A GREAT AMERICAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 19, 23 January 1926, Page 21

A GREAT AMERICAN.

>ND LOVER OF ENGLAND. MORE PAGE LETTERS. (By CYRANO.) " It was one of the happiest "accidents" pi diplomacy that in 1913 Walter Hines Page was appointed Ambassador of the United States in London. It was not only that he was a man of the highest Integrity, and a man of the world in the best sense of the term, cultivated and personally charming, but that he had the temperament that made it possible for him to understand and like England end the English. Page made history. A different type of American—a W. J. Bryan, for example—might have made it very differently. Lord Grey said, in reply to critics of his handling of the blockade in the early days of the war, that if the Government had done all the things that were pressed upon them the ■war would have been ended (as his critics contended), but the Allies would Bot have won it. What he meant was ithae the United States would have been prawn into the war—againet us. Much light is thrown on this question by the first scries of Page's letters, .and by the Second series, which has just been issued H book form. Page had a most diffi. cult task in acting as a buffer between [Washington and London. He was with the Allies heart and soul, but his Government was very far from, this conjdition. President his old and dear friend, took up an attitude of neutrality with what Page considered a ieaning towards Germany. The Department of State in Washington, presided pver at first by the calamitous Mr. Bryan, was incompetent and unfriendly to the Allies. It demanded concessions Iby Britain which Britain could not possibly give, and its tone was high. Page, Seeing clearly the issues of the war, and (knowing that Grey and his subordinates were nearly dead with work and worry, bad the greatest difficulty in restraining himself. Hero was a world nearly in ruine, and England fighting for her life, and the American Government demanded action in regard to a cargo of toys! It was extraordinarily fortunate that Page |was Ambassador. He saw Grey frequently, understood him perfectly, and pnjoyed his entire confidence. Between them they pacified Washington and averted the hideous danger of a rupture jrith America. \ , "Immortal" Letters. ' The first series of Page'e letters are among the half-dozen most interesting books on the war. I am not sure that I would not place them absolutely first. A distinguished London editor described them as "immortal," and the word was well chosen. Men will read them centuries hence for the light they throw on the tremendous struggle. Page wrote with insight, humour, and passion. He was a trained observer and an idealist; lie loved righteousness and hated iniquity; he had a genius for friendship; ' and he had the gift of words. The result was that his letters to America are an extraordinarily vivid, series of pictures of English life before and after the war—the brilliance oi society, the bitterness of party politics, the strength end weakness of the aristocratic syetem, the prim determination and stoicism of jthe English people. Wβ see the great at close quarters, and they do not shrivel. They remain great. ; We see King George justifying England passionately to the Ambassador, and Lord Grey weeping at the failure of his long work for peace. The second series of letters, consisting of communications to President Wileon, which could not be 'published during the President's lifetime, are scarcely less interesting and valuable than, the first. We again ccc the great drama Unfolding, the hopes and fears and agonising losses, the patience of wellnigh overborne Ministers, the etupidity of Governments, the rocks that were passed by the narrowest of margins, the fortitude and ' heroiem of peoples Struggling with death. The book Dpens in peace. Mr. Page comments In lively faehion on the splendour of the English Court as it appears to an American democrat, and on the extreme )>itterne6s of t'ae Tories against the Liberals. He ig driven to exasperation by what he regarded 4ts weaknesses of the English; then in the next breath Bβ pays them magnificent compliments. Hβ never ceases to be glad he is an American, brought up in a less trammelled atmosphere, but he lo\'es the English. It is when the great test comes that hie affection iblazes mp most brightly. One moment he is unburdening himself on their conservatism. They do things in certain ways, he tells the President, because ' they have always foeen done in those ways. He stays in β-ahotelfittedwith electric light and is Charged for candles. He has not used candles, he explains. The answer is that it is the custom to charge for ■them. Then we come across splendid tributes like thie. "These are the only invincible people in the world —this race." "The Spartan women were weaklings beside the English." "These English are the most interesting study in the world. Just when you'd like to hang them for their stupidity, you become aware of such noble stuff in them that you thank God that they were ,our ancestors, and Europe would be a hloody slave pen to-day but for them." "I swear at them and bow low to jthem." Ambassador and President. The sketches and appreciations of JEngland's leading men are material which no historian can afford to neglect, prey was the man who attracted him taost, and in the light of this American's Appreciation how grotesque are some of the estimates made of Grey by some of Mb critics. Grey a Machiavelli! Grey ■. Prussian Junker produced in England! Page saw clearly from the first the real issues involved* in the war, and bombarded the President with his opinions. Alas! the President was a different kind bf man. They had been the closest friends. Page believed implicitly in Wilson's idealism, and helped to make ihim President. Wilson rewarded his friendship and help with the most important diplomatic post in his .jbastowal. The war caused the men to drift apart. Page was carried away by Us moral fervour. Wilson Vas cold and correct, striving always to play the unemotional neutral. This volume malcea us think better of Wilson in some respects; at heart he appears, to have been more favourable to the Allied cause in the earlier part of the war than lie public actions and words showed. The Sttrelations about his peace moves are flgfcraprdinarily interesting. "If the

