enemies, male and female, rush in with renewed strength, making for the vulnerable point, in the hope of securing my overthrow.  These good people are like carrion vultures—­I myself am the carrion—­they can scent from afar that there is something for them to do, and come flying to the spot.  And the lies they invent and the intrigues they contrive, with a view to increasing existing differences—­really, they are worthy of admiration.  You ask, who are these inveterate enemies of mine?

  Well, first of all, those whom you yourself conjecture.

And, secondly, the enemies whom every Minister has, the numbers of those who would fain be in his place.  Finally, a crowd of political mountebanks from the Jockey Club, who are disgusted because they had hoped for some personal advantage through my influence, and I have ignored them.  No. 3 is a comfortingly negligible quantity, No. 2 are dangerous, but No. 1 are deadly.

In any case, then, my days are numbered.  Heaven be thanked, relief is not far off.  If only I could now settle things with Russia quickly, and thus perhaps secure the possibility of a peace all round.  All reports from Russia seem to point to the fact that the Government there is determined on peace, and peace as speedily as possible.  But the Germans are now full of confidence.  If they can throw their massed forces against the West, they have no doubt of being able to break through, take Paris and Calais, and directly threaten England.  Such a success, however, could only lead to peace if Germany could be persuaded to renounce all plans of conquest.  I at any rate cannot believe that the Entente, after losing Paris and Calais, would refuse to treat for peace as inter pares—­it would at least be necessary to make every endeavour in that direction.  Up to now Hindenburg has done all that he promised, so much we must admit, and the whole of Germany believes in his forthcoming success in the West—­always taking for granted, of course, the freeing of the Eastern front; that is to say, peace with Russia.  The Russian peace, then, may prove the first step on the way to the peace of the world.

I have during the last few days received reliable information about the Bolsheviks.  Their leaders are almost all of them Jews, with altogether fantastic ideas, and I do not envy the country that is governed by them.  From our point of view, however, the most interesting thing about them is that they are anxious to make peace, and in this respect they do not seem likely to change, for they cannot carry on the war.

In the Ministry here, three groups are represented:  one declines to take Lenin seriously, regarding him as an ephemeral personage, the second does not take this view at all, but is nevertheless unwilling to treat with a revolutionary of this sort, and the third consists, as far as I am aware, of myself alone, and I will treat with him,