Walter Hines Page to Woodrow Wilson

As I promptly telegraphed you and as, of course, you have heard through many channels, your reply to the Pope received a most enthusiastic welcome here not only because it meets with universal approval: there's a deeper reason than that. It expresses definitely the moral and the deep and clear political reason for the war the freeing of the world, including the German people, from the German military autocracy; and it expresses this better and with more force than it has ever been expressed by anybody on this side the world. You have made acceptable peace-terms clearer not only to the enemy but also to the Allies than they have ever before been made known. All these nations here have so many relatively unimportant and so many purely selfish aims that their minds run on. Here you come setting forth the one big thing worth fighting for the one big moral and political aim no revenge, no mere boundary rectifications, no subsidiary thing to confuse the main purpose. This gives moral leadership to the whole war, and the British know and feel this.

Some time ago in a general conversation Mr. Balfour said something like this to me: "There is universal admiration and wonder at the American energy and earnestness in getting into the war, wh. has no parallel. But there are people who privately express a certain fear lest your ardour may cool with the first wave of war-weariness. What shd one say to them? Mind you, I have no such fear myself, but I am sometimes met with the necessity to allay it in weaker minds."I replied: "To put it in good American, the real answer to any such person is, 'Go to hell!' But the judicious answer is, 'Who is going to cool American ardour and how will he go about it? The dam is burst and the flood is come. Will you do me the favour to refer all such persons to me?'" I haven't seen any such yet. But such doubt, wh., I have no doubt, was felt in ignorant quarters, is forever laid by your letter to the Pope. And the leadership of the war is now definitely and confessedly transferred to you, in British opinion.

The acknowledgment of this took many forms even before this letter. Several of your speeches, notably your speech asking for a declaration of war, have been reprinted in dozens of forms for wide distribution. There's hardly a reading household in the Kingdom but has a copy. The proposed treaty between the Allied naval powers, binding every one to give help if any one were attacked for four years after the war, Mr. Balfour tells me you regard as now unnecessary. "I agree with the President," he remarked; "but, so far as I am concerned, I'd make such a treaty, if it be wanted, for 4 or 40 or 400 years." As for Japan, our coming into the war so it looks here has settled any danger that may have lurked in that quarter. The British treaty with Japan counts as nothing compared with the British feeling towards us. One was a matter of convenience. The other is a force of nature as well as a creature of necessity. The telegrams and other documents, telegraphed to you, which show the customary insincerity & cold-blooded willingness to murder, touching the Argentine Republic, it is here hoped, will, if you have published them, bring the Argentine Government into the war. It is hoped, too, that the proof of Sweden's using her Ministers and pouches in Germany's behalf may cause a change of Government in Sweden. The smuggling that has been done through Sweden is the most helpful to Germany of all her channels of supply; and the large quantity of iron ore that has gone from Swedish mines is, perhaps, the most valuable help from outside that Germany has got since the war began. Admiral Mayo's coming has given the whole Government and especially the Admiralty great satisfaction. As soon as he came I invited the chief Admiralty officers and British admirals to dinner to meet him, and they have shown him continuous attention since. He told me to-day that they are showing him everything that he cares to see and are answering all his questions. The naval Conference (British, French, Italian, and American) begins tomorrow. Immediately after the conference ends, Admiral Mayo will visit the Grand Fleet. The submarine activity continues (as I regard it) to be a most serious thing. Convoyed ships have come safely, wh. seems to point to success in our getting troops and supplies to France. But the toll that the submarines continue to take of unconvoyed freight ships is making the trouble of shipping very great. All ships will have to be convoyed. This Government is most anxious for a number of our Representatives and Senators to make a visit to England and France, not really for any specific legislative conference, although the invitation may take that form, but for personal interchanges of experience. It is a common saying in England that even no Englishman can really understand the war and its problems who has not made a visit to France. I recall that I was forcibly struck with Bryce's confession to this effect, after he had come back from France. It is on this principle that it is well for American legislators to get as vivid an idea as possible that the British are eager for a number of them to come. I agree with them.The abandonment of Riga, it is feared here, will mean the German occupation of Petrograd and that will mean the getting of more supplies from Russia and the getting of men, too, for all sorts of labor will mean, in fact, the prolongation of the war. The German spirit, in spite of hunger, can be kept up by such a land-victory and by the continued submarine success for Heaven knows how long; and these German successes seem to point to the slow and murderous necessity of whipping the German army, lock, stock, and barrel. That, with our help, is only a question of time. But, within that time, the sickening loss of life will continue. But for the falling down of Russia and the psychological effect of the submarine campaign, I shd have a very lively hope of the German collapse before the coming winter is gone. The public and the Government here set high expectations on your embargo. Take your actions all together from the Conscription-act to the Embargo what a record that is! Of course it has saved the Allied cause, which wd otherwise have been lost in great measure if not wholly. And the British know that and freely say so. This in itself is a conquest over British "arrogance" wh. makes us henceforth the masters of the Englishspeaking world. Lord Reading again goes to the United States on the ship that carries this. He goes on a general financial errand, the details of wh. I do not know further than the necessity of coming to some concrete understanding. So far as I can find out, the British use their money well (allowing, of course, for the waste of war from wh. every nation suffers); but they seem to me to be awkward and careless and then suddenly panic-stricken in their large dealings with us to procure money. The financial conferences to wh. they have invited me seemed to me like a voyage through mist till you suddenly come to a great fall. I have prayed them to be definite before they become panic-stricken. "The Ambassador is quite right," exclaims the Prime Minister. We then adjourn till the next scare comes; and then the same journey is taken again to the same Nowhere.I fear, Mr. President, that my recent letters have been duller than they might have been, but I have seen little use in repeating what I have very fully telegraphed, and all important things have gone by wire. And one week pushes another so quickly in these over-busy days that mail-day comes before I know it. We now have three buildings for offices the Embassy, the Army, and the Navy; and even Admirals and Generals take much of my time properly. The working-adjustment of our plans and methods, in many Departments of the Government, with the British mere details as most of them are require constant work by my staff and me; and an admirable staff it is. We are happy to serve to the very best of our ability.

