He was annoyed in general. He had a meeting at the House at eleven, and then was free until five in the evening when Mr Balfour the P.M. ‘wanted a word’ about Curzon. It was an irritating gap in time, and not a ‘word’ Robert looked forward to. George Curzon – pushed rather than jumped – had resigned as Viceroy of India after endless and mostly pointless disagreements with Balfour. He had let it be known that he expected at least a further title for his pains. An earldom would suit him very well.While Viceroy of India, George Curzon and his heiress wife Mary Leiter had enjoyed the greatest pomp and circumstance, while – as Mr Balfour was at pains to point out – ‘millions of Indians starved to death and vast sums were spent restoring the Taj Mahal.’ Curzon had caused the Foreign and Colonial endless trouble back home, forever nagging about the state of the Indian Army, interfering with accepted policies on Tibet, Afghanistan, Russia – insisting against all advice that the popular but quarrelsome Kitchener be put in charge of the Indian Army, and then doing his best to get rid of him.
