I9 I2 1 The Turks Defeated at Adrianople 401 



with the navy has turned his mind back into an ultra Imperialist groove. 

 This, I think, will be a stronger temptation for him than any mere! 

 intrigue of ambition. Talking yesterday about his career, he said, 

 ' I have never joined in any intrigue, everything I have got I have' 

 worked for and have been more hated than anybody.' He speaks 

 highly of both Lloyd George and Edward Grey, both of whom stand 

 probably in the way of his becoming Liberal Prime Minister, while he 

 would certainly lead the Tory party were he one of them again. He 

 avows a great contempt for Bonar Law. Arthur Balfour, George de- 

 clares, really means to be out of politics, and George himself, clever 

 though he is, is a mere child in argument compared with Winston. 



" 2yrd Oct. — Cockerell has written, thanking me enthusiastically for 

 his share in Sunday's party. It was certainly very brilliant, though 

 it has left me with the remorseful feeling an orgy always leaves, and 

 I think, I will not indulge in another. 



" 2$th Oct. — A great battle is going on around Adrianople, and 

 the Turks are evidently getting the worst of it. The papers try to 

 make out that it is part of a strategical plan on the Turkish side, 

 but I do not believe it. The only chance the Sultan had was to 

 overwhelm his enemies at once by marching on Sofia, and here they 

 are being invaded and retreating. I fear there is little hope. Abdul 

 Ghaffar, who is a good young man and a good Moslem, writes quaintly 

 and pathetically from Oxford, ' After all God is there, and we may 

 in the last resort rely on him. . . . Do not give up hope yet, you will 

 live to see Turkey strong. God grant you the fulfilment of your 

 wishes. . . . Keep up heart and rely on God. Those who take refuge 

 in God he helps ; anyhow this is all we can do now.' I wish I could 

 have his trust, but I feel ashamed of having had that uproarious time 

 with Winston and George, two outrageous political gamblers just now 

 at this tragic time when we ought to be in sackcloth and ashes. 



"26th Oct. — The St. Martin's summer is over and heavy rain has 

 set in. I feel like Napoleon at Moscow, and that we have outstayed 

 the season here in the Forest. Clementine has written her ' Collins ' 

 from the ' Enchantress,' and Winston keeps on telegraphing about an 

 overcoat left behind, I believe his chauffeur's, and taken by George's 

 man. 



"27th Oct. (Sunday). — The Ottoman cause seems lost in Europe, 

 and with it all I have been fighting for for so many years, and the 

 collapse is a personal collapse for me, which I feel at every turn, day 

 and night. Egypt now will never get out of the grip of Europe — 

 I do not say of England, because the British Empire will not long 

 survive in the Mediterranean, but of whatever other Empire takes 

 its place. I shall not live to see this ultimate change, but others will, 

 and Islam's chance is gone." 



