What a pity it is that since those days he has not adjusted himself to this changed world and seized the opportunities for real statesmanship that lie in this era of reconstruction! FOOTNOTES: [19] Completed on November 19th, 1915. [20] The following illuminating advertisement also appeared in the _Neue Freie Presse_ of January 16: "FOR SALE. 40 tons prime beef, fresh packed in ice from Holland. Condensed milk from ---- Amsterdam. Raspberry jam. China tea, 25 chests. Soap, 20 to 40 per cent. fatty matter, 8 wagons. Sausages from ---- Holland. Cement, linseed oil, a wagon of each every week from ---- Denmark. Apply, etc." Not far away from the above advertisement in the same paper is another. "Soup extract, 2½d. a cube. Soup vegetables, Julienne, 1s. 8d. per lb., China tea (Souchong), 5s. per lb., just come from a Danish export house." [21] "Apparently the Declaration of London was valid in the House of Commons, but not valid in the House of Lords."--Lord Beresford, House of Lords, February 23rd, 1916. [22] In referring to the keeping of Government pledges, Sir A. Markham (L.) said: "The only thing the Prime Minister has stuck to has been his salary."--House of Commons, March, 1916. [23] _Goulashe_ is the name given to illicit traders with Germany. [24] Books on the life of Lord Kitchener of Khartoum do not dwell upon this unpardonable fact. Some discreetly omit to mention it. [25] _Daily Mail_, August 16th, 1916. [26] _Evening News_, August 24th, 1916. [27] _Daily Mail_, August 28th, 1916. [28] _Daily Mail_ leading article, December 6th, 1916. L'ENVOI Before parting with my reader I feel an apology is due from me, not for anything I have written, but for what I have left unsaid. I admit this book is an amalgam, and far from being what it might have been, had circumstances not required the exercise of considerable restraint on the part of the writer. Staunch loyalty to his native land is the least return every true-born British subject can make for his birthright; and just as in carrying out the investigations entrusted to me, I ever kept in mind that the one and only object of my existence for the time being was to help my country, so in compiling the preceding chapters I have been compelled, by what in a higher sphere would be called reasons of State, to suppress many facts and incidents which would, I make no doubt, have constituted interesting reading matter. I have striven to give nothing away that could be construed directly or indirectly against my country. I have touched, lightly, yet I trust sufficiently, upon the canker spots that I so fervently hope and pray may in time be eradicated from our system of home and foreign affairs. I may have added to my roll of enemies, yet I rejoice in the consolation that by my actions I know I have brought to me many true and great friends.