CHAPTER VI
AS A TRAVELLER
2. By Water
IT was the opinion of H. H. that every Member of Parliament should be sent on a voyage round the world before being permitted to take his seat at Westminster, which is after all only a paraphrase of Kipling's:
"What do they know of England
Who only England know?"
Such an accusation could not be brought against H. H., who visited almost every corner of the Empire at one time or another. Age could not alter nor custom stale his insatiable delight in sea-voyaging. The moment he got on board he felt ten years slip from him, and not the youngest traveller on his first voyage could enter more enthusiastically into board-ship life.
It was a great pleasure to H. H. if he could find a good chess-player amongst his fellow-passengers, and many travellers will remember the groups that used to gather round the chess-board when he was playing. The hottest day in the Red Sea would find him engaged in a fierce contest with another ardent soul, upheld possibly by the thought of the long iced lemon squash which was always the stake for which he played in the tropics.
Although he must have made the voyage to
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