SIDELIGHTS OF HISTORY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19952, 20 November 1926, Page 13

SIDELIGHTS OF HISTORY

EARLY DAYS OF THE WAR. DOWNING STREET BICKERINGS PEN PICTURES OF ROYALTY. KING’S DREAD OF THRONE. fPrsBH Association—Tolesraph—Copyrisiit.) LONDON, November 18. (Received Nov. 19, at 5.5 p.m.) There are amazingly outspoken pen pictures of the policital heroes of the World War in a book entitled “The Whispering Gallery” by an anonymous displomatist who is reputed to be a man of European reputation. If it is accurate, his description of the scene at No. 10 Downing street early in 1916 goes far to explain the impotence of Britain in the early years of the war. Mr Asquith, Mr Lloyd George, and other Cabinet members were discussing the war. “I am expecting great news to-night,” .said Mr Asquith. “You always are but it never comes,” retorted Mr Lloyd George. There was a faint “Hush” from Sir Edward Grey. Mr Asquith continued: '‘Field-marshal Haig is confident that things are moving at last.” , “Probably they are—backwards,” said the irrepressible Welshman. “That’s the crouch before the spring,” went on Mr Asquith. “I don’t believe it,” said Mr Lloyd George. “The people! think we are winning because we’ve Kitchener. It’s always Kitchener.’ ’ There’ was a pause. Mr Asquith helped him to a glass of port and then said slowly: “You speak bitterly. Are you jealous of Kitchener? I think ho is a big man.” “Six feet two and a-half,” same the ready retort. Mr Asquith proceeded to say; “Lord Northcliffe suggested Kitchener for the job.” “Lord Northcliffe now thinks him a back number,” retorted Mr Lloyd George, “What’s his latest move?” interposed Mr Churchill. “Ask Mr Lloyd George,” said Mr Asquith. The general laugh made Mr Lloyd George jump up and march to the fireplace. “If you say that again, Mr Asquith, I’ll lose my temper.” Mr Qhurchill: “I wish you two wouldn’t quarrel.” Mr Lloyd George: “I never quarrel, but I am sick of this damned shilly-shally-ing.” “Would you like to take the job on?” asked Mr Churchill quietly. “Of course I would,” cried Mr Lloyd George, without hesitation. Then, realising his error, he asked: “To what job were you referring?” “The Prime Ministership,” said Mr Churchill. “Oh, that,” said Mr Lloyd George. “I was thinking of something else.” The author adds; “We all looked at one another and nobody spoke.” Another interesting passage is a curious pen-picture of King George. The anonymous diplomatist says: “Few men have been so appalled at the prospect of kingship. For years it lay like a shadow upon his life. He fought the blighting menace, hardly a soul outside his immediate circle knowing the bitterness of the struggle. The death of the Duke of Clarence meant the death of Prince George’s best hopes, which included the trout stream, the moor, the wood, a select library, and a few friends. Except for occasional bouts of indigestion his life was pleasant till 1891. Then camo the crash and the fight against his inherited yearning for privacy. He once said: ‘I can never be as popular as my father was. I haven’t the right temperament,’ adding wistfully, ‘but my son makes up for my deficiencies.’ Authors are people the King likes to talk to. He really dislikes horse-racing.” The writer considers that there were never - two brothers less alike than the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York. The curious temperament of the Prince of Wales, he says, expresses itself in many directions, particularly his unquenchable eagerness to talk to everybody he meets —dustman or duke. The Prince of Wales’s friends address him as they like. “Old bean” and “Old‘sport” are common phrases in his circle. The Duke of York has never flung himself in the stream of life. He prefers to remain onthe bank and peer critically into the depths. He is strangely unreceptive and dead to the sense of popular feeling. In the war he would have made a good staff officer, but a bad messmate, whereas his brother would have been a poor staff officer but a good messmate. —A. and N.Z. Cable. ACCURACY OF STORIES. “INVENTIONS OF AN IGNORANT MAN.” LONDON. November 19. (Received Nov. 19, at 9 p.m.) The Daily Telegraph says:—“The accuracy of many of the ‘Diplomat’s’ stories will be called into question, and concerning others the charge of sheer invention may be laid against him. Is he, one may ask, what he pretends to be?’’ The Daily Mail, in an editorial headed “Tho Scandal of the Faked Memoirs,” condemns the stories as “the inventions of an ignorant man.”—A. and N.Z. Cable.