1 64 "John Bull's Other Island" [1907 



He would like, when the change is made, that it should be Gorst 

 rather than an outsider. Gorst at least would endeavour to conciliate 

 Mohammedan feeling, he hates the Syrians who now have Cromer's 

 ear. 



" Back to Newbuildings for Christmas. Belloc dined with me. He 

 will do all he can to help Kamel, but just now is full to the eyes of 

 work. 



<4 3U/ Dec. — Newbuildings. This is the last day of the year, and 

 I make up my account with it. It began with a dark prospect. I was 

 lying more than half paralyzed in bed, unable to use my hands, un- 

 able to sit up, unable to walk more than across the room. I did not 

 myself think I could recover, I hardly wished it. I had suffered too 

 much pain to desire to pass through the same experience again. Yet, 

 even so I was light-hearted. My head was clear, quite unaffected by 

 my illness, and I was mentally busy with the Memoirs I was dictating. 

 Also I was lapped in the affection of my friends. Thus the first 

 months of the year passed for me, in Chapel Street in bed. Over 

 a hundred of my acquaintance came to see me there, everybody I think 

 that I had ever loved, a huge consolation. Then I gradually recovered, 

 and my literary work went on. I have finished my two volumes. My 

 play of ' Fand ' has been written, and announced for acting in Dublin. 

 It gives me the consciousness of renewed intellectual power, more- 

 over, and what has been the least expected marvel of my year, my 

 half-dead hopes connected with Egypt have come into political blos- 

 som. We have smitten Cromer hip and thigh from Tabah to Den- 

 shawai, and from a lost force at Cairo I have become a power again; 

 never since Tel-el-Kebir have the fortunes of Egyptian Nationalism 

 seemed so smiling. Such have been my consolations. The last days 

 of the old year have been spent merrily here at Newbuildings with 

 Cockerell, Mark Napier and Belloc, and his friend Kershaw." 



There is little worth copying out of my diary of the first months 

 of 1907. They were mostly spent at Newbuildings, with occasional 

 changes to Chapel Street. I give a few extracts : 



" 24th Jan. — Mustapha Kamel has gone back to Cairo, and I hear 

 of Robertson as touring in the Delta. Bernard Shaw sends me the 

 proof sheets of his preface to ' John Bull's other Island.' It contains 

 a rattling attack on Cromer and the Denshawai business. 



" 13th Feb. — Parliament has met, a great flourish about a quarrel 

 with the House of Lords. I shall believe it when I see it. 



" igth Feb. — Robertson to breakfast with me in Chapel Street. He 

 gave a full account of his adventures in Egypt. He describes Cromer 

 as very nervous and sensitive about public opinion in England, and 

 Machell, who organized the executions at Denshawai, a blundering 



