ment of the Doctors I was up and about again in a few days, and attended the funerals of many persons who were foolish enough to deliver themselves into the Doctors' hands."

The pride of an ambassador's daughter could not be expected to survive the scandal which ensued, and Mrs Edwards soon followed her rival to the cemetery. Mr Edwards too died before long of a broken heart, and almost ruined by the extravagance of his wife.

In 1657, following such obvious precursors of misfortune as an eclipse of the moon and the visit of a comet, a disease which was evidently the influenza of modern times attacked almost every one in the dominions of the Grand Signor, and made nearly as many victims as the plague. It began with a cold and ended with pneumonia. The Chevalier had it badly. "I was," he says, extremely ill, and I believe I should have died had I obeyed the orders of the Doctors. They absolutely forbade the taking of alcohol in any form or manner, but I drank some brandy after having it burned and putting a large quantity of sugar in it. This liquor, for which I never had a liking, produced an admirable effect. It softened the phlegm with which my chest was clogged, gave me strength to

Although the Chevalier had an excellent time in Smyrna, and acquired a thorough acquaintance with the mysteries of commerce, he was dissatisfied with the slow progress he made in languages. English and Greek he learned easily enough, but in spite of diligence in the study of Turkish and Arabic, with the aid of such dictionaries and grammars as existed, he made little headway in these two tongues, which he particularly desired to master. None of the foreigners whose society he frequented could speak either, and unfortunately a young man like himself could not venture to associate with Mussulmans on account of the obvious danger to his morals. Accordingly, when the order came for him to proceed to Sidon in Syria with one of the Messieurs Bertandié, it was not unwelcome. The pair were entertained by their friends at farewell banquets and gave feasts in return, all with much magnificence, "for the people of this country pride themselves on doing things better than in any other," and on 7th February 1658 they embarked for Alexandria on board an English ship of forty guns. And there we must leave them.

SUSPENSE, that essential prelude to the last act of every drama, was the motif of the overture to the final spasmodic movements of the Genoese Russian Ballet.

The reed instruments emitted a sad, vague rhapsody, indicative of M. Tchitcherine's heart-searchings over his reply to Europe's ultimatummemorandum. The wind-instruments adventured into harmonic discords, wherein French insistence on categorical acceptance or rejection" conflicted with British anxiety for " a basis of further negotiations." M. Rakowsky, the Soviet cymballist, clanged propagandist interjections. There were weird crackling sounds, reminiscent of the whip-crackings in the orchestration of the Straussian opera Elektra '; for wireless messages in code were apprising the Kremlin of just how much harder M. Tchitcherine considered he could pull Europe's legs, while return messages were apprising the Hotel Imperial at Santa Margharita of just what the new leftward reaction in the Council of People's Commissars must portend for Moscow's policy at Genoa. And the conductor from Criccieth waved the baton of persuasion ever more frantically as the oppos

ing rhapsodies from the instrumentalists on his Right and the instrumentalists on his Left became ever more difficult of assimilative blending.

Indeed, the conductor from Criccieth twice changed batons during this overture to the last act.

In the first place, he was obliged to discard Dr Benes as mediator-in-chief and custodian of international conciliations. The Premier of Czecho-Slovakia was no longer the Little - Friend - of- all - the World. In his desire to retain the friendship of everybody, he had blunted the sharp edges of French viewpoints before he exhibited these to the British, had treated British viewpoints similarly when discussing them with the French, and had allowed M. Tchitcherine's blandishments in the matter of a separate treaty with Czecho-Slovakia to fluence his Russian mediations. Wherefore, when Mr Lloyd George compared direct notes with M. Barthou on the one hand and M. Tchitcherine on the other, the stock of international confidence in the LittleFriend of all the - World slumped.

in

Mr Lloyd George's next baton of persuasion was Dr Wirth.

On three afternoons in succession the rotund figure of the German Chancellor was seen in the Villa d'Albertis. Between these three meetings with the British Premier he sandwiched two others with the chief of the Soviet delegation. And clearly there could be no more influential go-between to the Russians than the governmental head of Russia's new ally. The only drawback to Dr Wirth's inspired efforts to persuade M. Tchitcherine into sending a moderate reply was that he imparted wrong impressions. Whether by accident or design, he misled Mr Lloyd George into believing that M. Tchitcherine's answer to the ultimatum-memorandum would warrant a continuance of the Russian negotiations in Genoa.

Which

misapprehension caused the garden city secretariat in the Villa d'Albertis to summon the first of two secret conclaves of ministerial scribes.

At home, interest in Genoa was flagging; and even the Liberal press showed an impulse to cry, "Ring down the curtain! The farce is played." Wherefore, interest at home had to be stimulated into acceptance of still further and still more dubious prolongation of the interminable Conference. To suggest inspired commentary in this direction at the twicedaily meetings of British and American correspondents was inadvisable, for the Americans

66

were shy of official dope" suggestions, and besides, the wicked Northcliffe press was always represented at these gatherings. It was arranged, therefore, that such commentators as might be inclined to reflect Mr Lloyd George's policy should be specially invited to a special exposition.

