328 Occupation of Southern Persia Decided On [ I 9 I o 



remaining unconscious till the next morning-, when he found a young 

 Boer standing over him with his rifle pointed and about to finish him, 

 but an older Boer stopped the young one, and having stripped him of 

 everything he possessed, they gave him a kick on the backside and 

 let him go.' 



" All this account is in strict keeping with what Mark's brother Jack 

 told me many years ago. According to both accounts it would have 

 been impossible at that time for the British army to continue the cam- 

 paign aggressively, as the Orange State would have joined the Trans- 

 vaalers, and the army was quite disorganized. 



" yth Nov. — There has been a shifting of places in the Cabinet this 

 last week. Morley leaves the India Office to become President of the 

 Council ; Crewe takes Morley's place, and Loulou Harcourt takes 

 Crewe's place as Colonial Secretary; Beauchamp gets the Board of 

 Works. That gives us two of our Crabbet Club men as Secretaries of 

 State, their chief qualification. 



" Beauclerk brings me an important piece of news about, Persia. He 

 has lately seen Major Sykes, our Consul at Meshed, who is at present 

 in London, and is chief adviser on South Persian affairs at the Foreign 

 Office. Sykes told him that the occupation of Southern Persia on 

 the same lines as the occupation of Egypt has been decided on, and that 

 he himself, Sykes, is to be British Agent and Consul General at Kir- 

 man, and direct the administration on Cromerian lines. It has long 

 been intended but was not expected to take place for five years. Now, 

 however, he says, two years will see it accomplished." [This is an 

 entry of extreme importance, showing how fully it was intended by 

 Sir Edward Grey and the British Government to occupy and administer 

 Southern Persia, notwithstanding all denials.] 



" Miss Petre and her sister came to luncheon, and we discussed the 

 whole question of her quarrel with Rome. She means to fight it out, 

 but I doubt if they will give her any answer about the binding character 

 of the encyclicals. Her bishop will simply say that if she does not 

 choose to sign she shall have no sacraments. To console her I gave her 

 an account of my own religious experiences of fifty years ago. I like 

 her much. 



" gth Nov. — There has been a meeting at Berlin of the two Em- 

 perors, German and Russian, solemnized with an immense slaughter 

 of Imperial deer, five hundred in the single day's shooting, beasts which 

 had been penned for the purpose beforehand and let out one by one, as 

 cockney sportsmen do with their purchased pheasants. According to 

 the ' Times ' these Emperors and their Ministers have come to an 

 amicable understanding about Persia. If so, Persia's fate is sealed. 

 [Compare Dr. Dillon's book, 'The Eclipse of Russia.'] In the mean- 

 while, we here in England are entirely engrossed in our local quarrels. 



