-imposed
on him to succeed Gorst. When one remembers their quarrel in 1893, and
how Kitchener, being in the Khedive’s service as Commander-in-Chief of
his army, left Egypt for South Africa without having so much as the
politeness to take leave at the Palace, one wonders at his having been
sent back to Cairo by the Foreign Office. I have drawn up a resolution
to be issued by the Egyptian Committee protesting against Kitchener’s
appointment.
“_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.’
“_9th Nov._—Half-a-dozen foolish Major Generals have written to the
‘Pall Mall Gazette,’ outraged at my ‘Gordon at Khartoum,’ saying they
are going to memorialize the Lord Chancellor with a view to my being
deprived of my functions as Justice of the Peace in the County of
Sussex. These wise men have not stopped to enquire whether I have any
such function to be deprived of, their anger being caused by a passage
which they consider vilifies the British Army. I shall let them run on
and make fools of themselves for awhile.
“_12th Nov. (Sunday)._—Beauclerk just returned from his gold digging in
Alaska. He and Belloc dined with us. The sensation of the moment is that
the Tory Party has decided to elect as its leader, in succession to
Arthur Balfour, who resigned last week, one Bonar Law. It appears that
the old Tories would not stand Austen Chamberlain for the place, and the
Tariff Reformers would not stand Walter Long, and this Law is a
compromise.
“_13th Nov._—Worth Forest. The Ottoman Government has remonstrated to
the European Powers about the Italian atrocities as a breach of the
rules of war, but these have answered that they are ‘unable to take
action.’ It is certain that the Tripoli raid was arranged beforehand
with France and England at the time of the Agadir business. I am less
sure about Germany. [It is now known that the German Government did not
approve of the raid. The French had agreed to it with Italy as a
‘compensation’ to Italy for their own misdeeds in Morocco. Our Foreign
Office approved, seeing in it a means of detaching Italy from the Triple
Alliance. A scoundrel affair as ever was perpetrated.]
“_15th Nov._—Worth Forest. There was a debate yesterday in the House of
Commons about my book, ‘Gordon at Khartoum,’ in which Colonel Seely,
representing the War Office, used strong language, and undertook to
approach the Lord Chancellor with a view to having me removed from the
Commission of the Peace and from my position as Deputy Lieutenant of the
County, neither of which dignities has ever been mine. It is all very
absurd, and now I shall answer. I had just sat down to write one when a
young man named Duckworth arrived, much bedraggled by the rain, after a
long wandering to find me in the Forest, and asked for an interview on
the subject for the ‘Daily News.’ I gave him tea, but no information.
“_17th Nov._—My reply to Seely is printed in the ‘Daily News,’ ‘Daily
Mail,’ and other morning papers. The gallant Generals are more angry
than ever at having made fools of themselves, and there is talk of their
getting the law strengthened, so as to prevent criticism of the Army.
“_18th Nov._—The post has brought me a number of anonymous abusive
letters, with others of congratulation on my reply to Seely.
“I have just finished reading the first volume of Count Paul
Hoensbroech’s ‘Fourteen Years a Jesuit,’ which interests me enormously,
though his attitude of antagonism to the Society is not mine. Still I
know enough of Jesuitism to recognize his narrative as in the main true.
For instance, I remember well a terrible ‘retreat’ given at Stonyhurst,
in which the physical horrors of hell were emphasized in detail just as
he describes them, and there are a hundred small points of discipline I
recognize as exact, while also the general spiritual atmosphere of the
place is vividly reproduced. The Jesuit novitiate is the most mentally
crushing process ever invented, and I remember well meeting William Kerr
on the first day of his release from I forget how many years of absolute
seclusion. It was at some function of the Redemptorist Convent at
Clapham, and I walked back with him from it across the Common, I think
to Putney, and he told me something of his life as a novice. He was like
an owl that had wandered out into the daylight, an absolutely different
man from what I had known him before his experience. This must have been
somewhere in the seventies.
“_22nd Nov._—George Curzon made an excellent speech the other day at a
Persian dinner, and I have written to him, urging him to take up the
Mohammedan cause as champion of Islam.
“_25th Nov._—Newbuildings. The recent attacks on me and my book are
causing it to sell well, and we are printing an extra 200 copies.
Meynell arrived for the week end with Housman, author of ‘The Shropshire
Lad,’ and we had a poetical evening, Meynell reading us ‘Modern Love’
with a running commentary, an excellent entertainment, as good as the
best of lectures.
