James Bryce to Colonel House

House of Lords,London.

It was a great pleasure to receive your letter as it has been a great pleasure to see with what alacrity and heartiness your people have responded to the President's call, and what splendid energy and foresight he has been displaying.

Congress, with some lapses, has on the whole done better than one expected, doubtless owing to his personal influence. You would be amused were you with us in England, to see how those who were complaining and carping a year ago and would hardly listen when one explained his position and the need for carrying the whole people with him, now extolling his cautious wisdom in awaiting the right moment.

What you say about the German Government is perfectly true. Their peace talk, vague as it is, like this last speech of Michaelis, is mere playing to their disappointed people, to keep them quiet, not a bona fide wish for peace on any terms but the old ones. They are not to be taken seriously till they intimate a willingness to leave Belgium as free as before the war and to compensate her.

They still fear their own jingoes too much to offer that. Defeat would men the collapse of the Junker caste, so they will fight so long as they can hope for a draw.

But it is quite true that many foolish things have been said here and some also in France not only by the press but by statesmen who ought to have known better. Our great aim ought to be to reassure the German people and get them to understand that we don't wish to harm them or dismember Germany, but to rid the world of an aggressive militarism which gives the world no rest or peace.

I also agree with you that it is not the Emperor we should strike at, but the military caste that rule him and drive him into war. France, as you know, is in evil case, her man power at a low ebb. Little need be expected from Russia for sometime. Prospects would be dark but for your entrance into the war. But you and we will pull things through. Your American influence will be most usefully exerted in discountenancing ideas of a trade war against Germany a pernicious scheme and in making also Germans and Russians understand that our aims are unselfish. That will help to undermine the Junker ascendancy.

Believe me,(Signed) Bryce.

P. S. Nothing would have a better effect than if some American regiments were to march through London. I dont know why this has not been done; perhaps in order that Germans may not know when your soldiers are crossing. But the risk is very slight. So far as we know, we have not lost troops in the Channel crossing these three years and the extremely slight, if any risk seems worth taking for the sake of the advantages. Your soldiers would have a wonderful reception here which would tell powerfully in the way of moral effect both here and in Germany.