ABSTRACT
If Besant's statement is to be accepted as true, it can only mean that Palmer disclosed to him the details of his mission before leaving England. Indeed Besant writes, 'I spent Thursday evening with him, and heard his plans. He had already laid down the route he was to take, and the order in which he would see the sheikhs.' It must regretfully be concluded that for a secret agent, which was what Palmer had now undertaken to become, the Lord Almoner's Professor was uncommonly and recklessly open-mouthed. 'Great precautions were adopted to secure secrecy. It was given out that he was going to the East for his health; for a geographical mission: it was believed that he was going for the Times or the Standard.' In short, if all this detail is to be credited, Palmer set out on his last journey in the spirit of a schoolboy's spy story. Perhaps in fact he did.
