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18 July 1911 — 3 Savile Row | |
Tuesday. 18th [July 1911]. Now that Lord Kitchener’s appointment to the post of Con. Genl at Cairo is known—it occurred to Duncannon to see if it was possible that Lord K. might want a private secy & would take him for the post. He came & asked me to write to Lord K. on the subject. I did so, & in answer received a kind letter saying that he had no such posts at his disposal or he would have taken Vere. He said he would like to come & talk to me about it & agreed therefore to call upon me today at 6 p.m. Just as I expected him rather an absurd thing took place– My sister Connie & At Felicia walked in. As I knew Connie rather disliked Lord K. & would probably show this if she met him I at once began to maneuvre to prevent them meeting. I took her & Felicia down from the drawing room to the library & whispered to Giuseppe to show him upstairs– While talking downstairs I heard him arrive & go up– Connie said she was going to walk. I told Felicia she ought to drive her which she very kindly offered to do & off they went—& I went up to my visitor. He was very kind about Vere & said he had met him lately at a country house & thought him clever but he said that all the appointments under him were made by the F.O. & he himself was determined to take Fitzgerald as his private secy as he could not do without him to manage his household & the social part of the life. I knew that Lord K. always gets his own way in the long run & that therefore Vere has no chance– I asked him if he would come & pay me a visit, on his way to Cairo, at Venice & he said he was afraid he will not have time to do so—& asked if I was not going to Egypt. I said that I had been thinking of doing so & he told me to let him know whenever I had made up my mind on the subject. He stayed chatting about an hour & then went away saying Au revoir. During our chat I suggested to him that when he went to the Agency at Cairo he should not sleep in the same room as had been inhabited by his predecessor Sir Eldon Gorst who died of cancer. He said “Did I think it catching”– I said I did not but that it was safer to have things removed. He said that Sir Eldon probably slept in a big room & he should probably sleep in a small one but he would remember my advice. So he left & we shall probably not meet again for a long time for which I am sorry as he is such a good friend. | |
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