My darling - of course there was no letter from you this morning: how could there be when you were in the motor all day? (Beb reported having seen you at Stanway). All the same its absence left a blank feeling, and I look forward eagerly to to-morrow. After I wrote to had a lot of bother over the Prince of Wales's Relief Fund. It is over a million now & no one seems to have the least idea what exactly it is for, or how or by whom it is going to be spent! I have asked A. J. B. and Sir G. Murray to join the Committee, which seems to be rather a rudderless affair, and after all it is none of my business. I haven't even sent my subscription yet. Among my callers on the subject was the Abp. of Canterbury, and I took the opportunity of opening up with him the proposed moratorium for Welsh disendowment. I think he was rather agreeably surprised, but I don't know what his second thoughts will be. Redmond is I hope coming over to-night, and I have told Birrell to see him first thing to-morrow, & to impress upon him that some modus vivendi is, in existing circumstances, absolutely imperative. The choice is between 3 courses (1) agreement upon the basis of provisional exclusion of 6 counties or thereabouts (2) passing the Bill as it stands with a suspensory clause, say for 1 year, capable of renewal (3) hanging up the Bill to next Session, with a provision that it shd then be in precisely the same position (i.e. deemed to have passed the H of Commons & gone to the Lords) as it is now, & entitled to full benefit of Parliament Act. (1) with all its logical drawbacks is the best - so far as G. Britain is concerned it clears the whole damned business out of the way. (2) I doubt whether the Tories wd. accept they wd. say it left them too much at the mercy of the chapter of accidents. (3) is really the fairest in the circumstances: for it leaves both parties in their present position when next Session comes. I expect Redmond will jib at it, because it does not give him his Bill on the Statute book now, & leaves him more or less to the mercies of fortune. Rather interesting isn't it? Of course (3) cd. be applied to the Welsh Bill also, if there are difficulties about agreement there. Violet & I drove out to Stanmore to dine with the Bencks. Only the Count and Countess & Nathalie were at dinner; Bron & Nan came in afterwards. We played some rather moderate bridge & came home with a fair sum out of the Ambassador's pocket: he & 'Sophie', hate playing as partners, and never get to better terms than a kind of armed neutrality. I am very fond of them both. There was a rumour all over London yesterday, wh. was universally believed, that Frau had at last been arrested & cast into prison, no less than 4 documents of the most incriminating kind being found upon her! Of course it was only a 'well-invented para.' . . . but every one was prepared to accept it as gospel – including the Bencks. Do you remember remembering with me for throwing out of the window that little rolled up ball of 'flimsy' as we drove thro' Roehampton lane on Sat? The only people – except E Grey – who get these secret flimsyies are myself, Winston, Kitchener & Harcourt. It appears that the police have discovered fragments of them in St. James' Park, in Oxfordshire near Goring, & one or two other places in the country. These they have laboriously collected and the pieces came round in a box this morning with a severe admonition from E Grey as to the dangers to wh. the Foreign Office cypher was exposed from such loose handling of secret matters! My conscience was quite clear as to St. Jas's Park & Goring; so I simply wrote 'not guilty' – nor was our little ball among the pièces de conviction: but what damning evidence you might have given! We had a Cabinet this morning, but there was nothing very interesting. Poor old Grierson has died to have died of apoplexy & excitement, & is to be succeeded by Smith Dorrien. Everyone is very pleased with the smoothness & secrecy of the 'Exped' Force. Winston is engaged in chasing a German cruiser about the North Sea with 2 of his flotillas, & hopes to run her down before nightfall. Since I began this I have been out to luncheon at the French Embassy to meet Jules Cambon, late of Berlin. E. Grey, Benck, Tyrrell & a lot of Frenchmen were there. Paul Cambon said rather a good thing to me about Jaurès who was assassinated the other day: 'He was by nature an orator, & he took up all the ideas, creeds &c – such as Socialism, fraternity of nations & the rest – wh. most readily lead themselves to oratory'. I had a really interesting talk after lunch with the other brother Jules, who is the quicker & brighter of the two. He says Bethmann-Hollweg is a man 'très médiocre' – 'bourgeois et courtisan' – wh. as I said is a combination mauvaise. At his final interview with Jagow, the German Foreign Sec, he (Jules) said to him: 'you will be conquered in this war by the same forces wh. conquered Napoleon – les deux Puissances intangibles' – England & Russia. One you cannot reach by water, nor the other by land, &c. He thinks rather meanly of the Kaiser 'vaniteux & poseur', and says that he was drawn into the war by the military party, by the junkers who want to destroy Parliamentarianism & reestablish the Bismarckian regime, and by jealousy of the Crown Prince who is the idol of the mob. Good Heavens! the best part of 3 sheets. You will I am afraid think that I am getting garrulous, and I have not time to cut out the dull parts. I dine with Cassel to-night. Think of me always my darling, and tell me your thoughts, and be my stay & joy. I love you.