Thomas Nelson Page to Woodrow Wilson

June 27, 1917. – CONFIDENTIAL –Even at this long distance the thrill of what is going on just around where you sit, or at least, are –– for I fancy that you have little time for sitting still –– stirs us deeply. I wonder if it is known how tremendous the effect of the moral movement which you have headed through these long months has been here in Europe. A man said to me today – it is true he is an American, but he prefaced the remark by saying he was a Republican – “Mr. Wilson has become the spokesman of the moral conscience of the World.”Where a short time ago it was hardly a corporal's guard that stood here in Rome for you and that which you represented, –though it was a pretty intrepid guard which never yielded an inch and made some captures – everybody is now for what you have done. It has even become fashionable. But irrespective of the question of sudden conversion, the effect of America's coming in in the way in which she came in under your guidance has been something incalculable. About ten days ago the King, who was in Rome to help settle the troubles in the Ministry which threaetened a Ministerial crisis, sent me a message asking me to come to see him – a thing which he had never done before. And the next morning when I called the first thing he said was that he had asked me to come to see him in order to thank us for all our kindness. A little later he spoke of the enormous relief that was felt here in all hearts when America came in and of his confidence in the outcome. He has always treated me with great consideration and cordiality and I have never talked to him without feeling that he is a man of not only a high order of intellect, but of character. I am not sure that – taking him altogether – he has not impressed me as the man of the broadest knowledge and clearest intelligence whom I have met in Italy. To say that (in my judgment) he is the best King in Europe might not be thought, in view of the intelligence ordinarily accredited to kings in Europe, very high praise. He is, however, a King who, taking into consideration all conditions, has in my judgment had no superior in any country or in any time; for he is the leader of his people according to the new dispensation of Democracy. A clever Englishman said in my house the other day that he believed that in ten years there would be but one king in Europe: The King of Italy.
In our conversation he alluded to his hope that the Italian Mission sent to America would result in making it clear what need there is in Italy for certain things, particularly coal, iron, and tonnage for the conveyance of these things. He also referred to the needs of more guns and ammunition. He said that it was owing to the want of guns and ammunition that the progress made was apparently so small, mentioning that after a bombardment of two or three days, which required millions of shells, it was necessary to wait always to replenish the stock; whereas if they had double as many they could keep on and could advance on a front much longer than at present. He said that he believed that in the latter case an advance could be made which would overwhelm Austria, and with the crumbling of Austria, Germany also would crumble.
We talked a little of the sending of a military mission (of observers) to Italy and I asked if it would be acceptable to Iotaly. He said he felt sure that it would be welcomed and suggested my taking the matter up with the Ministry, which I have since done with the most satisfactory results of which I have today notified the Secretary of State by cable. I feel sure that the sending of a good mission here – that is, one composed of first class men – will have an admirable effect here, not only from the military standpoint, but from a political standpoint also. It would be bad policy not to send first class men, as our Mission should measure up – I do not mean in rank, but in quality – with the others. I have written a despatch to the Department today giving a list of the several Missions already at the Italian front.
The Swiss situation has caused much comment here and I think some little anxiety. But the appointment of M. Ador as head of the political section of the Federal Council has quieted the anxiety, he being regarded as a friend of the Entente. Baron Sonnino in talking to me about the hard case in which Switzerland finds itself, expressed the hope that Switzerland would not be pushed to the extremity of drawing nearer to Germany and Austria. He appeared to think that this would be a disastrous policy and he said that it would be necessary, he thought, to make certain concessions to Switzerland in the way of permitting her to have certain supplies beyond what are allowed to other neutral countries, because Switzerland's life depends on her procuring these things, and if she does not get them from the Entente powers she will go over nearer to the Central Empires. I get this impression also from Mr. DePlanta, the Swiss Minister, who is an absolute believer in the neutrality of Switzerland. And indeed this is my own conviction, based on what I have learned about the conditions in Switzerland, all of which I have already telegraphed to the Department.
I am, my dear Mr. President, always,