I walked the sands of Scheveningen with General Gross von Schwartzhoff in June, 1899. The German Emperor said he (Schwartzhoff) was a greater than Moltke. He was the Military German Delegate at the Hague Conference; he was designated as Chief of the General Staff at Berlin, but he was burnt to death in China instead. I had done him a very good turn indeed, so he opened his heart to me. There was no German Navy then. We were doing Fashoda; and he expatiated on the _rôle_ of the British Army--how the absolute supremacy of the British Navy gave it such inordinate power far beyond its numerical strength, because 200,000 men embarked in transports, and God only knowing where they might be put ashore, was a weapon of enormous influence, and capable of deadly blows--occupying perhaps Antwerp, Flushing, &c. (but, of course, he only was thinking of the Cotentin Peninsula), or landing 90 miles from Berlin on that 14 miles of sandy beach [in Pomerania], impossible of defence against a battle fleet sweeping with devastating shells the flat country for miles, like a mower’s scythe--no fortifications able to withstand projectiles of 1,450 lb. Yes! you are _so_ right! the average man is incapable of a _wide_ survey! he looks through a pinhole and only sees just a little bit much magnified! Napoleon and Cromwell! Where are they? * * * * * 1912. _April 29th._ NAPLES. ... You say to me--“Come home!”--you remind me of “_personal influence_.” I KNOW IT! Three days ago I was invited to name one of three week-ends in June to meet two very great men at a country house--no one else. Day before yesterday Winston Churchill asks me. Hardly a week passes without such similar pressure from most influential quarters--“_Why don’t I come home and smash and pulverize?_” Of course, they one and all exaggerate--that in ten minutes I could “_sweep the board_” and so on! I know exactly what I can do. I’ve been fighting 50 years! _But I don’t want a personal victory!_ ... I am going to take my body and what little money I have ... to the United States in the near future. It would be no use my coming home. _The mischief is done!_... From patriotic motives I’ve given Winston of my very best in the replies going to him this day from Brindisi by King’s Messenger, as regards designs and policy and fighting measures. * * * * * 1912. _May 15th._ ... Well! as you say, every blessed thing at Weymouth [the Fleet Inspection] _absolutely_ dates from 1909, except the aviation, and even that I pressed to its present condition dead against great opposition, but I wrote so strongly that ---- took the bit between his teeth on that subject! And you ask me the question “How goes it for the future!”