To The President /

T. P. O'Connor, who has gone to the U.S. to solicit money for his party wishd me to give him an introduction to you. I didn't; but no doubt you'll see him as, no doubt, it wd be well. He's an Irishman a professional Irishman and an M.P. of somewhat the better sort; if there be any better sort of Professional Irishman. When Lloyd George proposed the plan of an Irish Convention, "T. P." said to me: "That's a good move all right; but, of course, we've got to object got to play hell and do our fireworks." They are all insincere. They don't want Home Rule the Professional Irishman doesn't; for, if they had Home Rule, his Profession of agitating for it wd be gone. The agitation has made long & conspicuous careers for them. Home Rule achieved, their careers wd end. This is what O'Connor himself tells me. What need his party has for a large fund isn't apparent. But raising money is a conventional job they all have. God didn't bless me with enough wisdom to see the end of this Irish question. Think of this: a Count Plunkett was recently elected to Parliament by an Irish constituency, as a Sinn Feiner. The Church at Rome now puts into the calender of Saints the Bishop Plunkett, who was Primate of Ireland 400 years ago! Subtle? Yes, and effective.

But this much seems certain: The English, after 300 years of mismanagement, are making a sincere effort to settle the Irish question with what success time only can tell. This Government now understands its importance not only to themselves, as they have never understood it before, but also as affecting AmericanBritish relations.In general in this war-world where I have seen the wisest men guess wrong and some of the strongest men break down and waves of opinion flow strong in all directions at once, nobody catches me making prophecies; but I venture this: whenever we can drive the submarines from the ocean, we shall quickly see the end of the war. And in a time of great war-ships and of fantastic inventions, who shall say that their defeat may not at last be accomplished by the American ocean-going tugs that tow coal-barges from Virginia to Massachusetts perhaps the humblest craft that ever cut the waves?

Yours very faithfully,
Sincerely yours,
Walter H. Page

To The President /