“_26th Nov. (Sunday)._—I took Housman for a walk and asked him how he
had come to write his early verses and whether there was any episode in
his life which suggested their gruesome character, but he assured me it
was not so. He had lived as a boy in Worcestershire, not in Shropshire,
though within sight of the Shropshire hills, and there was nothing
gruesome to record. He shows no trace now of anything romantic, being a
typical Cambridge Don, prim in his manner, silent and rather shy,
conventional in dress and manner, learned, accurate, and well-informed.
He is professor there of Latin, talking fairly well, but not brilliantly
or with any originality, depressed in tone, and difficult to rouse to
any strong expression of opinion. Nevertheless, I like him, and with
Meynell’s help we got him to discuss his own poems, though he refused
absolutely to read them out. He read instead one of mine, in response to
my having read one of his, the one I like best, ‘Is My Team Ploughing?’
I have a great admiration for his ‘Shropshire Lad,’ on account of its
ballad qualities and the wonderful certainty in his choice of exactly
the right word. We had much pleasant talk all day, and sat up again till
twelve at night telling ghost stories. He takes an interest in these.
Housman’s personal appearance is one of depression and indifferent
health. He does not smoke, drinks little, and would, I think, be quite
silent if he were allowed to be.
“_28th Nov._—Grey has made his promised declaration on foreign affairs,
avoiding, as I thought he would, all dealing with the Tripoli
atrocities, or explanation as to whether he knew of the intended raid.
All he said was that the attitude of the Government was one of
neutrality and non-intervention, and that he had no ‘_official_’
information of the barbarities committed on either side.
“_29th Nov._—Russia has sent a new ultimatum to Persia demanding the
dismissal of Schuster [an American who had for two years been working
successfully to reorganize Persian finance, too successfully to please
the Russian Government], complete control at Teheran, and an indemnity.
This means the conquest of Persia, and already Russian troops have
marched. The old Shah will probably be restored, and North Persia
Cromerised after the fashion of Egypt. It is an infamy for which Grey is
responsible.
“_2nd Dec._—The Persian Government has refused the Russian ultimatum,
denouncing at the same time the perfidy of England. This is the only
dignified way to take it, and though it sounds desperate, the best
chance for the Persians of saving their national life. It is just
possible there may be a revulsion of feeling in this country which may
upset Grey, though it is unlikely, and a new policy substituted
favourable to Islam.
“_5th Dec._—The Russians are invading Persia. McCullagh, the war
correspondent in Tripoli for the ‘New York World’ and ‘The Westminster
Gazette,’ an excellent Irishman from Tyrone, came to see me. He has
arranged to give a course of lectures in the principal towns in England
on the Italian barbarities. I offered to help him financially, but he
said his lectures were to be well paid by a business firm, which had
undertaken it at £10 a night.
“_6th Dec._—The royal tent set up for the Durbar has been burnt at
Delhi, which looks like the beginning of demonstrations against the
King, who has just landed at Bombay.
“_7th Dec._—Pierre Lôti has written an excellent letter condemning the
Italian raid on Tripoli, in reply to an Italian editor, asking his
opinion on their glorious campaign. George Curzon has made another
admirable speech in the Lords about Persia and has drawn from Morley
something like a repudiation of Grey’s outrageous approval of the
Russian ultimatum. It is a great thing to have secured a man of his
calibre on our side.
“_10th Dec. (Sunday)._—A letter from Margot which amuses me. I had asked
whether I should send her pheasants. She says she loves game, hares and
pheasants, or even turkeys; all are of real use to her vast family,
living in Downing Street and entertaining sixty to eighty people a week
in the season, and thirty to fifty just now, is too much to expect of a
Prime Minister with seven children, on £5,000 a year, etc. There is
something comic in the idea of my contributing to the support of Downing
Street just at present, and acting the part of Whiteley to the Prime
Ministerial family.
“_13th Dec._—The newspapers print news of a proclamation at Delhi,
removing the seat of the Viceregal Government there from Calcutta,
restoring also the unity of Bengal. This is a notable event.
“_15th Dec._—Grey has made another long speech in the House of Commons
about his Persian policy, in which he approves all the Russians are
doing. What he is really aiming at is to Cromerise Persia, preserving
the form of its independence while destroying the substance. Russia is
to do this in Persia as we do it in Egypt, and Italy, perhaps, in
Tripoli, and France in Morocco. They would do it in Turkey, too, if the
Turks had no army. It is the modern way of devouring the Eastern
nations. The Russian army is advancing on Teheran, where the Mejliss
refuses to comply with the ultimatum, and we shall see a second edition
there of Tripoli.
