304 Hoiv King Edzvard Had Visited Ireland [ l 9 10 



had used on landing about the Pope, whose death had been announced 

 the day before. George had gone over from Dublin to meet His 

 Majesty at Holyhead, and all the Dublin officials had been alarmed 

 about what the King might say ; but as soon as the King came on board 

 his yacht he sent for the captain and said to him : ' Take Mr. Wynd- 

 ham to a cabin where he can be alone, and give him a pencil and 

 paper,' and he asked George to draw up a speech for him. This George 

 did. But the King vastly improved the draft, and on landing said 

 exactly the right thing, so that Protestants and Catholics alike were 

 pleased. We all agreed that the late King was a great loss in foreign 

 politics, though George thinks that perhaps his death may bring the 

 Emperor William to the funeral, and so lay the foundation of a peace 

 with Germany. I doubt it. ' The Emperor,' he said, ' is fifty, and has 

 found out that, though he has an immense army, not a single soldier in it 

 has been under fire, and he has no assurance that he would be able 

 to command it in war. For forty years the German army has not fired 

 a shot.' All the same I can see that the prospect of a new and more 

 Conservative King is welcome in this house. 



"nth May. — George went away to-day to take the Parliamentary 

 oath to the new king. We have had much talk, both about affairs here 

 in England and also about Egypt. I showed him the proof sheets 

 of my articles on Gorst's report, and he remarked that Egypt would 

 certainly not be evacuated, which, of course, is true. He made me 

 alter a word or two, so as to make it less hostile to Gorst, in whose 

 favour he is interested through his former private secretary, Mark 

 Sykes, who married Gorst's sister. On the main point, however, we 

 are agreed, namely, that the future of Egypt is bound up in the general 

 future of Asia, and especially of the Ottoman Empire. George is 

 inclined to minimize the chances of Asia being able to regenerate her- 

 self and hold her own against Europe ; while I am strong in my belief 

 in this. He says the Russians are far more bent on recovering their 

 position in Asia than in making any advance westwards. He hears 

 this doubtless from his brother Guy, who is military attache at Peters- 

 burg, but the signs of the times are distinctly of an awakening every- 

 where of the Asiatic races to a sense of the necessity of self-preservation. 

 Even in China the Emperor has been obliged to summon a kind of 

 Parliament, and the Turks have pretty well tided over their danger of 

 absorption. The real hope for Asia as against Europe lies, in my 

 opinion, in the seeds of social decay so very visible among the Teutonic 

 races and the higher European civilization generally, where these are 

 beginning to commit suicide. My last word to George was in this 

 sense : ' The men will refuse to work and the women will refuse to 



breed.' 



" About the prospects in England, all here seem to think the politi- 



