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<CENTER><FONT SIZE="+2">CHAPTER X</FONT></center><br><br>

<CENTER><FONT SIZE="+2">THE GRAND SMASH</FONT></center>

<br><br>IN THE latter part of July the Pages took a small house at
Ockham, in Surrey, and here they spent the fateful week that preceded
the outbreak of war. The Ambassador's emotions on this event are
reflected in a memorandum written on Sunday, August 2nd---a day
that was full of negotiations, ultimatums, and other precursors
of the approaching struggle.

<br><br>.

<BLOCKQUOTE>
  <br><br>Bachelor's Farm, Ockham, Surrey.<BR>
  Sunday, August 2, 1914.
  <br><br>The Grand Smash is come. Last night the German Ambassador
  at St. Petersburg handed the Russian Government a declaration
  of war. To-day the German Government asked the United States
  to take its diplomatic and consular business in Russia in hand.
  Herrick, our Ambassador in Paris, has already taken the German
  interests there.
  <br><br>It is reported in London to-day that the Germans have invaded
  Luxemburg and France.
  <br><br>Troops were marching through London at one o'clock this morning.
  Colonel Squier(<A NAME="n61"></A><A HREF="Pagenotes.htm#61">61</A>)
  came out to luncheon. He sees no way for England to keep out
  of it. There is no way. If she keep out, Germany will take Belgium
  and Holland, France would be betrayed, and England would be accused
  of forsaking her friends.
  <br><br>People came to the Embassy all day to-day (Sunday), to learn
  how they can get to the United States---a rather hard question
  to answer. I thought several times of going in, but Greene and
  Squier said there was no need of it. People merely hoped we might
  tell them what we can't tell them.
  <br><br>Returned travellers from Paris report indescribable confusion---people
  unable to obtain beds and fighting for seats in railway carriages.
  <br><br>It's been a hard day here. I have a lot (not a big lot either)
  of routine work on my desk which I meant to do. But it has been
  impossible to get my mind off this Great Smash. It holds one
  in spite of one's self. I revolve it and revolve it---of course
  getting nowhere.
  <br><br>It will revive our shipping. In a jiffy, under stress of a
  general European war, the United States Senate passed a bill
  permitting American registry to ships built abroad. Thus a real
  emergency knocked the old Protectionists out, who had held on
  for fifty years! Correspondingly the political parties here have
  agreed to suspend their Home Rule quarrel till this war is ended.
  Artificial structures fall when a real wind blows.
  <br><br>The United States is the only great Power wholly out of it.
  The United States, most likely, therefore, will be able to play
  a helpful and historic part at its end. It will give President
  Wilson, no doubt, a great opportunity. It will probably help
  us politically and it will surely help us economically.
  <br><br>The possible consequences stagger the imagination. Germany
  has staked everything on her ability to win primacy. England
  and France (to say nothing of Russia) really ought to give her
  a drubbing. If they do not, this side of the world will henceforth
  be German. If they do flog Germany, Germany will for a long time
  be in discredit.
  <br><br>I walked out in the night a while ago. The stars are bright,
  the night is silent, the country quiet---as quiet as peace itself.
  Millions of men are in camp and on warships. Will they all have
  to fight and many of them die---to untangle this network of treaties
  and alliances and to blow off huge debts with gunpowder so that
  the world may start again?</BLOCKQUOTE>

<br><br>.

<br><br>A hurried picture of the events of the next seven days is given
m the following letter to the President:

<br><br>.

<BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P ALIGN=CENTER><I><FONT SIZE="+1">To the President</FONT></I>
  <br><br>London, Sunday, August 9, 1914.
  <br><br>DEAR MR. PRESIDENT:
  <br><br>God save us! What a week it has been! Last Sunday I was down
  here at the cottage I have taken for the summer---an hour out
  of London---uneasy because of the apparent danger and of what
  Sir Edward Grey had told me. During the day people began to go
  to the Embassy, but not in great numbers---merely to ask what
  they should do in case of war. The Secretary whom I had left
  in charge on Sunday telephoned me every few hours and laughingly
  told funny experiences with nervous women who came in and asked
  absurd questions. Of course, we all knew the grave danger that
  war might come but nobody could by the wildest imagination guess
  at what awaited us. On Monday I was at the Embassy earlier than
  I think I had ever been there before and every member of the
  staff was already on duty. Before breakfast time the place was
  filled---packed like sardines. This was two days before war was
  declared. There was no chance to talk to individuals, such was
  the jam. I got on a chair and explained that I had already telegraphed
  to Washington---on Saturday---suggesting the sending of money
  and ships, and asking them to be patient. I made a speech to
  them several times during the day, and kept the Secretaries doing
  so at intervals. More than 2,000 Americans crowded into those
  offices (which are not large) that day. We were kept there till
  two o'clock in the morning. The Embassy has not been closed since.
  <br><br>Mr. Kent of the Bankers Trust Company in New York volunteered
  to form an American Citizens' Relief Committee. He and other
  men of experience and influence organized themselves at the Savoy
  Hotel. The hotel gave the use of nearly a whole floor. They organized
  themselves quickly and admirably and got information about steamships
  and currency, etc. We began to send callers at the Embassy to
  this Committee for such information. The banks were all closed
  for four days. These men got money enough---put it up themselves
  and used their English banking friends for help---to relieve
  all cases of actual want of cash that came to them. Tuesday the
  crowd at the Embassy was still great but smaller. The big space
  at the Savoy Hotel gave them room to talk to one another and
  to get relief for immediate needs. By that time I had accepted
  the volunteer services of five or six men to help us explain
  to the people---and they have all worked manfully day and night.
  We now have an orderly organization at four places: The Embassy,
  the Consul-General's Office, the Savoy, and the American Society
  in London, and everything is going well. Those two first days,
  there was, of course, great confusion. Crazy men and weeping
  women were imploring and cursing and demanding---God knows it
  was bedlam turned loose. I have been called a man of the greatest
  genius for an emergency by some, by others a damned fool, by
  others every epithet between these extremes. Men shook English
  banknotes in my face and demanded United States money and swore
  our Government and its agents ought all to be shot. Women expected
  me to hand them steamship tickets home. When some found out that
  they could not get tickets on the transports (which they assumed
  would sail the next day) they accused me of favouritism. These
  absurd experiences will give you a hint of the panic. But now
  it has worked out all right, thanks to the Savoy Committee and
  other helpers.
  <br><br>Meantime, of course, our telegrams and mail increased almost
  as much as our callers. I have filled the place with stenographers,
  I have got the Savoy people to answer certain classes of letters,
  and we have caught up. My own time and the time of two of the
  secretaries has been almost wholly taken with governmental problems;
  hundreds of questions have come in from every quarter that were
  never asked before. But even with them we have now practically
  caught up---it has been a wonderful week!
  <br><br>Then the Austrian Ambassador came to give up his Embassy---to
  have me take over his business. Every detail was arranged. The
  next morning I called on him to assume charge and to say good-bye,
  when he told me that he was not yet going! That was a stroke
  of genius by Sir Edward Grey, who informed him that Austria had
  not given England cause for war. That may work out, or it may
  not. Pray Heaven it may! Poor Mensdorff, the Austrian Ambassador,
  does not know where he is. He is practically shut up in his guarded
  Embassy, weeping and waiting the decree of fate.
  <br><br>Then came the declaration of war, most dramatically.
  <br><br>Tuesday night, five minutes after the ultimatum had expired,
  the Admiralty telegraphed to the fleet &quot;Go.&quot; In a few
  minutes the answer came back &quot;Off.&quot; Soldiers began
  to march through the city going to the railway stations. An indescribable
  crowd so blocked the streets about the Admiralty, the War Office,
  and the Foreign Office, that at one o'clock in the morning I
  had to drive in my car by other streets to get home.
  <br><br>The next day the German Embassy was turned over to me. I went
  to see the German Ambassador at three o'clock in the afternoon.
  He came down in his pajamas, a crazy man. I feared he might literally
  go mad. He is of the anti-war party and he had done his best
  and utterly failed. This interview was one of the most pathetic
  experiences of my life. The poor man had not slept for several
  nights. Then came the crowds of frightened Germans, afraid that
  they would be arrested. They besieged the German Embassy and
  our Embassy. I put one of our naval officers in the German Embassy,
  put the United States seal on the door to protect it, and we
  began business there, too. Our naval officer has moved in---sleeps
  there. He has an assistant, a stenographer, a messenger: and
  I gave him the German automobile and chauffeur and two English
  servants that were left there. He has the job well in hand now,
  under my and Laughlin's supervision. But this has brought still
  another new lot of diplomatic and governmental problems---a lot
  of them. Three enormous German banks in London have, of course,
  been closed. Their managers pray for my aid. Howling women come
  and say their innocent German husbands have been arrested as
  spies. English, Germans, Americans---everybody has daughters
  and wives and invalid grandmothers alone in Germany. In God's
  name, they ask, what can I do for them? Here come stacks of letters
  sent under the impression that I can send them to Germany. But
  the German business is already well in hand and I think that
  that will take little of my own time and will give little trouble.
  I shall send a report about it in detail to the Department the
  very first day I can find time to write it. In spite of the effort
  of the English Government to remain at peace with Austria, I
  fear I shall yet have the Austrian Embassy too. But I can attend
  to it.
  <br><br>Now, however, comes the financial job of wisely using the
  $300,000 which I shall have to-morrow. I am using Mr. Chandler
  Anderson as counsel, of course. I have appointed a Committee---Skinner,
  the Consul-General, Lieut.-Commander McCrary of our Navy, Kent
  of the Bankers Trust Company, New York, and one other man yet
  to be chosen---to advise, after investigation, about every proposed
  expenditure. Anderson has been at work all day to-day drawing
