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Dreadnought

Page 128

by Robert K. Massie


  51 “taken his stand in shining armor”: Spender, Asquith, I, 248

  52 “Russia was stiff”: Grey, Twenty-Five Years, I, 181

  53 “I have been assured”: ibid., 182

  54 “Germany told us”: Bing, 236, 239–40

  55 “This is my war!”: Mansergh, 136

  Chapter 33

  The Navy Scare of 1909

  1 “Strategic requirements”: Woodward, 98

  2 “As you know”: McKenna, 65

  3 “a preponderance of ten percent”: Woodward, 244

  4 “a practical certainty”: Marder, Scapa Flow, I, 154

  5 “My dear Grey”: McKenna, 71

  6 “My dear Prime Minister”: ibid., 72

  7 “I will not dwell”: Marder, Scapa Flow, I, 159

  8 “I found the Admiralty’s figures”: Churchill, World Crisis, I, 37

  9 “The Admiralty mean to get”: Randolph Churchill, II, 498

  10 “What are Winston’s reasons”: Marder, Scapa Flow, I, 160

  11 “The economists are in a state”: McKenna, 79

  12 “I think it shows”: Marder, Scapa Flow, I, 161

  13 “We are placing”: McKenna, 82

  14 “is rejected either in the Commons”: ibid., 81

  15 “I do not see how”: ibid., 82

  16 “nothing less than eight ships”: Marder, Scapa Flow, I, 163

  17 “No matter what the cost”: The Times, March 17, 1909

  18 “We want eight”: Marder, Scapa Flow, I, 167

  19 “Citoyens”: ibid.

  20 “reincarnation of Marshal Le-Boeuf”: ibid.

  21 “since Nero fiddled”: ibid., 168

  22 “In the opinion of this House”: ibid.

  23 Grey’s speech is taken from Woodward, 230–34

  24 “In the end”: Churchill, World Crisis, I, 37

  25 “There is no half-way house”: Woodward, 220

  26 “According to information”: ibid., 217

  27 “I think it would be better”: ibid., 218

  28 “We have got to have a margin”: Marder, Scapa Flow, I, 164

  29 “His Majesty the Kaiser”: ibid., 177

  30 “start of building”: ibid., 178

  31 “How all this scare would vanish”: FGDN, II, 235

  32 “Until November last”: Woodward, 238

  33 “Nonsense!”: ibid.

  34 “Winston, Churchill, Lloyd, and George”: FGDN, II, 227

  35 “very sore”: Marder, Scapa Flow, I, 170

  36 “If the Government”: ibid., 156

  37 “without prejudice”: ibid., 171

  38 “In the light of what actually happened”: Churchill, World Crisis, I, 37

  Chapter 34

  Invading England

  1 “I know of nothing”: Marder, Anatomy, 65

  2 “free-booting enterprise”: ibid., 372

  3 “The Empire, stripped of its armor”: ibid., 377

  4 “Unless our Navy”: ibid., 378

  5 “The only difficulty we see”: ibid., 380

  6 “Invasion may be an off-chance”: ibid., 78

  7 “A great defensive army”: ibid.

  8 “Not thirty army corps”: ibid.

  9 “As to a stronger Regular Army”: ibid.

  10 “not an eventuality”: The Times, May 12, 1905

  11 “I have no hesitation”: Hynes, 40

  12 “luminous”... “quite perfect in form and language”: Tuchman, Proud Tower, 380

  13 “The Navy... is the 1st, 2nd, 3rd...”: Marder, Anatomy, 65

  14 “I am too busy to waste my time”: Marder, Scapa Flow, I, 181

  15 “You might as well talk”: Fisher, Records, 91

  16 “When the German Emperor”: Tuchman, Proud Tower, 380

  17 “Refuse to be served”: Marwick, 50

  18 “envy of England’s great Empire”: Clarke, 109

  19 “this sceptred isle”... “this fortress built by Nature”: Richard II, II, I

  20 “without losing the perfectly courteous tone”: Clarke, 110

  21 “would involve this country”: ibid., 111

  22 “The great increase in prosperity”: ibid., 113

  23 “We might, despite all our precautions”: ibid., 112

  24 “A couple of thousand men”: ibid.

  25 “the tube of steel”: ibid., 124

  26 “The course... was about west”: Childers, 262

  27 “the wind humming into the mainsail”... “the persuasive song”... “the noble expanse”: ibid., 50, 89

  28 “‘Here’s this huge empire’”: ibid., 80

  29 “sun-burnt, brine-burnt”: ibid., 99

  30 “‘We’re a maritime nation’”: ibid., 97

  31 “I die full of intense love”: ibid., 7

  32 “It is not true”: ibid.

