As was the custom then, after one month in the Foreign Office, my
immediate chief gave me a little lecture on the traditional high
standard of honour of the Foreign Office, which he was sure I
would observe, and then handed me a Cabinet key which he made me
attach to my watch-chain in his presence. This Cabinet key
unlocked all the boxes in which the most confidential papers of
the Cabinet were circulated. As things were then arranged, this
key was essential to our work, but a boy just turned twenty
naturally felt immensely proud of such a proof of the confidence
reposed in him. I think, too, that the Foreign Office can feel
justifiably proud of the fact that the trust reposed in its most
junior members was never once betrayed, and that the most weighty
secrets were absolutely safe in their keeping.
I have narrated elsewhere my early experiences at Berlin and
Petrograd. In every capital the Diplomatists must always be, in a
sense, sojourners in a strange land, and many of them who find a
difficulty in amalgamating with the people of the country must
always be thrown to a great extent on their own resources.
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