82 War between Japan and Russia t I 9°4 



which he lives. The English Government gave him a decoration 

 after the war for his humanity, but Cromer has since persecuted 

 him as a partisan of the Khedive. He is very rich, and has recently 

 given a large sum of money, £14,000, to the Mufti for various 

 Mohammedan purposes. The Mufti is still being worried by the 

 Khedive, who has been putting pressure on a number of the Sheykhs 

 of the Azhar to denounce him on grounds of impiety in the form 

 of an ardahal (petition) precisely as Mohammed Ali did against 

 the Sheykh El Saadat of Jabarti's time. He tells me that in spite of 

 all he has gone through in his life, he has never lost but two friends, 

 having made it a principle always to forgive. 



" 8th Jan., 1904. — Greville, manager of the Bank of Egypt, came 

 to luncheon and brought news that war between Japan and Russia 

 is nearly certain. I have not myself seen how it could be avoided. 

 The occupation of Manchuria by Russia with her seizure of Port 

 Arthur makes the position of Japan in those waters too dangerous 

 for her to acquiesce without fighting, and it became a question be- 

 tween trying conclusions now, and waiting to be swallowed up at 

 leisure. The present moment is favourable to Japan because the 

 English Government has promised to help Japan if a third power 

 intervenes to help Russia. Of course, it is a great risk but of the 

 two Japan seems to be choosing the lesser, if not the less imminent 

 danger. I wish her all possible success, she being the representa- 

 tive of Oriental independence against the European Powers. If she 

 succeeds in beating the Russians at sea, she may be able to get the 

 hegemony of China and so frustrate altogether the Western invasion. 

 Neither China nor Korea has the least chance of being able to stand 

 alone against Russia and would be gradually absorbed, as would Japan 

 too if she fails in the war." 



It had been part of our plan for the winter that Auberon Herbert 

 should spend it with us at Sheykh Obeyd, but for one reason and 

 another though he came to Egypt he had established himself the 

 other side of Cairo, at Helouan, and it had been a matter of much 

 correspondence between us how we were to meet, as neither of us 

 liked going through the town, and it was at last decided that we 

 were to have a rendezvous in the Mokattam Hills behind Cairo some 

 ten miles away, at a certain hour on a certain day, a plan which 

 was attended with an almost certain risk of our not meeting at all, for, 

 though we knew the hills well, he had no knowledge of them, nor was 

 there any definite landmark. The result was as follows : 



" gth Jan. — To Wady Abensur, which Europeans call Wady Hof , 

 and encamped just above the great Sudd at noon, having left Sheykh 

 Obeyd at 6.30. I then sent Mutlak down in the direction of Helouan 

 to meet Auberon and Salem Aweymer on my dcliil to look for him 



