Thanks to his good French and German, he was able to come and go easily passing for a citizen of either side, and he began to acquire his taste for adventure and politics.

In 1902, he travelled overland to India heading first to Moscow and on to Isfahan, Quetta, Delhi and, finally, Calcutta, where he met with Lord George Nathaniel Curzon.

He later travelled to Washington D.C., where he met with Theodore Roosevelt and many members of the US Congress, facilitated by his close friend, Sir Cecil Spring Rice.

[2] After two decades as a journalist he retired from The Times on 21 December 1911 and was knighted shortly thereafter, on 1 January 1912, for his distinguished service as a foreign affairs advisor.

In addition, he wrote a stern critique of the Foreign Office's failings in the region, including the ongoing quagmire at Gallipoli.

Although Tilak ultimately lost the suit, Chirol ended up spending almost two years in India on account of it, missing the bulk of World War I.

Though no longer formally with the newspaper, Chirol continued to write articles occasionally and maintained his wide range of journalistic and diplomatic contacts.

In 1924, he travelled to the United States on a lecture tour and he spoke about the growing problems between the Occident and the Orient and warned against American isolationism, which he greatly feared.

He spent the remainder of his retired life travelling the world to places like Morocco, Egypt, South Africa and, especially, India.

Major-General Sir Neill Malcolm called him the "friend of viceroys, the intimate of ambassadors, one might almost say the counsellor of ministers, he was [also] one of the noblest characters that ever adorned British journalism".