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i9i6] PROTOPOPOFF-WARBURG AFFAIR 453
Lucius, German Minister to Stockholm ; it was he
himself who was to have come to talk to Protopopoff, but
on his way to the meeting-place he was supposed to
have sprained his ankle on the stairs and so had had to
send Warburg, the Counsellor to the Legation, in his
place ;—and so on. Protopopoff s colleagues must have
listened open-mouthed to this strange confession. They
discussed it a great deal amongst themselves, then they
told their friends about it. Count D. Olsufieff, whose
reputation was involved, was obliged to intervene and
to set things right in the Press. This raised a fresh
controversy; Protopopoff himself, who was already
Minister, was appealed to; and he, with graceful ease,
gave each of his interviewers a different version.
Meanwhile public opinion was vehemently taking note of the
whole incident, which seemed to prove the existence
of a combine between the Court, Protopopoff and the
Germans to bring about a separate peace between
Russia and Germany.
A few days after Sturmer’s retirement I received a
telegram from the Director of the Foreign Office, telling
me that M. Protopopoff was supposed to have published
amongst other things that his interview in Stockholm
with Warburg had taken place not only with the consent
but at the express request of the Russian Minister. M.
Neratoff begged me to furnish all necessary information.
I replied that M. Protopopoff’s assertion was
absolutely untrue, and that if the Home Secretary did not
retract what he had said I was prepared to tender my
resignation.
That very day several of our parliamentarians were
in Stockholm on their way to Petrograd: M. Itchas,
Lithuanian member of the Duma; Baron Meyendorff,
ex-President of that assembly ; M. Zveguintzoff, member
by election of the Council of the Empire ; and some
others. I invited these gentlemen to come and see me;
I gave them all the details related in this book on
Protopopoff’s stay in Stockholm and on his interview with
Warburg, and I begged them to contradict emphatically
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