Volume II Part 9 (2/2)
”Just in time,” said I, ”for I have a copy of 'The Life and Letters of John Hay'[23] that I'm sending to you.”
He's coming to dine with me in a night or two: he'll do anything but discuss our Note with me. And he's the only member of the Government who, I think, would like to meet our views; and he can't. To use the language of Lowell about the campaign of Governor Kent--these British are h.e.l.l-bent on starving the Germans out, and neutrals have mighty few rights till that job's done.
The worst of it is that the job won't be done for a very long time.
I've been making a sort of systematic round of the Cabinet to see what these fellows think about things in general at this stage of the game. Bonar Law (the Colonies) tells me that the news from the Balkans is worse than the public or the newspapers know, and that still worse news will come. Germany will have it all her own way in that quarter.
”And take Egypt and the ca.n.a.l?”
”I didn't say _that_,” he replied. But he showed that he fears even that.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Herbert C. Hoover, in 1914]
[Ill.u.s.tration: A facsimile page from the Amba.s.sador's letter of November 24. 1916, resigning his Amba.s.sadors.h.i.+p]
I could go on with a dozen of 'em; but I sat down to write you a Christmas letter, and nothing else. The best news I have for you is not news at all, but I conceive it to be one of the best hopes of the future. In spite of Irishmen past, present, and to come; in spite of Germans, whose fuss will soon be over; in spite of lawyers, who (if left alone) would bankrupt empires as their clients and think they'd won a victory; I'm going to leave things here in a year and a half so that, if wise men wish to lay a plan for keeping the peace of the world, all they need to do will be to say first to Uncle Sam: ”This fellow or that must understand that he can't break loose like a wild beast.” If Uncle Sam agrees (and has a real navy himself), he'll wink at John Bull, and John will follow after. You see our blackleg tail-twisters have the whole thing backward. They say we truckle to the British. My plan is to lead the British--not for us to go to them but to have them come to us. We have three white men to every two white men in their whole Empire; and, when peace comes, we'll be fairly started on the road to become as rich as the war will leave them. There are four clubs in London which have no other purpose than this; and the best review[24] in the world exists chiefly for this purpose. All we need to do is to be courteous (we can do what we like if we do it courteously). Our manners, our politicians, and our newspapers are all that keep the English-speaking white man, under our lead, from ruling the world, without any treaty or entangling alliance whatsoever. If, when you went to Berlin to talk to your gentle and timid friend, the Emperor, about disarmament before the war--if about 200 American dreadnaughts and cruisers, with real grog on 'em, had come over to make a friendly call, in the North Sea, on the 300 English dreadnaughts and cruisers--just a friendly call, admirals on admirals--the ”Star-Spangled Banner” and ”G.o.d Save the King”--and if General Bell, from the Philippines, had happened in London just when Kitchener happened to be home from Egypt--_then, there wouldn't have been this war now_. Nothing need have been said--no treaty, no alliance, nothing. For then 100 or more British naval s.h.i.+ps would have joined the Panama naval procession and any possible enemy would have seen that combined fleet clean across the Pacific.
Now this may all be a mere Christmas fancy--a mere yarn about what might have been--because we wouldn't have sent s.h.i.+ps here in our old mood; the crew would have missed one Sunday School. But it's _this kind_ of thing that does the trick. But this means the practice of courtesy, and we haven't acquired the habit. Two years or more ago the training s.h.i.+ps from Annapolis with the cadets aboard anch.o.r.ed down the Thames and stayed several weeks and let the boys loose in England. They go on such a voyage every two years to some country, you know. The English didn't know that fact and they took the visit as a special compliment. Their old admirals were all greatly pleased, and I hear talk about that yet. We ought to have two or three of our rear-admirals here on their fleet now.
Symington, of course, is a good fellow; but he's a mere commander and attache--not an admiral--in other words, not any particular compliment or courtesy to the British Navy. (As soon as the war began, a j.a.panese admiral turned up here and he is here now.) We sent over two army captains as military observers. The Russians sent a brigadier-general. We ought to have sent General Wood. You see the difference? There was no courtesy in our method. It would be the easiest and prettiest job in the world to swallow the whole British organization, lock, stock, and barrel--King, Primate, Cabinet, Lords, and Commons, feathers and all, and to make 'em follow our _courteous_ lead anywhere. The President had them in this mood when the war started and for a long time after--till the _Lusitania_ seemed to be forgotten and till the lawyers began to write his Notes. He can get 'em back, after the war ends, by several acts of courtesy--if we could get into the habit of doing such things as sending generals and admirals as compliments to them. The British Empire is ruled by a wily use of courtesies and decorations. If I had the President himself to do the correspondence, if I had three or four fine generals and admirals and a good bishop or two, a thoroughbred senator or two and now and then a Supreme Court Justice to come on proper errands and be engineered here in the right way--we could do or say anything we liked and they'd do whatever we'd say. I'd undertake to underwrite the whole English-speaking world to keep peace, under our leaders.h.i.+p. Instead whereof, every move we now make is to _follow_ them or to _drive_ them. The latter is impossible, and the former is unbecoming to us.