  up proper forms, etc., to fit the Department's very excellent
  instructions. I have the feeling that more of that money may
  be wisely spent in helping to get people off the continent (except
  in France, where they seem admirably to be managing it, under
  Herrick) than is immediately needed in England. All this merely
  to show you the diversity and multiplicity of the job.
  <br><br>I am having a card catalogue, each containing a sort of who's
  who, of all Americans in Europe of whom we hear. This will be
  ready by the time the <I>Tennessee</I>(<A NAME="n62"></A><A 
  HREF="Pagenotes.htm#62">62</A>)<I> </I>comes. Fifty or more stranded
  Americans---men and women---are doing this work free.
  <br><br>I have a member of Congress(<A NAME="n63"></A><A HREF="Pagenotes.htm#63">63</A>)
  in the general reception room of the Embassy answering people's
  questions---three other volunteers as well.
  <br><br>We had a world of confusion for two or three days. But all
  this work is now well organized and it can be continued without
  confusion or cross purposes. I meet committees and lay plans
  and read and write telegrams from the time I wake till I go to
  bed. But, since it is now all in order, it is easy. Of course
  I am running up the expenses of the Embassy---there is no help
  for that; but the bill will be really exceedingly small because
  of the volunteer work---for awhile. I have not and shall not
  consider the expense of whatever it seems absolutely necessary
  to do---of other things I shall always consider the expense most
  critically. Everybody is working with everybody else in the finest
  possible spirit. I have made out a sort of military order to
  the Embassy staff, detailing one man with clerks for each night
  and forbidding the others to stay there till midnight. None of
  us slept more than a few hours last week. It was not the work
  that kept them after the first night or two, but the sheer excitement
  of this awful cataclysm. All London has been awake for a week.
  Soldiers are marching day and night; immense throngs block the
  streets about the government offices. But they are all very orderly.
  Every day Germans are arrested on suspicion; and several of them
  have committed suicide. Yesterday one poor American woman yielded
  to the excitement and cut her throat. I find it hard to get about
  much. People stop me on the street, follow me to luncheon, grab
  me as I come out of any committee meeting---to know my opinion
  of this or that---how can they get home? Will such-and-such a
  boat fly the American flag? Why did I take the German Embassy?
  I have to fight my way about and rush to an automobile. I have
  had to buy me a second one to keep up the racket. Buy?---no---only
  bargain for it, for I have not any money. But everybody is considerate,
  and that makes no matter for the moment. This little cottage
  in an out-of-the-way place, twenty-five miles from London, where
  I am trying to write and sleep, has been found by people to-day,
  who come in automobiles to know how they may reach their sick
  kinspeople in Germany. I have not had a bath for three days:
  as soon as I got in the tub, the telephone rang an &quot;urgent&quot;
  call!
  <br><br><CENTER><TABLE WIDTH="296" BORDER="0" CELLSPACING="2"
  CELLPADDING="0">
    <TR>
      <TD WIDTH="47%">
        <P ALIGN=CENTER><A HREF="images/Page12.jpg"><IMG SRC="thumbnails/Page12tn.jpg"
        WIDTH="114" HEIGHT="144" ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="1" ></A></TD>
      <TD WIDTH="53%">
        <P ALIGN=CENTER><A HREF="images/Page13.jpg"><IMG SRC="thumbnails/Page13tn.jpg"
        WIDTH="97" HEIGHT="144" ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="1" ></A></TD>
    </TR>
    <TR>
      <TD WIDTH="47%">
        <P ALIGN=CENTER>&nbsp;<B><FONT COLOR="#0000ff">Fig. 12.</FONT></B><FONT
         COLOR="#0000ff"> No. 6 Grosvenor Square, the American Embassy
        under Mr. Page</FONT></TD>
      <TD WIDTH="53%">
        <P ALIGN=CENTER>&nbsp;<B><FONT COLOR="#0000ff">Fig 13.</FONT></B><FONT
         COLOR="#0000ff"> Irwin Laughlin, Secretary of the American Embassy
        at London, 1912-1917, Counsellor 1916-1919</FONT></TD>
    </TR>
  </TABLE></CENTER>
<br><br>Upon my word, if one could forget the awful tragedy, all this
experience would be worth a lifetime of commonplace. One surprise
follows another so rapidly that one loses all sense of time:
it seems an age since last Sunday.
<br><br>I shall never forget Sir Edward Grey's telling me of the ultimatum---while
he wept; nor the poor German Ambassador who has lost in his high
game---almost a demented man; nor the King as he declaimed at
me for half-an-hour and threw up his hands and said, &quot;My
God, Mr. Page, what else could we do?&quot; Nor the Austrian
Ambassador's wringing his hands and weeping and crying out, &quot;My
dear Colleague, my dear Colleague.&quot;
<br><br>Along with all this tragedy come two reverend American peace
delegates who got out of Germany by the skin of their teeth and
complain that, they lost all the clothes they had except what
they had on. &quot;Don't complain,&quot; said I, &quot;but thank
God you saved your skins.&quot; Everybody has forgotten what
war means---forgotten that folks get hurt. But they are coming
around to it now. A United States Senator telegraphs me: &quot;Send
my wife and daughter home on the first ship.&quot; Ladies and
gentlemen filled the steerage of that ship---not a bunk left;
and his wife and daughter are found three days later sitting
in a swell hotel waiting for me to bring them stateroom tickets
on a silver tray! One of my young fellows in the Embassy rushes
into my office saying that a man from Boston, with letters of
introduction from Senators and Governors and Secretaries, et
al., was demanding tickets of admission to a picture gallery,
and a secretary to escort him there.
<br><br>&quot;What shall I do with him?&quot;
<br><br>&quot;Put his proposal to a vote of the 200 Americans in the
room and see them draw and quarter him.&quot;
<br><br>I have not yet heard what happened. A woman writes me four
pages to prove how dearly she loves my sister and invites me
to her hotel---five miles away---&quot;please to tell her about
the sailing of the steamships.&quot; Six American preachers pass
a resolution unanimously &quot;urging our Ambassador to telegraph
our beloved, peace-loving President to stop this awful war&quot;;
and they come with simple solemnity to present their resolution.
Lord save us, what a world!
<br><br>And this awful tragedy moves on to---what? We do not know
what is really happening, so strict is the censorship. But it
seems inevitable to me that Germany will be beaten, that the
horrid period of alliances and armaments will not come again,
that England will gain even more of the earth's surface, that
Russia may next play the menace; that all Europe (as much as
survives) will be bankrupt; that relatively we shall be immensely
stronger financially and politically---there must surely come
many great changes---very many, yet undreamed of. Be ready; for
you will be called on to compose this huge quarrel. I thank Heaven
for many things---first, the Atlantic Ocean; second, that you
refrained from war in Mexico; third, that we kept our treaty---the
canal tolls victory, I mean. Now, when all this half of the world
will suffer the unspeakable brutalization of war, we shall preserve
our moral strength, our political powers, and our ideals.
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<br><br>God save us!
<br><br>W. H. P.</BLOCKQUOTE>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<br><br>.