  33 “The pride of these English”: Le Queux, 340

  34 “too horrible to here describe”: ibid., 534

  35 “had we adopted his scheme”: ibid., 333

  36 “the catastrophe that may happen”: ibid., opp. p. vi

  37 “not keep to remote, one-eyed”: Clarke, 145

  38 “Most of these men”: ibid., 148

  39 “military men from a foreign nation”: ibid., 152

  40 “Lord Roberts’ repeated statements”: Maurice, 256

  41 “a strong, aristocratic government”: Le Queux, 542

  42 “to be judged by the good sense”: Hynes, 42

  43 “Bah! What does that matter?”: ibid., 47

  Chapter 35

  The Budget and the House of Lords

  1 “The cure for the House of Lords”: quoted in Willoughby de Broke, 256

  2 “An obscure and doubtless a useful existence”: Dangerfield, 42

  3 “We were all out hunting”: Willoughby de Broke, 244

  4 “the man in the street”: Barker, 158

  5 “the great Unionist Party”: Asquith, Fifty Years, II, 44

  6 “It is essential”: Newton, 353

  7 “not the watchdog”: Spender, Campbell-Bannerman, II, 358

  8 “The resources of the House of Commons”: Newton, 357

  9 “a first class funeral”: Asquith, Fifty Years, II, 69

  10 “slain by the stiletto”: Dangerfield, 16

  11 “I shall have to rob”: Amery, VI, 934

  12 “to raise money”: Asquith, Fifty Years, II, 78

  13 “something between incomparable drama”: Dangerfield, 22

  14 “We sank into a pit”: ibid.

  15 “Only one stock”: Bernstein, 111

  16 “A fully equipped duke”: Magnus, 430

  17 “The question will be asked”: ibid.

  18 “a swooping robber gull”: Asquith, Fifty Years, 82

  19 “the croakings of a retired raven”: ibid., 83

  20 “I think my friends”: ibid.

  21 “firm as a rock”: Jenkins, 199

  22 “Amendment by the House of Lords”: Asquith, Fifty Years, 83

  23 “an omnipotent House of Commons”: Willoughby de Broke, 259

  24 “a breach of the constitution”: Asquith, Fifty Years, II, 88

  25 “If you gentlemen”: Willoughby de Broke, 265

  26 “We have got them”: Barker, 162

  27 “We shall not assume office”: Lee, II, 670

  28 “if the Lords fail”: Asquith, Fifty Years, II, 98

  29 “I myself do not see”: Magnus, 440

  30 “Really, it is too bad”: Lee, II, 686

  31 “till we all nearly screamed”: Ponsonby, 255

  32 “the head of the British Empire”: Bülow, II, 475

  33 “My God, he is dying!”: Pless, 176

  34 The account of King Edward’s death is taken from Lee, II, 714–18; Magnus, 455–66; Ponsonby, 270

  35 “that horrid Biarritz”: Ponsonby, 271

  36 “I have lost my best friend”: Magnus, 456

  37 “The world [is] not the same”: Barker, 84

  38 “the death of Edward VII”:
Bülow, III, 98

  39 “the death of the ‘Encircler’”: William II, My Memoirs, 124

  40 “I am deeply grieved”: Asquith, Fifty Years, II, 100

  41 “I felt bewildered”: ibid.

  42 “The entire royal family”: William II, My Memoirs, 124

  43 The Kaiser’s descriptions of the funeral are in ibid., 124, 126

  44 “many talks”: Spender, Asquith, I, 282

  45 “Looking into the future”: Tuchman, Proud Tower, 392

  46 “Yes, sir”: Margot Asquith, III, 212

  47 “Dear Lord Lansdowne”: Asquith, Fifty Years, II, 111

  48 “Let them make their peers”: Dangerfield, 44

  49 “invariably objected on principle”: Newton, 361

  50 “solemn duty to God and country”: Tuchman, Proud Tower, 396

  51 “Even if I am alone”: Dangerfield, 52

  52 “I agree with Lord Lansdowne”: Newton, 426

  53 The account of the attack on Asquith in the Commons is drawn from Dangerfield, 55–58, and issues of The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Daily News, and The Daily Chronicle of July 25, 1911

  54 “For God’s sake, defend him”: Margot Asquith, III, 216

  55 “I am not going to degrade myself’: Dangerfield, 57

  56 “pure bluff”: ibid., 63

  57 “I have to say”: ibid.

