356 The Die-Hard Conspiracy [ I 9 11 



tion in Albania, and thinks that the war will extend to the other Balkan 

 States, and perhaps to intervention by Austria. I asked him whether 

 Germany would not prevent this, and he said : ' Germany will give us 

 advice and her moral support, but nothing more than that, as she 

 has always done.' He condemns the present Government at Constan- 

 tinople in the strongest terms, he being the leader of the Opposition 

 in the Chamber. He told me that the letter I sent him last October 

 warning them of the folly of campaigning in Arabia, had been shown 

 by him to Talaat Pasha and others, but they had paid no attention 

 to it, though my advice had since been entirely justified. ' For in- 

 stance,' he said, 'what you said about paying the Arabs rather than 

 fighting them. The whole quarrel with the Druses could have been 

 settled for £200, and it cost us £600,000, beside the bloodshed.' Riza's 

 fellow delegate, Bostani, is a learned Arabic scholar, member for 

 Beyrout, who was made Senator last year. His speech was lengthy 

 and terribly dull, but I found him pleasant to talk to. 



" In the evening, just before dinner, I looked in at 44 Belgrave 

 Square and found George Wyndham there with F. E. Smith and 

 Bendor, all three much excited. ' Here you see the conspirators,' said 

 George. For some time past George has been organizing a revolt 

 against Lansdowne and Arthur Balfour's management of the Tory 

 party in the matter of the Veto Bill, and yesterdav they brought mat- 

 ters to a head by making a violent scene in the House of Commons, 

 and refusing to let Asquith speak. Hugh Cecil and F. E. Smith are 

 the leaders of the revolt with George. Bendor has turned Grosevnor 

 House into an office, where they hold their meetings, and they are 

 to give a banquet to old Halsbury to-morrow as the saviour of the 

 Constitution. They are all in the highest possible spirits at the com- 

 motion they have caused and consider that they have forced Balfour's 

 hand. ' You ought to have done it,' I said, ' two years ago, and you 

 would have had the whole countrv with you, Army. Navy. Territorials, 

 and all down to the Boy Scouts.' The two others did not stav many 

 minutes, and when they were gone George talked it over with me, 

 promising an absolutelv full account of it when the crisis should be 

 over, but he had given his word of honour not to reveal certain things 

 at present. Nevertheless, I gather from him that thev suspect Arthur 

 Balfour of having been all through in secret collusion with Asquith, and 

 that perhaps now Arthur is in secret collusion against Asquith with 

 them. It appears that just before the last election in January Asquith 

 got the King to promise to create a sufficient number of peers to pass 

 the Veto Bill, which the King promised, thinking the elections would go 

 more against Asquith than they did. The King does not at all want 

 to create the peers, neither does Asquith, though the King is in favour 

 of Home Rule for Ireland. They hope that the peers will give in 