<br><br>Vivid as is the above letter, it lacks several impressive details.
Probably the one event that afterward stood out most conspicuously
in Page's mind was his interview with Sir Edward Grey, the Foreign
Secretary. Sir Edward asked the American Ambassador to call Tuesday
afternoon; his purpose was to inform him that Great Britain had
sent an ultimatum to Germany. By this time Page and the Foreign
Secretary. had established not only cordial official relations
but a warm friendship. The two men had many things in common;
they had the same general outlook on world affairs, the same ideas
of justice and fair dealing, the same belief that other motives
than greed and aggrandizement should control the attitude of one
nation to another. The political tendencies of both men were idealistic;
both placed character above everything else as the first requisite
of a statesman; both hated war, and looked forward to the time
when more rational methods of conducting international relations
would prevail. Moreover, their purely personal qualities had drawn
Sir Edward and Page closely together. A common love of nature
and of out-of-door life had made them akin; both loved trees,
birds, flowers, and hedgerows; the same intellectual diversions
and similar tastes in reading had strengthened the tie. &quot;I
could never mention a book I liked that Mr. Page had not read
and liked too,&quot; Sir Edward Grey once remarked to the present
writer, and the enthusiasm that both men felt for Wordsworth's
poetry in itself formed a strong bond of union. The part that
the American Ambassador had played in the repeal of the Panama
discrimination had also made a great impression upon this British
statesman ---a man to whom honour means more in international
dealings than any other consideration. &quot;Mr. Page is one of
the finest illustrations I have ever known,&quot; Grey once said,
&quot;of the value of character in a public man.&quot; In their
intercourse for the past year the two men had grown accustomed
to disregard all pretense of diplomatic technique; their discussions
had been straightforward man-to-man talks; there had been nothing
suggestive of pose or finesse, and no attempts at cleverness ---merely
an effort to get to the bottom of things and to discover a common
meeting ground. The Ambassador, moreover, represented a nation
for which the Foreign Secretary had always entertained the highest
respect and even affection, and he and Page could find no happier
common meeting-ground than an effort to bring about the closest
cooperation between the two countries. Sir Edward, far-seeing
statesman that he was, had already appreciated, even amid the
exciting and engrossing experiences through which he was then
passing, the critical and almost determining part which the United
States was destined to play in the war, and he had now sent for
the American Ambassador because he believed that the President
was entitled to a complete explanation of the momentous decision
which Great Britain had just made.

