"Speaking in the House of Lords on the 10th July, 1905, I said:--'It is to the people of the country I appeal to take up the question of the Army in a sensible practical manner. For the sake of all they hold dear, let them bring home to themselves what would be the condition of Great Britain if it were to lose its wealth, its power, its position.' The catastrophe that may happen if we still remain in our present state of unpreparedness is vividly and forcibly illustrated in Mr. Le Queux's new book, which I recommend to the perusal of _every one who has the welfare of the British Empire at heart_." But alas! if the public disregarded the earnest warnings of "Bobs," it was scarcely surprising that it should disregard mine--especially after the Prime Minister had condemned me. My earnest appeal to the nation met only with jeers and derision, I was caricatured at the music halls, and somebody wrote a popular song which asked, "Are we Downhearted?" Neither the British public, nor the authorities, desired the truth, and, ostrich-like, buried their heads in the sand. Germany would never dare to go to war, we were told, many wiseacres adding, "Not in our time." The violent storm of indignation sweeping upon my unfortunate head, I confess, staggered me. The book, which had cost me eighteen months of hard work, and a journey of ten thousand miles in a motor-car, was declared to be the exaggerated writing of a Jingo, a sensationalist, and one who desired to stir up strife between nations. I was both puzzled and pained. Shortly afterwards, I met Mr. (now Lord) Haldane--then War Minister--at dinner at a country house in Perthshire, when, in his breezy way, he assured me over the dinner-table that he knew Germany and German intentions better than myself, and that there would never be war. And he waxed humorous at my expense, and scorned Lord Roberts's warnings. The Kaiser's cleverness in ingratiating himself with certain English Statesmen, officers, and writers is really amazing, yet it was--though at that time unsuspected--part of the great German plot formed against us. As an instance how the Emperor was cleverly misleading the British Cabinet, Lord Haldane, speaking on June 29th, 1912, at a public dinner, at which Baron Marschall von Bieberstein, the German Ambassador, was present, said:-- "I speak of one whom we admire in this country and regard as one of ourselves. "He (the Kaiser) knows our language and our institutions as we do, and he speaks as we do.