144 The Sultan Yields to Force [1906 



tunities of discussion Tuesday and Thursday on the Estimates. He 

 would send Dillon to me. 



' There is a report to-day of the quarrel with the Sultan having 

 been arranged, but the British fleet is assembled at the Piraeus, and 

 almost anything may happen. The Emperor William has backed out 

 of any encouragement he may have given at Constantinople, and clearly 

 cannot help the Sultan in a material way. I am inclined to think that 

 if it comes to a naval demonstration it would be one of forcing the 

 Dardanelles and threatening the Sultan at Yildiz. 



" 12th May. — The 'Daily News' and 'Tribune' publish epitomes 

 of my letter to Grey, and the ' Manchester Guardian ' gives it in full, 

 with a good leading article in support. John Dillon lunched with me, 

 and we discussed Akabah, of course. He knows more about Egyptian 

 politics than anybody now in the House of Commons, but, like Red- 

 mond, he says, the Radicals will do nothing to stop the war. 



" 13th May (Sunday). — The ' Observer' announces that the Sultan 

 has yielded to the British demands, these being (1) That all the posi- 

 tions occupied by the Turks should be abandoned; (2) That the Sinaitic 

 frontier should be delimited by a mixed commission. This is hailed 

 as a complete triumph for Sir Edward Grey." 



The triumph proved an unfortunate one for our Foreign Office, 

 as it was the beginning of the long quarrel between Sir Edward Grey 

 and Constantinople, which resulted eight years later in the alliance of 

 Turkey with the central European Powers in the Great War, a com- 

 bination which gave to Germany its victory over Russia. Not a soul in 

 England understood its importance, or cared to understand. For this 

 reason I print the details here at full length. 



" Philip Currie is dead after a long illness and a week of uncon- 

 sciousness, the papers say. In his youth Philip was a merry fellow, 

 one of the smart young men of the Foreign Office, where he had rooms 

 for many years as resident clerk, with his retriever ' Pam,' so named 

 after Palmerston, his first chief. He had wit and a pleasant tongue. 

 He figures as second hero of Violet Fane's poems, ' From Dawn to 

 Noon,' whom he afterwards married. Clare Vyner being her first hero. 

 Philip rose in the Foreign Office to the rank of permanent Under Secre- 

 tary of State, and then got himself made Ambassador at Constantinople, 

 and later at Rome, retiring on a pension some three years ago, his time 

 being out. We were cousins and good friends always, without being 

 quite bosom friends. He was a good official friend to me while I was 

 in diplomacy, though my incursions into foreign politics in later years 

 estranged us at times. The last time I saw him was two years ago in the 

 Park, being wheeled there in a bath chair in broken health, and I went 

 home to lunch with him in Prince's Gate. Now both he and Violet 

 Fane have disappeared into the eternal nothing. 