<br><br>The meeting took place at three o'clock on Tuesday afternoon,
August 4th---a fateful date in modern history. The time represented
the interval which elapsed between the transmission of the British
ultimatum to Germany and the hour set for the German reply. The
place was that same historic room in the Foreign Office where
so many interviews had already taken place and where so many were
to take place in the next four years. As Page came in, Sir Edward,
a tall and worn and rather pallid figure, was standing against
the mantelpiece; he greeted the Ambassador with a grave handshake
and the two men sat down. Overwrought the Foreign Secretary may
have been, after the racking week which had just passed, but there
was nothing flurried or excited in his manner; his whole bearing
was calm and dignified, his speech was quiet and restrained, he
uttered not one bitter word against Germany, but his measured
accents had a sureness, a conviction of the justice of his course,
that went home in almost deadly fashion. He sat in a characteristic
pose, his elbows resting on the sides of his chair, his hands
folded and placed beneath his chin, the whole body leaning forward
eagerly and his eyes searching those of his American friend. The
British Foreign Secretary was a handsome and an inspiring figure.
He was a man of large, but of well knit, robust, and slender frame,
wiry and even athletic; he had a large head, surmounted with dark
brown hair, slightly touched with gray; a finely cut, somewhat
rugged and bronzed face, suggestive of that out-of-door life in
which he had always found his greatest pleasure; light blue eyes
that shone with straightforwardness and that on this occasion
were somewhat pensive with anxiety; thin, ascetic lips that could
smile in the most confidential manner or close tightly with grimness
and fixed purpose. He was a man who was at the same time shy and
determined, elusive and definite, but if there was one note in
his bearing that predominated all others, it was a solemn and
quiet sincerity. He seemed utterly without guile and magnificently
simple.