British public learns that this is eoing on," eaid Page to Colonel House, of the President's aecret proposals in 1916, "you will be lucky if you are not thrown into the Thames." T et this move was in the Allies' favour. When the foremost men of England—Asquith, Grey, Balfour, and others—met Colonel House to discuss it, the utmost secrecy had to be observed. "If it -were known"that we were meeting for the purpose of discussing peace," said Grey to House, "every window in my house would be smashed." The move came to nothing, and it is hard to see how it could have come to anything else. If it had gone on it would have produced a patched-up peace, and the war would probably have had to be refought. Despite this evidence of pro-Ally feeling, despite the fact that he did bring America into the war with tremendous effect, one reels that these letters, like the first series, show up the defects of Wilson's character. He was a lonely, egotistical man. He took criticism badly. He was a lawyer and a schoolmaster, and he had the weaknesses of both professions. Page had had a more liberal education from the world, and his personality, richer and more gracious, is more attractive than that of the President. Where Britain Scored. Of the riches in this book a review can give only an outline. I must mention, however, the section on the German proposal to Mexico to make war on the United States, for which service Mexico was to receive American territory. The whole affair is an amazing illustration of German stupidity, and a moat instructive example of British secret service efficiency. Berlin sent the message to the Minister in Mexico in four ways, and the British intercepted and translated all four. The truth was that Britain had the German code, and for nearly four years had access to the most confidential German information, a devastating fact of which the Germans did not learn until after the war. They went on sending highly confidential messages into the atmosphere, and the British picked them up and decoded them. The man chiefly responsible for this" vitally important secret service work was Admiral Sir William Hall. Page describes him as a genius. "Neither in fiction nor in fact can you find any euch man to match him." Having intercepted this damning proposal to Mexico the British Government promptly transmitted it to Mr. Page, and he telegraphed it to Washington. This was in February, 1917; America declared war in April. The effect waa profound. Then comedy came on the scene. Berlin, greatly agitated, demanded explanations of the Minister in Mexico, and the Minister replied.-; All the messages were intercepted by the British, decoded, and read with amusement by the small inner Anglo-Ameri-can circle in London. We may be thankful indeed that Page wae in London during the war. Those Englishmen who knew him best are profoundly grateful to him. Soon after the publication of the first series of letters an appeal for funds for ,a memorial to him was issued, signed by the Prime Minister, three former Prime Ministers, and Lord .Grey. The result was the placing of a tablet in Westminster Abbey. 'The friend of Britain in her sorest need," is part of the inscription. This book, like the other, ie edited by Mr. Burton J. Hendrick. Our copy is in the Australian edition (Cornstalk Publishing Co., through Angus and Robertson), which is published simultaneously with the English and American editions. This is the first time a book has been published simultaneously in the three countries, and the Australian publishers are to be congratulated on their enterprise in providing the Australasian public with a locally produced copy of a book which no student of recent history should miss.