306 Abdul Hamid Instructs Wilhclm [1898 



servant, would your Majesty like to see how I treat mine?' William 

 said, ' Yes.' Abdul Hamid then touched a bell, and when the attendant 

 entered said, ' Send for Kiamil,' the then Grand Vizier. Instantly 

 horsemen were despatched at a gallop through the city seeking the 

 Minister, who presently appeared and stood, with head bowed and 

 folded hands, before them. The Sultan for awhile took no notice, and 

 let him stand, then casually ' You need not wait, it is of no consequence, 

 go,' and the Grand Vizier went. William took this lesson to heart, and 

 dismissed his Chancellor hardly less brusquely. 



" Dined with Neville and his friend Geoff roi, a young fellow art 

 student of a modest serious kind at the hotel where I was their enter- 

 tainer. We discussed art, literature, and politics. The young man is 

 rather socialistic, hates the army, in which he is just about to be obliged 

 to serve, and is a Dreyfusard. He assures me military service is most 

 unpopular, and war still more so. It is clear nobody in France will 

 take up the quarrel thrust on them by us over Fashoda. 



" 29//J Oct. — Back to England. To-day it is announced that 

 Marchand has left for Cairo, so the quarrel solvitor ambulando. 



" yd Nov. — Newbuildings. Knowles has agreed to my writing on 

 the Fashoda affair in the ' Nineteenth Century,' but says he hopes I 

 will not forget the motto which is his, ' my country right or wrong.' 

 What absurdity ! One would think that England was a poor struggling 

 nationality, oppressed by a strong neighbour, and in need of the help 

 of all her sons, not what she is, the mill in which all the nations are 

 being ground. 



" \th Nov. — Anne and Judith left for Egypt, I staying on in Eng- 

 land for the winter. Lunched with George Wyndham at Willis's 

 Rooms, where he is near his work at the War Office. We discussed 

 the Fashoda business about which there will certainly not be war, 

 George said. Also that our Government had squared the Emperor 

 William. The Duke of Devonshire and Henry Chaplin were lunching 

 at another table, and greeted George as ' dear George.' Of Chamber- 

 lain, George said, 'He is for war at any price.' He (Chamberlain) 

 has just come back from America, where they are going through the 

 same absurd military fever that we are here. 



" ytJi Nov. — At Newbuildings with Cockerell. Delcasse has made 

 his climb down about Fashoda, certainly a pitiful one, which reduces 

 France almost to the level of a second-class Power. The Emperor Wil- 

 liam meanwhile has been touring it in Syria, and making speeches at 

 Jerusalem. I fancy his concurrence with English policy has been 

 bought by some promise of recognizing him as the Sultan's protector 

 with a future reversion of the Holy Land. Our Jingo papers, especially 

 the ' Chronicle,' have been clamouring for the annexation of Egypt, or 

 at least the declaration of an English Protectorate, but that is probably 



