Prince Henry
was not merely a social but a political bagman. He had asked for
something. He wanted a tangible "souvenir" of his visit. He had made
proposals to the State Department of the usual Prussian type. By "usual
Prussian type," I mean that he had asked for concessions of territory
and engagements in which all the real, and most of the apparent, benefit
was on the Prussian side. I do not now remember their exact nature,
though later I learned from Hay something of their general scope and
character. My only trustworthy recollection is that Hay referred to them
with that patient, well-bred disgust with which he always received
overtures of this kind. He was a man of a very fastidious sense of
honour, and not amused by the low side of life, or by trickery even when
foiled. And here I may perhaps be allowed to interpolate another
personal recollection. I remember his telling me twenty years ago--that
is, during the Spanish War--how the German Ambassador in London had
approached him officially with the request that a portion of the
Philippine Islands should be ceded--Heavens knows why--to the Kaiser. I
can well recall his contemptuous imitation of the manner of the request.
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