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she - and the King through her, were in direct intercourse with Germany. When we returned from abroad - I met her by accident at supper - and she came up to me. I said we had just come home, and were really scandalised at the reports in the Press - she said- she was "an innocent victim and put on the spot" and that it was a Bolshevist plot " to which I replied - that if it was, it was an extremely clever one - as it was the only way to bring the British Monarchy down - which indeed it might if things got any worse". She got quite rigid and clenched her hands - then she said "thank you so much for telling me - no one tells "him" these things (which was not true as far as

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Cromer was concerned and his own Court officials distinct from his friends/ I shall repeat what you have said to him!!" - almost a threat. She said she would like to see me again - but I told her I was leaving for here as Charly was the Mayor of Durham. She then wrote 8 sides to me here - suggesting I should see her later - which I did not do. I said unless I could be of any use to him - there was no point in it and only give rise to more talk. It was all part of a plan. She had been to see Maggie Greville and Portia Stanley!! Shortly after this - the

storm burst. He had already abdicated several days - a week I think before he did - when she called on him to say goodbye before she left for Cannes - Maureen said that she told him he was only a puppet king and must fight it out - so he withdrew what he was prepared to do. The Press Lords were urging him on these lines too - and I don't feel that Winston [Churchill] is to be trusted. True - when he found the plan did not work - he said any other course was impossible - on the whole - I think the King must be commended at least for ending it all - in opposition to his evil friends. This at least we must thank him for. I thought the Archbishop was quite excellent to-day and Bruin - as I call S. B. superb

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No one else could have argued so long and wisely with someone who was verging on lunacy - he had shouted his Mother down at Marlborough House before going to fort Belvedere - and insulted Lord Athlone and the Duke of York - who were with her.

The amazing thing has been the quietness and great dignity of the people themselves in face of the Press Lords campaign and all the mass of false issues that they published in London. The result must have astounded the Press Lords - in fact I have reason to know that Rothermere is dumbfounded. So here we all are now - in the light of everything - relieved and looking forward to a new and better era.

Not perhaps quite out of the wood. There is still the outraged and openly flouted King's proctor and if the late King marries this woman - she will become a Duchess and a royal highness and he can bring her here.

Of our own travels - the one outstanding feature is the lead that all the countries we visited were hoping Gt B would give against Bolshevism. The utter incapacity of Roumania to govern adequately the huge tracts she has been given. All the fine roads in Transylvania are disappearing - no one is paid in Roumania, therefore all the money voted for improvements