"Come to the villa at 3 o'clock. Mention this to nobody."

Thus the words spoken in a conspiratorial aside by a publicity attaché to scribes of the Lloyd Georgian claque. So that the discrimination might seem less flagrant, the correspondents of the 'Morning Post' and the 'Manchester Guardian,' whose telegrams had shown independence of judgment, were likewise given the mysterious assignation at the villa-only the three wicked newspapers belonging to Lord Northcliffe and Lord Beaverbrook's 'Daily Express' being excluded.

Eight hired cars, then, carried eight expectant correspondents to the Villa d'Albertis at 3 o'clock of a heat-oppressive afternoon. There, Sir Edward Grigg carefully closed the parlour door, delivered his exposition, and answered whatever questions were put to him. Next day his words were paraphrased in six of the eight newspapers into optimistic deductions and predictions; while the wicked and excluded Northcliffe press continued to cry that the curtain should be rung down on the played farce.

Forty-eight hours later, when the first draft of M. Tchitcherine's impossible reply had been completed, the wicked and excluded Northcliffe press was proved to be right, while the official hints given to the eight commentators were shown to be utterly misleading.

Meanwhile Signor Schanzer, who from the beginning had worked in harmony with Mr Lloyd George, was the last and most successful go-between to carry sweet reason from the Villa d'Albertis to the Soviet hotel. He was able to persuade M. Tehitcherine that if the draft reply-whereof the contents had already been divulged to a correspondent by a bribed propagandist of the Russian delegation-were delivered without amendment, the Conference would end at once, and that the onus of failure must fall unquestionably upon the Russians.

Again there were wireless cracklings to and from Moscow. But Moscow was not in a mood to make further concessions to capitalism, and the most that Signor Schanzer could obtain was the insertion on M. Tchitcherine's last page, following upon eighteen pages of doctrinaire sterility, of the unctuous and involved sentence:

"The Russian delegation is of opinion that the differences which have appeared in the course of the solution of the financial difficulties between itself and the foreign Powers

ought not to prove an obstacle to the possibility and to the necessity of the solution here in Genoa of the other problems interesting all countries alike, and in the first place the problems touching the reconstruction in the economic sphere of Europe and of Russia, and the consolidation of peace."

For the rest, M. Tchitcherine's final Genoese essay was deemed "incredibly futile " by the French and their associates, and even official spokesmen from the Villa d'Albertis called it "stupid," while protesting that the desire for the solution of European peace problems was a gleam of light through the darkness of insufficiency.

66

The question of the moment was whether, now that the 'stupid" reply had dissipated all hope of a Russian treaty in Genoa, the promised pact of European peace might be arranged. If such a pact could be formulated in a manner acceptable to the whole of Europe, including Russia, Mr Lloyd George would be able to claim a positive and impressive achievement, despite the fiasco of his economic reconstruction policy.

In case the peace pact plan should prove to be as abortive as had the projected Russian treaty, he now sought other justifications for the Genoese adventure. He brought before a meeting of the convening Powers a score of protests,

appeals, and demands from small nations who desired that the Conference should consider their grievances. Typhus, delimitation of frontiers, irredentist minorities, plundered treasures, confiscation of Church properties, freedom of religious thought, commercial isolation -these and other lesser nuisances were released from the Pandora-box opened by the British Premier.

In every case M. Barthou, who wanted to be done with the Conference of lost endeavour as quickly as possible, protested that these grievances were outside its scope; and in nearly every case "the leader of Europe" insisted on their examination by the political subcommission. Yet two days later, when Mr Lloyd George's scheme for a Conference at the Hague and for a temporary truce of peace had been generally endorsed as a face-saving alternative to the original grandiose programme of Genoa, he was willing enough that these lesser nuisances should either be merely taken note of, or else be buried among the League of Nations' dusty archives.

For the rest, now that the legacies from the Conference of lost endeavour were definitely formulated, finality induced many disclaimers of jealousies and unfriendliness in the past, and assurances of goodwill and friendliness in the future. "Swear that you are not scheming to dissolve our partnership." "I swear it; but

And so to the hurried funeral session, whereat preoccupation with train departures caused the mourners' attention regrettably to wander from Mr Lloyd George's eulogy of the dear, not to say very costly, departed, and from Signor Facta's reading of the last will and testament, which involved liquidation by a meeting of trustees at the Hague. Even M. Tchitcherine's out-of-place acrimonies at the graveside occasioned only shoulder-shrugs of dispassionate tolerance.

Returning from the funeral session of the thirteenth postwar Conference, I read on the information-board of the Casa della Stampa the following just-posted notice: "If those who expect to attend the International Conference at the Hague will apply this afternoon at the offices of the delegation of the Netherlands, the secretariat will be pleased to provide information and

advice."

The Conference was dead. Long live the Conference!

Come to think of it, the Conference method of solving the