The Complete Works of Saki (The Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading Series)

6 The White Knight—The Marquess of Lansdowne, Secretary of State for War, 1895-1900; became Foreign Secretary November, 1900, in succession to Lord Salisbury, who till then had been both Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary. The inscription on the name of the Foreign Office horse is an allusion to Lord Lansdowne’s reputed facility in the French language.

7 The White King—Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman.

8 Berkeley Square, Lord Rosebery’s residence (No. 38).

9 The Primrose Courier—Lord Rosebery, leader of the Liberal Imperialists.

10 The Unkhaki Messenger—Mr. John (afterwards Viscount) Morley, who had been active as an anti-Imperialist. Mr. Morley had recently produced his book on Oliver Cromwell, and Lord Rosebery his book on Napoleon at St. Helena, entitled Napoleon; The Last Phase. Lord Rosebery had resigned the leadership of the Liberal Party in 1896, and Mr. Morley had retired from the “councils of the party” in 1898. But both had reappeared on the scene and the allusions are to Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman’s perplexities at their disappearances and reappearances.

11 The Caterpillar—Mr. Speaker Gully.

12 The difficulties are those of the Liberal Party to 1901. The first flamingo (p. 295) is Sir Edward Grey, the second (p. 296) Lord Rosebery. The “furrow” is an allusion to a speech in which Lord Rosebery had said, “I must plough my furrow alone” (July, 1901). “Cross-currents” was the term usually employed for differences in the Liberal Party. One of the hedgehogs (p. 295) is labelled “Rattigan,” and the other “I.L.P.” (Independent Labour Party) on one side and L.I. (Liberal Imperialist) on the other. This is an allusion to the North-East Lanark by-election in September, 1901, when Sir W. H. Rattigan secured the seat through a split in the Liberal and Radical vote, Mr. Cecil Harmsworth standing as a Liberal Imperialist and Mr. R. Smillie as an Independent Labour candidate.

13 The Red Queen—Mr. Joseph Chamberlain.

14 The White Queen—Mr. Balfour whose favourite occupation was supposed to be golf.

15 Old Age Pensions: Mr. Chamberlain had pledged himself to a scheme of Old Age Pensions, and he was much criticized by the Opposition in these years for postponing or evading the fulfilment of this pledge.

16 Humpty Dumpty—General Sir Redvers Buller, V.C. On his return from South Africa in 1901, Sir Redvers was appointed to command the first Army Corps at Aldershot in pursuance of a new Army Reorganization Scheme. There was much criticism of the appointment and on October 10 he answered his critics in a singular speech at the Queen’s Hall, Westminster, in which he specially defended himself against the charge that he had counselled the surrender of Ladysmith. His defence was that in heliographing instructions to Sir George White, when he was locked up in Ladysmith, he had “spatchcocked” a passage which would have relieved Sir George of responsibility in case he had found it necessary to surrender, and that this passage had been ungenerously twisted into an instruction to surrender. The speech was so confused and eccentric that it greatly perplexed the public, and ten days later the Government cancelled his appointment on the ground that he had committed a breach of regulations in making it. Sir Redvers suggested in his speech that the Boers had put dead horses into the river Tugela, in order to poison the water for the besieged garrison.

17 The Duke of York (now King George V) visited Australia accompanied by the Duchess to open the first session of the Australian Commonwealth Parliament on May 7, 1901, and the Poet Laureate (Mr. Alfred Austin) improved the occasion by writing a royal and loyal ode to greet him on his return. Mr. Austin’s poems had been frequently the subject of Gould’s satire, and “Saki” takes up the theme.

18 A prize given for aviation in its early days.

19 Lord Salisbury’s Government was frequently spoken of in popular jest as the “Hotel Cecil” in allusion to the supposed predominance of the Cecil family in its composition. The March Hare is Mr. Balfour, the Mad Hatter, Mr. Chamberlain, and the Dormouse, Lord Salisbury. The Boer War, supposed to have been over in September, 1900, is still going on, and the Irish question has again begun to trouble the Government.

20 Lord Rosebery’s speech at Chesterfield on December 16 was the chief event in Liberal politics in the winter of 1901. It caused extraordinary interest and commotion both before and after, and though the South African parts of it were hailed equally by both sections of the party, it opened a new line of division in domestic policy, to the great embarrassment of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (the White King).