But to return to Christmas.--I could go on writing for a week in this off-hand, slap-dash way, saying wise things flippantly. But Christmas--that's the thing now. Christmas! What b.l.o.o.d.y irony it is on this side the world! Still there will be many pleasant and touching things done. An Englishman came in to see me the other day and asked if I'd send $1,000 to Gerard[25] to use in making the English prisoners in Germany as happy as possible on Christmas Day--only I must never tell anybody who did it. A lady came on the same errand--for the British prisoners in Turkey, and with a less but still a generous sum. The heroism, the generosity, the endurance and self-restraint and courtesy of these people would melt a pyramid to tears. Of course there are yellow dogs among 'em, here and there; but the genuine, thoroughbred English man or woman is the real thing--one of the realest things in this world. So polite are they that not a single English person has yet mentioned our Note to me--not one.
But every one I've met for two days has mentioned the sending of Von Papen and Boy-Ed[26] home--not that they expect us to get into the war, but because they regard this action as maintaining our self-respect.
Nor do they neglect other things because of the war. I went to the annual dinner of the Scottish Corporation the other night-an organization which for 251 years has looked after Scotchmen stranded in London; and they collected $20,000 then and there.
There's a good deal of Christmas in 'em yet. One fellow in a little patriotic speech said that the Government is spending twenty-five million dollars a day to whip the Germans.--”Cheap work, very cheap work. We can spend twice that if necessary. Why, gentlemen, we haven't exhausted our pocket-change yet.”
Somehow I keep getting away from Christmas. It doesn't stay put.
It'll be a memorable one here for its sorrows and for its grim determination--an empty chair at every English table. But nowhere in the world will it be different except in the small neutral states here and in the lands on your side the world.
How many Christmases the war may last, n.o.body's wise enough to know. That depends absolutely on Germany. The Allies announced their terms ten months ago, and nothing has yet happened to make them change them. That would leave the Germans with Germany and a secure peace--no obliteration or any other wild nonsense, but only a secure peace. Let 'em go back home, pay for the damage they've done, and then stay there. I do hope that the actual fighting will be ended by Christmas of next year. Of course it _may_ end with dramatic suddenness at any time, this being the only way, perhaps, for the Kaiser to save his throne. Or it may go on for two or three years. My guess is that it'll end next year--a guess subject to revision, of course, by events that can't be foreseen.
But as I said before--to come back to Christmas. Mrs. Page and I send you and Mrs. House our affectionate good wishes and the hope that you keep very well and very happy in your happy, prosperous hemisphere. We do, I thank you. We haven't been better for years--never before so busy, never, I think, so free from care. We get plenty to eat (such as it is in this tasteless wet zone), at a high cost, of course; we have comfortable beds and shoes (we spend all our time in these two things, you know); we have good company, enough to do (!!), no grievances nor ailments, no ill-will, no disappointments, a keen interest in some big things--all the chips are blue, you know; we don't feel ready for halos, nor for other uncomfortable honours; we deserve less than we get and are content with what the G.o.ds send. This, I take it, is all that Martin[27]
would call a comfortable mood for Christmas; and we are old enough and tough enough to have thick armour against trouble. When Worry knocks at the door, the butler tells him we're not at home.
And I see the most interesting work in the world cut out for me for the next twenty-five or thirty years--to get such courtesy into our dealings with these our kinsmen here, public and private--as will cause them to follow us in all the developments of democracy and-in keeping the peace of the world secure. I can't impress it on you strongly enough that the English-speaking folk have got to set the pace and keep this world in order. n.o.body else is equal to the job. In all our dealings with the British, public and private, we allow it to be a.s.sumed that _they_ lead: they don't. _We_ lead.
They'll follow, if we do really lead and are courteous to them. If we hold back, the Irishman rears up and says we are surrendering to the Englis.h.!.+ Suppose we go ahead and the English surrender to us, what can your Irishmen do then? Or your German? The British Navy is a pretty good sort of dog to have to trot under your wagon. If we are willing to have ten years of thoughtful good manners, I tell you Jellicoe will eat out of your hand.
Therefore, cheer up! It's not at all improbable that Ford[28] and his cargo of cranks, if they get across the ocean, may strike a German mine in the North Sea. Then they'll die happy, as martyrs; and the rest of us will live happy, and it'll be a Merry Christmas for everybody.
Our love to Mrs. House.
Always heartily yours,
W.H.P.
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