Auction details
4:00 AM PT - Dec 11th, 2008
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Harmsworth (Cecil Bisshopp) Diaries, 1900, 1903 (Newfoundland diary), 1905-48, together 46 vol., manuscript, numerous pp., some browning, newspaper cuttings laid down, all but 1 vol. original cloth, not uniform (Newfoundland vol. unbound), 8vo, 1900-48; and numerous typescript transcripts of the diaries, v.s., v.d.(qty)***A fascinating political and private diary. The moment when Lloyd George took office. "Thursday 7th Decr. [1916] The shortest sitting of the H of C on record I should think. I am only 3 or 4 minutes late at the House but the business of the day is already over. It is said the Liberal ex-Cabinet Ministers were resolved to stand out of the Bonar-George ministry en bloc. I write to Runciman who is confined to his house urging that this is an unwise & even an unpatriotic policy. Meanwhile, Ll. G is reported to have made generous offers of ministerial appointments to the Labour Party & to have secured their support by a narrow majority. Of Liberal members, so far as I have had any talk with them, about half are burning with indignation at the way the PM (Asquith) has been treated by Ll.G.... while the other half think that his habits of delay & indecision - the policy of 'Wait and See' - have been the main cause of merited misfortune." The Paris Peace Treaty & signing of the Treaty of Neuilly, 1919. Sunday, February 2, 1919. "Paris, Hotel Majestic About noon I call round at the Villa which the P.M. occupies. I find him & Mrs. Ll. G & Megan... they having just returned from church. Ll. G greets me warmly & invites me to join his party for a drive & walk in the Bois. We alight in one of the quieter drives in the Bois which are looking delightful with three or four inches of snow on the ground. The paths are very slippery & the P.M. narrowly misses several croppers as we walk gingerly along. He is lively & interested in everything - except the Blockade [the Allied Blockade of Russia 1918-22] Later [note]: It is incredible but a fact that I don't know to this day what Ll.G fetched me over to Paris for! I had one or two chances of brief conversation with him before I returned to London but not a word would he say about the Blockdade. 19th January 1934." "I have an opportunity of a little talk with the 'Tiger' as Clemenceau is affectionately called. He is easily recognised by the many photographs & caricatures of him that one has seen. I asked him what they would do with the original Treaty documents. 'Burn them I should think' he replies with a laugh 'Probably the best thing they could do with them seeing that so many of the signatories are breaking them already.' In answer to a further enquiry why the several treaties are being signed in different places at Versailles, St. Germain-en-Laye, Neiully... he says it is in order they may be conveniently known in history by different names. He refers with some admiration to M. Stamboliski, the burly Bulgarian was always strongly pro - Ally, that he was kept in prison for 3 years by Ferdinand [Emperor of Austria] & tho he took the precaution before leaving Bulgaria for Paris of shutting up his opponents who might otherwise have been troublesome during his absence. King Feisal at the Peace Conference. "Conversation this evening with General Mann & Haddad Pasha, Feisal's interpreter & confident. Feisal is still in Paris. Haddad says he has patched up a fairly satisfactory arrangement with the French.". View Bloomsbury Auctions next auction.Similar lots up for auction |
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