95 Sloane Street Friday 28 Dearest Father. Last night I went to a delightful party at the Glenconners' and just before I arrived (as usual) 4 suffragettes set on Asquith and siezed hold of him. Whereupon Alec Lawrence in fury siezed 2 of them and twisted their arms till they shrieked. Thereat one of them bit him in the hand till he bled and bled. And when he told me the tale there he was steepled in his gore. We all advised him to go at once to Pasteur. There's a rumour that Sir E. Carson is going to begin militancy and go to prison, and that Ulster will rise to a man. I think it's perfectly shocking. Sir J. Simon (charming man) with whom I had a long talk yesterday says he does not believe it, but also that the Unionists have not put up any case at all - not given one single case, though challenged, of Protestants oppressed by Catholics. He thinks their real case is not realities but the panic of the Protestants and that they have left unspoken of in wild accusations about things that have never happened. So he says and of course I like him so much that I always wish to believe him. I had an enchanting lunch with the Willcockses and Sydney Peel. Willcocks is the dearest old thing in this world. I'm going to stay with them in Egypt - some time. And I had a great triumph on Monday. I got Edwin Montagu to lunch to meet Major O'Connor, and the latter talked for 1½ hours of all the frontier questions - admirably. Mr M. sat and listened for 1½ hours and then summed up the whole question with complete comprehension. I was enchanted. He is not only able, Mr M., he is the real thing - he's a statesman. And I believe that the upshot of it will be that we shall get an English resident in Lhassa [Lhasa] and he will be Major O'C. But it's early to talk of that and we have more plots still before us. The truth is I'm having a tremendously fine time, I won't deny it! I have made great friends with the Elgars and go to tea with them once a week at their home in Hampstead. It's delightful. At the political parties I may say that everyone asks after you and rejoices to hear that you are having a holiday. Tell Herbert that a band of us are carrying on propaganda about the abandonment of the Mediterranean. My part is the political situation in Europe, that it will throw Italy into making the Triple Alliance offensive and defensive, alienate Spain, and oblige us to make an offensive and defensive alliance with France, which would bind us down to every mad project of colonial aggrandisement France chooses to go in for. This is the skeleton - I'll tell him all the details later. Meantime they have left a paper fleet which is a. useless and b. a blind. Your affectionate daughter Gertrude