  58 “boiling with rage”: ibid., 65

  59 “Traitor!”... “Judas!”: ibid.

  60 “The cataracts, the pines, and the precipices”: Tuchman, Proud Tower, 402

  61 “quite unusually odious”: Blanche Dugdale, II, 61

  Chapter 36

  The Eulenburg Scandal

  1 “the internal condition of Germany”: Newton, 372

  2 “PRUSSIAN COURT SCANDALS”: The Times, October 24, 1907

  3 “It is false and foolish”: Balfour, 276

  4 “I could never put into words”: Haller, I, 10

  5 “torment of unfair, narrow-minded, and coarse-natured”: ibid., 14

  6 “terribly boring”: Hull, 50

  7 “Her conversation was negligible”: ibid.

  8 “I enjoy family life little”: ibid., 51

  9 “My official career”: Haller, I, 27

  10 “dear Phili”: ibid., 30

  11 “I shall take care”: Bülow, IV, 490

  12 “used to enliven our evenings”: William II, My Early Life, 196

  13 “He was one of those”: ibid., 197

  14 “my bosom friend”: Hull, 202

  15 “it was like a flood of sunshine”: William II, My Early Life, 197

  16 “has become a radiance”: Haller, I, 75

  17 “I will lay among my most treasured gifts”: ibid., 42

  18 “that Prince William”: ibid., 41

  19 “He was very pale”: Röhl, 189

  20 “Phil was so excited”: Bülow, I, 194

  21 “It was very useful”: Haller, I, 31

  22 “So you are going to be in Bayreuth”: ibid.

  23 “Your influence on His Majesty”: ibid., 73

  24 “I would never have dreamed”: Isabel Hull, “Kaiser Wilhelm and the ‘Liebenberg Circle,’” in Röhl and Sombart, Kaiser Wilhelm II: New Interpretations, 205

  25 “If I feel a certain degree”: Haller, I, 124

  26 “Your letter of today”: ibid., 132

  27 “The Emperor has never touched me”: ibid., 187

  28 “would impair my influence”: ibid., 218

  29 “I agree with you”: ibid., 219

  30 “I soon fell under the spell”: Bülow, IV, 492

  31 “The friend who has been”: ibid.

  32 “I have a great longing”: Haller, II, 3

  33 “Nothing will ever be able”: ibid., 5

  34 “in the depths of our souls”: ibid., 4

  35 “A poor barndoor fowl”: ibid., I, 217

  36 “I—not as a friend”: ibid. 70

  37 “We cannot be sufficiently thankful”: ibid., I, 87

  38 “Bernhard is the most valuable”: ibid., II, 6

  39 “Bülow will be my Bismarck”: ibid., 7

  40 “on our boundless love”: Röhl, 159

  41 “Your Majesty will allow me”: ibid., 159

  42 “As a personality”: Haller, II, 35

  43 “You are our dear good sovereign’s”: ibid., 37

  44 “One of the best things”: ibid., 38

  45 “wrinkled, prematurely aged”: Röhl, “The Emperor’s New Clothels,” in Röhl and Sombart, Kaiser Wilhelm II: New Interpretations, 43

  46 “told me with feverish agitation”: Bülow, I, 520

  47 “love for his Majesty”: ibid., 708

  48 “Ten years of uphill work”: ibid., 694

  49 “sweet, affected piety”: Hull, 131

  50 “At a certain age”: ibid.

  51 “men who in their sensitivity”: ibid.

  52 “As Phili will never come to me”: Haller, II, 148

  53 “This floating theatre”: Bülow, I, 708

  54 “My dear Phili”: ibid., II, 321

  55 “I am now free”: Hull, 130

  56 “a matter of life and death”: Haller, II, 174

  57 “exchange pistol shots”: ibid.

  58 “literally collapsed into his chair”: ibid.

  59 “for God’s sake and the Emperor’s”: ibid.

  60 “Prince Eulenburg having assured me”: ibid., 175

  61 “I cannot say”: ibid.

  62 “nothing but good people”: Isabel Hull, “Kaiser Wilhelm II and the ‘Liebe3nberg Circle,’” in Röhl and Sombart, Kaiser Wilhelm II: New Interpretations, 193

  63 “unhealthy, late Romantic”: ibid.

  64 “with unflagging zeal”: ibid.

  65 “For years”: ibid.

  66 “Never shall I forget”: Crown Prince William, 15

  67 “I insist that Philip Eulenburg”: Bülow, II, 346

  68 “The loss of an old imperial friendship”: ibid.

