mean that I have tried to explore German habits of reflection, as they
may be studied in the literature of Germany. Other people have done all
these things more thoroughly and more extensively than I have. What I do
mean is that from the end of 1905 to the summer of 1912 I had special
chances for direct observation of quite another kind. During that period
I was Secretary of State for War in Great Britain, and from the latter
year to April, 1915, I was the holder of another office and a member of
the British Cabinet.

During the first of the above periods it fell to me to work out the
military organization that would be required to insure, as far as was
practicable, against risk, should those strenuous efforts fail into
which Sir Edward Grey, as he then was, had thrown his strength. He was
endeavoring with all his might to guard the peace of Europe from danger.
As he and I had for many years been on terms of close intimacy, it was
not unnatural that he should ask me to do what I could by helping in
some of the diplomatic work which was his, as well as by engaging in my
own special task. Indeed, the two phases of activity could hardly be
separable.

I was not in Germany after May, 1912, for the duties of Lord Chancellor,
on which office I then entered, made it unconstitutional for me to leave
the United Kingdom, save under such exceptional conditions as were
conceded by the King and the Cabinet when, in the autumn of 1913, I made
a brief yet memorable visit to the United States and Canada. But in
1906, while War Minister, I paid, on the invitation of the German
Emperor, a visit to him at Berlin, to which city I went on after
previously staying with King Edward at Marienbad, where he and the then
Prime Minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, were resting.