A DIPLOMAT'S MEMOIRS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19490, 20 November 1926, Page 13

A DIPLOMAT'S MEMOIRS.

SOME INTIMATE STORIES. ROYALTY AND POLITICIANS. DOUBT THROWN ON ACCURACY. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received 7.5 p.m.) A. and N'.Z. LONDON, Nov. 13 Amazingly outspoken pen pictures of political heroes of "the Great War are contained in a book entitled " The Whis | penng Gallery," by air anonymous diplomat. The author is reputed ta be a man ot European reputation. If his statements are accurate, a scene which ne says occurred at No. 10, Down nig Street, early in 1916, goes far to explain the imp itence of Britain in the , early years of the war. Ihe author says Mr. Asquith 'now the r Eail of Oxford), Mr. Lloyd George and other members ot the then Cabinet woe , discussing the war. " I am expecting great news to-night," said Mr. Asquith. \ou always are, but it never comes, ' retorted Mr. Lloyd George. There was a faint " hush " from Sir Edward Grey. Then Mr. Asquith con- , tinued: " Haig is confident that things , are moving at last." , " Probably they are—back wards," said the irrepressible Welshman. , That is the crouch before the spring," I continued Mr. Asquith. Lloyd George and Kitchener. | "I do not believe it," said Mr. Lloyd George. People think we are winning . because we have Kitchener. It is always i Kitchener." There was a pause and Mr. Asquith | helped himself to a glass of port. Then he said slowly: "You speak bitterly. Are ! you jealous of Kitchener ? I think he is a big man." " Six feet two and a-half inches," came the ready retort. | Mr. Asquith proceeded to say: "Northcliffe suggested Kitchener for the job." " Northcliffe now thinks him a back number," retorted Mr. Lloyd George. "What is the latest game?" interposed Mr. Winston Churchill. "Ask Mr. Lloyd George," said Mr. x\squith. The general laugh at this made Mr. Lloyd Geosge jump up and march to the fireplace. "If you say that again, Asquith, I shall lose my temper," he remarked. Sick of Shilly-shallying. Mr. Churchill said: " I wish you two would not quarrel." Mr. Lloyd George: "I never quarrel, but I am sick of this damned shillyshallying." " Would you like to take the job on ?" l' asked Mr. Churchill, quietly. "Of course I would," cried Mr. Lloyd George, without hesitation. Then, realis-. | ing his error, he asked: "To what job were you referring ?" "The Premiership," said Mr. Churchill, j " Oh, that," said Mr. Lloyd George. " I was thinking of something else." The author adds: "We all looked at one . another, but nobody spoke." King George's Real Ambition. Another interesting passage in the boob is a curious pen picture of King George. The anonymous diplomat says:— " Few men have been so appalled at the prospect of Kingship. For years this lay like a shadow upon the life of King George. He fought the blighting menace and hardly a soul outside his immediate circle knew the bitterness of his struggle. " The death of his elder brother, the Duke of Clarence, meant death to his best hopes, which included a trout stream in a wood, a select library and a few friends. Except for occasional bout-3 of indigestion his life was pleasant until 1691. Thea came the crash and the fight against his inherited yearning for privacy. " Once he said: ' I can never be aa popular as my father was. I have not the right temperament.' He added, wistfully, 'But my son makes up for my deficiencies.' Authors are people the King likes to talk to. He really dislikes horseracing." Prince of Wales and His Brother. The writer says he considers there were never two brothers less alike than the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York. " The curious temperament of the Prince," he says, "expresses itself m many directions, particularly in an unquenchable eagerness to talk to everybody he meets, be he a dustman or a ttuke. " The friends of the Prince address him as they like. 'Old bean' and old sport' are common phrases in his «irqle. " The Duke of York has never Hung himself into the stream of life. He prefers to remain on the bank and peer critically into the depths. He is strangely unreceptive, and dead to a sense of popular feeling. In the war he would have made a good stall-olficer, but a bad messmate, whereas his brother would have been a. poor staff-officer and a good messmate." The Daily Telegraph says the accuracy of many of the unknown diplomat's stories will be called into question, and concerning others the charge of sheer invention may be laid against him. Is he, the paper asks, what he pretends to be? The Daily Mail, under the heading: " Scandal of faked memoirs," condemns the stones as the inventions of an ignorant man.