Volume I Part 32 (2/2)

And so this crisis was pa.s.sed; it was the first great service that Page had rendered the cause of the Allies and his own country. Yet s.h.i.+pping difficulties had their more agreeable aspects. Had it not been for the fact that both Page and Grey had an understanding sense of humour, neutrality would have proved a more difficult path than it actually was.

Even amid the tragic problems with which these two men were dealing there was not lacking an occasional moment's relaxation into the lighter aspect of things. One of the curious memorials preserved in the British Foreign Office is the cancelled $15,000,000 check with which Great Britain paid the _Alabama_ claims. That the British should frame this memento of their great diplomatic defeat and hang it in the Foreign Office is an evidence of the fact that in statesmans.h.i.+p, as in less exalted matters, the English are excellent sports. The real justification of the honour paid to this piece of paper, of course, is that the settlement of the _Alabama_ claims by arbitration signalized a great forward step in international relations and did much to heal a century's troubles between the United States and Great Britain. Sir Edward Grey used frequently to call Page's attention to this doc.u.ment.

It represented the amount of money, then considered large, which Great Britain had paid the United States for the depredations on American s.h.i.+pping for which she was responsible during the Civil War.

One day the two men were discussing certain detentions of American cargoes--high-handed acts which, in Page's opinion, were unwarranted.

Not infrequently, in the heat of discussion, Page would get up and pace the floor. And on this occasion his body, as well as his mind, was in a state of activity. Suddenly his eye was attracted by the framed Alabama check. He leaned over, peered at it intensely, and then quickly turned to the Foreign Secretary:

”If you don't stop these seizures, Sir Edward, some day you'll have your entire room papered with things like that!”

Not long afterward Sir Edward in his turn scored on Page. The Amba.s.sador called to present one of the many State Department notes. The occasion was an embarra.s.sing one, for the communication was written in the Department's worst literary style. It not infrequently happened that these notes, in the form in which Page received them, could not be presented to the British Government; they were so rasping and undiplomatic that Page feared that he would suffer the humiliation of having them returned, for there are certain things which no self-respecting Foreign Office will accept. On such occasions it was the practice of the London Emba.s.sy to smooth down the language before handing the paper to the Foreign Secretary. The present note was one of this kind; but Page, because of his friendly relations with Grey, decided to transmit the communication in its original shape.

Sir Edward glanced over the doc.u.ment, looked up, and remarked, with a twinkle in his eye,--

”This reads as though they thought that they are still talking to George the Third.”

The roar of laughter that followed was something quite unprecedented amid the thick and dignified walls of the Foreign Office.

One of Page's most delicious moments came, however, after the Ministry of Blockade had been formed, with Lord Robert Cecil in charge. Lord Robert was high minded and conciliatory, but his knowledge of American history was evidently not without its lapses. One day, in discussing the ill-feeling aroused in the United States by the seizure of American cargoes, Page remarked banteringly:

”You must not forget the Boston Tea Party, Lord Robert.”

The Englishman looked up, rather puzzled.

”But you must remember, Mr. Page, that I have never been in Boston. I have never attended a tea party there.”

It has been said that the tact and good sense of Page and Grey, working sympathetically for the same end, avoided many an impending crisis. The trouble caused early in 1915 by the s.h.i.+p _Dacia_ and the way in which the difficulty was solved, perhaps ill.u.s.trate the value of this cooperation at its best. In the early days of the War Congress pa.s.sed a bill admitting foreign s.h.i.+ps to American registry. The wisdom and even the ”neutrality” of such an act were much questioned at the time.

Colonel House, in one of his early telegrams to the President, declared that this bill ”is full of lurking dangers.” Colonel House was right.

The trouble was that many German merchant s.h.i.+ps were interned in American harbours, fearing to put to sea, where the watchful British wars.h.i.+ps lay waiting for them. Any attempt to place these vessels under the American flag, and to use them for trade between American and German ports, would at once cause a crisis with the Allies, for such a paper change in owners.h.i.+p would be altogether too transparent. Great Britain viewed this legislation with disfavour, but did not think it politic to protest such transfers generally; Spring Rice contented himself with informing the State Department that his government would not object so long as this changed status did not benefit Germany. If such German s.h.i.+ps, after being transferred to the American flag, engaged in commerce between American ports and South American ports, or other places remotely removed from the Fatherland, Great Britain would make no difficulty. The _Dacia_, a merchantman of the Hamburg-America line, had been lying at her wharf in Port Arthur, Texas, since the outbreak of the war. In early January, 1915, she was purchased by Mr. E.N. Breitung, of Marquette, Michigan. Mr. Breitung caused great excitement in the newspapers when he announced that he had placed the _Dacia_ under American registry, according to the terms of this new law, had put upon her an American crew, and that he proposed to load her with cotton and sail for Germany. The crisis had now arisen which the well-wishers of Great Britain and the United States had so dreaded. Great Britain's position was a difficult one. If it acquiesced, the way would be opened for placing under American registry all the German and Austrian s.h.i.+ps that were then lying unoccupied in American ports and using them in trade between the United States and the Central Powers. If Great Britain seized the _Dacia_, then there was the likelihood that this would embroil her with the American Government--and this would serve German purposes quite as well.

Sir Cecil Spring Rice, the British Amba.s.sador at Was.h.i.+ngton, at once notified Was.h.i.+ngton that the _Dacia_ would be seized if she sailed for a German port. The cotton which she intended to carry was at that time not contraband, but the vessel itself Was German and was thus subject to apprehension as enemy property. The seriousness of this position was that technically the _Dacia_ was now an American s.h.i.+p, for an American citizen owned her, she carried an American crew, she bore on her flagstaff the American flag, and she had been admitted to American registry under a law recently pa.s.sed by Congress. How could the United States sit by quietly and permit this seizure to take place? When the _Dacia_ sailed on January 23rd the excitement was keen; the voyage had obtained a vast amount of newspaper advertising, and the eyes of the world were fixed upon her. German sympathizers attributed the att.i.tude of the American Government in permitting the vessel to sail as a ”dare”

to Great Britain, and the fact that Great Britain had announced her intention of taking up this ”dare” made the situation still more tense.

When matters had reached this pa.s.s Page one day dropped into the Foreign Office.

”Have you ever heard of the British fleet, Sir Edward?” he asked.

Grey admitted that he had, though the question obviously puzzled him.

”Yes,” Page went on musingly. ”We've all heard of the British fleet.

Perhaps we have heard too much about it. Don't you think it's had too much advertising?”

The Foreign Secretary looked at Page with an expression that implied a lack of confidence in his sanity.

”But have you ever heard of the French fleet?” the American went on.

”France has a fleet too, I believe.”

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