1908] Kaiser Wilhelm Means War 219 



ways been in favour of the alliance with France, and if they had made 

 a firm stand Austria would have had to give in, but the Government 

 is in too great a mess at home to have any courage abroad, and now 

 they will miss their opportunity of permanent influence at Constanti- 

 nople. 



" Rumbold, whom I called on in the afternoon, thinks with George 

 and me that the Conference will be dropped, but he is very positive that 

 the annexation of Bosnia had nothing to do with the Ottoman revolu- 

 tion. It had been decided on to his knowledge as much as three years 

 ago, and the only thing that had delayed it was the difficulty of settling, 

 whether Bosnia should belong to Austria or to Hungary. As to Bul- 

 garia, he could not explain how it had come about, that Prince Ferdi- 

 nand had been so well received by the Emperor of Austria, for the 

 Emperor had often talked to him, Rumbold, of Ferdinand as an in- 

 triguer and a scoundrel, who had connived at the murder of Stam- 

 bouloff. 



" Later I met George again, and dined with him and Sibell, and 

 Pamela Tennant in Park Lane. We had a merry dinner and discussed 

 once again the Eastern situation. I told him Rumbold's opinion about 

 Bosnia, but he would not hear of its being a correct one. He declared 

 it to be certain that the whole trouble was concocted in Berlin, and in 

 corroboration told how a week before the annexation was announced, he 

 was staying at Wynyard with the Londonderrys, whose party included 

 Metternich, the German Ambassador. Metternich, however, had 

 hardly arrived before a despatch reached him while at dinner of such 

 urgency as to oblige him to go at once, in Londonderry's motor, to meet 

 a messenger at a distant railway station, the result of his journey being 

 that he left for London by the first train in the morning. It must, 

 George says, have been an affair of the most absolute importance to 

 require this of him, for he was less than twelve hours at Wynyard, nor 

 was there any other question in public view at the time. George de- 

 clares categorically that the crux of the whole situation is that Kaiser 

 Wilhelm means war with England on the first favourable opportunity, 

 and in the meanwhile to stir up trouble wherever he can for us. I 

 think this very likely, and also that there would be no great difficulty 

 in an invasion of England whenever he is so minded. 



. " 22nd Oct. — Gokhale and Lajpat Rai came to see me, sent by 

 Nevinson, and stayed an hour, and we discussed the situation in India 

 very thoroughly. I am disappointed with both of them. Gokhale is a 

 well bred, highly educated and intelligent man, a Maharata Brahmin, I 

 believe, and according to Nevinson the Leader of the National move- 

 ment. He expresses himself well in English, and I have no doubt 

 is an able speaker. But he is clearly no leader of a revolution, and 

 they will effect nothing without one. He lacks the enthusiasm which 