  69 “I know myself”: ibid.

  70 “I was convinced”: ibid., 322

  71 “Disgusting orgies”: The Times, October 25, 1907

  72 “thought he recognized”: ibid.

  73 “in the interests of our whole country”: Wile, 197

  74 “Between that man and me”: ibid.

  75 “In these painful circumstances”: Bülow, II, 347

  76 “begging me”: ibid., 343

  77 “As the highest official”: ibid., 344

  78 “considered the practices in question”: ibid., 349

  79 “I have never done anything dirty”: Hull, 138

  80 “Could you ever have believed”: Haller, II, 222

  81 “Besides, if anything of the kind”: ibid., 242

  82 “Harden sent 145 printed accusations”: Bülow, III, 30

  83 “in the long period of 34 years”: Haller, II, 326

  84 “Only one thing”: Bülow, III, 30

  85 “My dear Phili”: ibid., 32

  86 “abnormal instincts”: ibid., 31

  87 “perilous inclination”: ibid.

  88 “erotic integrity”: ibid., II, 323

  89 “An obvious comparison”: ibid., III, 33

  90 “Prince Eulenberg is not fit”: Haller, II, 269

  91 “It has been a very difficult year”: Balfour, 276

  92 “Poor Phili”: Hull, 145

  93 “absolutely innocent”: Isabel Hull, “Kaiser William II and the ‘Liebenberg Circle,’” in Röhl and Sombart, Kaiser Wilhelm II: New Interpretations, 218

  Chapter 37

  The Daily Telegraph Interview

  1 “good sport in the dear old park”: Lee, II, 546

  2 “My head hit the ground”: Bülow, II, 337

  3 “bronchitis and acute cough”: Lee, II, 554

  4 “I cannot say how upset I am”: ibid., 555

  5 “there is little doubt”: BD, VI, 88

  6 “The worst of it is”: Bülow, II, 338

  7 “The German squa
dron”: The Times, November 12, 1907

  8 “It seems like coming home”: ibid.

  9 “For a long time”: Lee, II, 557

  10 “Sunshine and breeze”: The Times, November 14, 1907

  11 “BLUT 1ST DICKER ALS WASSER”: ibid.

  12 “Sixteen years ago”: Lee, II, 558

  13 “next to General von Einem”: Haldane, Autobiography, 221

  14 “I said I knew”: Haldane, Before the War, 48

  15 “I will give you the ‘gate’”: ibid.

  16 “giving us a ‘gate’”: ibid., 49

  17 “I feel myself an intruder”: ibid., 50

  18 “I wish to express my satisfaction”: Gooch, History of Modern Europe, 434

  19 “It is bound to have”: ibid.

  20 “the visit of the German Emperor”: Jonathan Steinberg, “The Kaiser and the British,” in Röhl and Sombart, Kaiser Wilhelm 11: New Interpretations, 138

  21 “Our King makes a better show”: Esher, II, 255

  22 “The great British people”: ibid., 278

  23 “Overwhelmed with work”: Bülow, II, 375

  24 “on no account forward it”: Spender, Fifty Years, 318

  25 “Without the slightest suspicion”: Bülow, II, 376

  26 The précis of the Daily Telegraph Interview is drawn from Holstein Papers, I, 203–207

  27 “more than any previous manifestation”: Bülow, II, 376

  28 “And haven’t you learned”: ibid., 393

  29 “I am not in a position”: ibid., 395

  30 “To a newcomer like myself”: BD, VI, 217

  31 “Never before in Prussian history”: Jarausch, 59

  32 “it will be impossible”: ibid.

  33 “If Your Majesty is displeased”: E.T.S. Dugdale, III, 313; DGP, XXTV, 179

  34 “He was... as he always was”: Bülow, II, 397

  35 “Go ahead”: ibid.

  36 “His trustful, childlike attitude”: ibid.

  37 “The wish that in future”: ibid., 404

  38 “For the mistake”: Gooch, History of Modern Europe, 441

  39 “Gentlemen, the knowledge”: Bülow, II, 409

  40 “When, amid a roar of cheering”: ibid., 410

  41 “In view of the Kaiser’s indiscretions”: Holstein Papers, I, 190

  42 “We have a population”: Cowles, 269

  43 “He was longing”: Bülow, II, 398

  44 “Did you, as people are saying”: Holstein Papers, I, 190

  45 “If you met Kaiser William”: Balfour, 291

  46 “The two days here”: Cowles, 264

 

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