Walter H. Page to Woodrow Wilson
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Perhaps it will please you to know that the King, who gave me a prompt and cordial and rather long audience, asked in an earnest manner about your health; and, when I thanked him and gave a good report, he said that he hoped you were a robust man, seeing the heavy duties the Presidency puts on you. “The President, sir,” I responded, “is of Scotch descent: does Your Majesty know of any more enduring stock?” Thus I drew a royal smile. Among other pleasant remarks that he made was that he thought it unfair to the American Ambassador that his great government did not give him a house. I told him that the personal inconvenience of the Ambassador was of less consequence than the failure properly to express, by this little omission, the high esteem in which the President and the people of the United States held his Government and the English people; and I expressed the hope that for this reason this omission might soon be made good. The King was very cordial, and since then at on another occasion he has been very courteous to me. Sir Edward Grey, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, has been especially kind – at my formal audience with him, subsequently at a dinner to which he invited the Diplomatic Corps on the King’s birth–day, and especially two evenings ago when he sat next me and proposed my health at the Pilgrims’ Dinner to me. His speech then was meant as an important utterance and it has been so received here. It may be worth your while, if I may suggest it, to have your Secretary summarize that for you. There can be no doubt of the most earnest appreciation throughout official life here of their appreciation of our good will.Sir Edward is a frank and forcible man; and I now feel that I know him well enough to talk frankly with him. He has given me a hint that he will be glad to talk about the Panama tolls matter. Having told him I have no official communication of the subject, I shall on his next regular day bring it up for informal conversation. — He is greatly interested in Mr. Bryan’s plan for making war harder to begin, as you will see from his speech.
My speech, in response to Sir Edward Grey’s, has, I am glad to report, been cordially received by the press, as it was by the men of high station, who were kind enough to hear it.
You will pardon my troubling you with this personal note, in addition to my formal report to the Secretary of State; and I send it with the hope that you will not take the trouble to answer it.
Walter H. Page
To The President
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