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272
ON THE EVE OF WAR [chap. xvi.
monsieur, and are well acquainted with the situation
there; do you not think that the political state of those
countries is very menacing? Here and in a great many
other places people think that it is just from there that
danger might come."
Again I turned a deaf ear to this invitation to
confidences. I thought to myself: "Now here is a banker
who has just become Minister for Foreign Affairs, and
who considers it incumbent on him, at his first interview
with the new Russian Minister, to converse on questions
of high politics!" If I had known M. Knut Wallenberg
a little I should never have formed such an incorrect
judgment. Since then, during three years of almost
daily intercourse, amidst events of exceptional gravity,
I got to know thoroughly the character and mentality
of the distinguished Swedish statesman, and I realised
that, although not lacking in frankness, M. Wallenberg
weighed his every word, and never indulged in idle
talk. In this the long experience of a great financier
was apparent. Moreover, M. Wallenberg is essentially
Swedish, and all Swedes are men of few words; when
they speak it is because they think they are obliged to.
Hence, if the new Swedish Foreign Secretary had
thought it necessary at the outset of our intercourse to
converse with me about his fears on the subject of the
political situation of Europe, he must have had grave
reasons for doing so.
The artificial agitation kept up in the country, the
clash of opinions between the King and the
Staaf-Ehrensvaerd Cabinet and the demonstrations that had
brought about the dissolution of the Chamber, were due
—as subsequent events proved—to German instigation.
Sinister schemes were ripening in Berlin; she had to
attempt to reap, from Sweden, the fruit of the persistent
work which I mentioned above; she had to secure
finally the formal alliance of Sweden.
Doubtless during the month of February, 1914, the
Swedish Court was warned by Berlin of the extreme
tension of the political situation, and received proposals
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