“_16th Dec._—I have written a Ballade of resignation for Margot, which I
intend to send her with a peacock for her Xmas dinner.
“I have been reading a volume of Scotch ballads, the only poetry now
that gives me any pleasure. They rouse me from my gloom, especially that
best of all, ‘Sir Patrick Spens.’ I am troubled at the scramble for Asia
which is going on. The Russian army, with Grey’s approval, is advancing
on Teheran, where the Mejliss refuses to comply with their ultimatum,
and we shall see a second edition there of Tripoli. There is talk of
joint European intervention in China, and the year 1912 will see a
partition of the Ottoman Empire. As for Egypt I no longer see any hope.
Its chance of independence is bound up with that of Turkey, and will not
survive the destruction of the other. Winston, I heard, has written to
Seely, scolding him for his rudeness to me.
“_20th Dec._—Browne has written to me in despair about Persia, where the
Mejliss is standing to its guns. I think the Mejliss quite right. To
accept the ultimatum would be to abandon all hope, and it is better to
die fighting than to be swallowed slowly by the Russian boa constrictor
and digested at leisure. Theirs is a council of despair, but even
despair has chances.
“_26th Dec._—There has been an abominable massacre by the Russians at
Tabriz, 500 persons, men, women, and children, killed, women raped, and
every imaginable abomination perpetrated. This is Grey’s doing as
distinctly as if he had given the order, yet almost no protest is made
in our press, nor is there chance of an indignation meeting. It is
hopeless my going on fighting under these conditions, a single voice
against the world’s, and I am weary of a useless struggle. Belloc dined
with me last night, but I could not get him to take much interest in
anything but the parochical politics of the Insurance Bill. He asked me
who I thought ought to be Poet Laureate after Austin. I said Gilbert
Murray. [Because he had written no original verse.]
“_29th Dec._—Went to see McCullagh at a nursing home in John Street,
where he has been for an operation. The Tripoli atrocities are all
condoned now by English public opinion as will be the Russian atrocities
at Tabriz. Grey has invented a formula about these things. He has ‘no
official knowledge,’ which means that the Consuls have not reported them
as having themselves witnessed what has been done. They have had orders
to hold their tongues.
“Meynell dined with me to-night, and we discussed the future of
civilization. Meynell declares that the world will eventually come round
to my opinions and acknowledge me as a forerunner. I wish I could
believe it, but I see no sign of any such conversion. On the contrary I
fear I am a belated survival of an age which has almost disappeared. The
best chance the world has is perhaps the possible resurgence of China,
which yesterday proclaimed itself a republic, and chose Sun Yat Sen, a
Christian, its first President. But will not Europe intervene to wreck
its chances as it has intervened in Turkey and Persia? It is all a
question of material strength, and Asia, in order to survive, is obliged
to remodel itself according to European standards, although in so doing
it sacrifices half the value of its traditional ideas.
“_31st Dec. (Sunday)._—To-day a sad year ends, the worst politically I
can remember since the eighties, bloodshed, massacre, and destruction
everywhere, and all accepted here in England with cynical approval, our
Foreign Office being accomplice with the evildoers, and Grey their
apologist. It has been a losing battle in which I have fought long, but
with no result of good. I am old, and weary, and discouraged, and would
if I could slink out of the fight. I am useless in face of an entirely
hostile world.
“In the afternoon I went to see Mrs. Morris at her daughter’s house in
Hammersmith Terrace, and found her lying alone, quite invalided in a
chair. She had come up to London for her teeth, and other ailments, but
was glad to see me. We were, however, interrupted in our talk by de
Morgan and his wife, who looked in. He is a lugubrious little man with a
certain caustic wit battling with senility, his wife a busy little
woman, with a more cheerful manner. I remember having met her at
Kelmscott House when she was tending Morris, which she did with great
devotion during his last illness. Then I went on to Walker’s, who lives
next door, who showed me some of his book treasures, amongst them a
complete set of the Kelmscott Press works in vellum. He is a good and
modest man, who began as a plain workman and has now an assured position
at the head of the printing trade, at least of that branch of it which
deals with illustrated books. Morris, he told me, had once offered him
partnership in the Kelmscott Press, ‘But I had too good a sense of
proportion,’ he said, ‘to accept.’ And so the year 1911 has slipped
away.”