Yours sincerely,
ROBERTS.
My next meeting with Lord Roberts was twelve days later, and was
at No. 10 Downing Street, Mr. Asquith’s official residence. Lord
Roberts said, among other things, in the talk we had together on that
occasion that he was very much indebted to me for the promptness with
which I had unravelled the mystery about himself and the Archbishop,
and went on gravely:
“I very much dislike having attributed to me a prayer which I did
not write. It is not, as you know, that I do not believe in prayer.
I have humbly asked God’s help and guidance in everything that I
undertook all through my life, and never more so than now, when I am
an old man, and His call may be very near. But----” he hesitated a
moment, “offering up a brief prayer--it may only be the words ‘God
help me!’--before going into action, or in some time of difficulty,
is one thing; and sitting down to write, to print and publish a
prayer for others is quite another thing--for a soldier, at least.
That was why I asked my friend the Archbishop to compose the prayer.
It was for him, God’s minister, a clergyman, not for me, a soldier,
to do it.”
Lord Roberts then asked me to advise him how best to prevent a
recurrence of the error by which the prayer was attributed to him. I
replied that if he wished I would on his behalf write to the editor
of _A Cloud of Witnesses_ pointing out the mistake, and suggesting
that an erratum slip, making the correction, be inserted in all
copies of the book already printed, and that the Archbishop’s name
replace that of Lord Roberts in any future edition.
“I shall be so much obliged if you will,” he said gratefully. “May I
leave it to you, and will you let me know when you hear from him?”
I promised to do so, and carried the promise into effect, sending
Lord Roberts, when I received it, the editor’s reply, in which,
after expressing regret for the error, he undertook to do what was
proposed. That Lord Roberts felt strongly about the matter, and was
most anxious that the correction should be made, will be seen by the
following letter which I received the morning after I had seen him at
Downing Street:
ENGLEMERE, ASCOT, BERKS,
_28th Feb., 1914_.