He had studied for many years the Balkan problem. He knew that as
Austria weakened, Germany would more and more feel the menace of Russia.
He saw, over and over again, the diplomacy of the Germans thrusting
Austria forward to a paramount position in the Balkans, and with his own
eyes he saw the Germans in Bulgaria and Turkey fastening their hold upon
those important countries. If Russia weakened, Germany would be master
of the world. A strong Russia might alarm Germany and precipitate a
conflict, but it was the world's chief fortress against Prussian
domination.

For the sake of Russia he worked for Russia, loving her people and yet
seeing the dangers of the Russian character; hoping that a
self-respecting Russia might save mankind from the horrors of war and,
if war came, the worse horrors of a German world-conquest. This work of
his, which helped so materially to save the world, was done with clean
hands. It was never the work of a war-monger. No foreigner ever
exercised so great an influence in Russia, and this influence had its
power in his moral nature. I had this from M. Sazonoff himself.

Such a man as Lord Carnock could not make any headway in English
political life. It is worth our while to reflect that the intelligence
of such men is lost to us in our home government. They have no taste for
the platform, the very spirit of the political game is repellent to
them, and they recoil from the self-assertion which appears to be
necessary to political advancement in the House of Commons. No doubt the
intelligence of men like Mr. J.H. Thomas or Mr. William Brace, certainly
of Mr. Clynes, is sufficient for the crudest of our home needs,
sufficient for the daily bread of our political life; but who can doubt
that English politics would be lifted into a higher and altogether purer
region if men like Lord Carnock were at the head of things, to provide