368 Churchill Takes the Admiralty [1911 



to Russia. The Russian Government is determined they shall not 

 recover financially or politically, and Barclay, our English Minister at 

 Teheran, is instructed by the Foreign Office to play into their hands, 

 though he personally would help them. The British Government is 

 reinforcing the Legation guard at Teheran with 200 troops from India, 

 which will be a new pretext with the Russians for increasing their gar- 

 risons. Malony has been seeing much of my old friend the Bakhtiari 

 Chief, Ali Kuli Khan, now holding the title of Sardar Assad, who 

 Malony says often talks of me, and is a man of great ability. [He 

 travelled with us for three weeks from Hail to Bagdad in 1879. See 

 ' A Pilgrimage to Nejd.'] 



" 25//! Oct. — Cabinet changes are announced. Winston goes to the 

 Admiralty, which will be an advantage to him as helping him out of 

 infinite hot water he is in at the Home Office. I am writing to con- 

 gratulate him, and have expressed a hope that if he bombards a town 

 it will be Naples or Messina, rather than Constantinople or Teddah. 

 The Turks and Arabs have been fighting the Italians well at Benghazi, 

 and at Tripoli the Turkish army has followed the same programme as 

 Arabi's did at Alexandria. It has retired out of reach of the ships' 

 guns, and is harassing the Italians on shore. At Constantinople the 

 Parliament has met, and is for continuing the war. The Italians have 

 committed atrocities in the way of drumhead court martials just as 

 Beresford did in 1882. 



" 27^/2 Oct.— Winston answers me from the Admiralty through Eddy 

 Marsh, his private secretary. ' Winston wishes me to thank you and 

 to say that he is very busy settling down here, but hopes to come and 

 see you as soon as he can. Your wishes as to bombardments have 

 been noted in the Department, and every care will be taken to prevent 

 mistakes.' I fear Winston is still on the best of terms with Grey, as I 

 see in the papers that Grey stood godfather with F. E. Smith to Win- 

 ston's son and heir, the new Randolph, yesterday. 



" 31^ Oct. — The atrocities committed by the Italians at Tripoli have 

 passed all that have ever been heard of for a century. On the pretext 

 that the Arab inhabitants of the palm groves behind the town joined the 

 Turkish army in its attack on the Italian troops, the whole of the native 

 population, men, women, and children have been exterminated, to the 

 number, it is reported, of 4,000 persons. This is absolutely against 

 the laws of war, and puts the Italians in a position of piracy which 

 Europe will hardly tolerate. They seem to have been pretty soundly 

 beaten in the fighting and have been obliged to retire inside the town. 

 The Italians are a cowardly people, utterly vicious and corrupt, and 

 this cruelty is a part of their nature. It will deprive them of any 

 right to pose as the champions of civilization in this war or of Christ- 

 ianity, while it will unite all the Moslem world against them and against 