<br><br>Sir Edward at once referred to the German invasion of Belgium.

<br><br>&quot;The neutrality of Belgium,&quot; he said, and there was
the touch of finality in his voice, &quot;is assured by treaty.
Germany is a signatory power to that treaty. It is upon such solemn
compacts as this that civilization rests. If we give them up,
or permit them to be violated, what becomes of civilization? Ordered
society differs from mere force only by such solemn agreements
or compacts. But Germany has violated the neutrality of Belgium.
That means bad faith. It means also the end of Belgium's independence.
And it will not end with Belgium. Next will come Holland, and,
after Holland, Denmark. This very morning the Swedish Minister
informed me that Germany had made overtures to Sweden to come
in on Germany's side. The whole plan is thus clear. This one great
military power means to annex Belgium, Holland, and the Scandinavian
states and to subjugate France.&quot;

<br><br>Sir Edward energetically rose; he again stood near the mantelpiece,
his figure straightened, his eyes were fairly flashing---it was
a picture, Page once told me, that was afterward indelibly fixed
in his mind.

<br><br>&quot;England would be forever contemptible,&quot; Sir Edward
said, &quot;if it should sit by and see this treaty violated.
Its position would be gone if Germany were thus permitted to dominate
Europe. I have therefore asked you to come to tell you that this
morning we sent an ultimatum to Germany. We have told Germany
that, if this assault on Belgium's neutrality is not reversed,
England will declare war.&quot;

<br><br>&quot;Do you expect Germany to accept it?&quot; asked the Ambassador.

<br><br>Sir Edward shook his head.

<br><br>&quot;No. Of course everybody knows that there will be war.&quot;

<br><br>There was a moment's pause and then the Foreign Secretary spoke
again:

<br><br>&quot;Yet we must remember that there are two Germanys. There
is the Germany of men like ourselves---of men like Lichnowsky
and Jagow. Then there is the Germany of men of the war party.
The war party has got the upper hand.&quot;

<br><br>At this point Sir Edward's eyes filled with tears.

<br><br>&quot;Thus the efforts of a lifetime go for nothing. I feel
like a man who has wasted his life.&quot;

<br><br>&quot;This scene was most affecting,&quot; Page said afterward.
&quot;Sir Edward not only realized what the whole thing meant,
but he showed that he realized the awful responsibility for it.&quot;

<br><br>Sir Edward then asked the Ambassador to explain the situation
to President Wilson; he expressed the hope that the United States
would take an attitude of neutrality and that Great Britain might
look for &quot;the courtesies of neutrality&quot; from this country.
Page tried to tell him of the sincere pain that such a war would
cause the President and the American people.

<br><br>&quot;I came away,&quot; the Ambassador afterward said, &quot;with
a sort of stunned sense of the impending ruin of half the world.&quot;(<A
NAME="n64"></A><A HREF="Pagenotes.htm#64">64</A>)

<br><br>The significant fact in this interview is that the British
Foreign Secretary justified the attitude of his country exclusively
on the ground of the violation of a treaty. This is something
that is not yet completely understood in the United States. The
participation of Great Britain in this great continental struggle
is usually regarded as having been inevitable, irrespective of
the German invasion of Belgium; yet the fact is that, had Germany
not invaded Belgium, Great Britain would not have declared war,
at least at this critical time. Sir Edward came to Page after
a week's experience with a wavering cabinet. Upon the general
question of Britain's participation in a European war the Asquith
Ministry had been by no means unanimous. Probably Mr. Asquith
himself and Mr. Lloyd George would have voted against taking such
a step. It is quite unlikely that the cabinet could have carried
a majority of the House of Commons on this issue. But the violation
of the Belgian treaty changed the situation in a twinkling. The
House of Commons at once took its stand in favour of intervention.
All members of the cabinet, excepting John Morley and John Burns,
who resigned, immediately aligned themselves on the side of war.
In the minds of British statesmen the violation of this treaty
gave Britain no choice. Germany thus forced Great Britain into
the war, just as, two and a half years afterward, the Prussian
war lords compelled the United States to take up arms. Sir Edward
Grey's interview with the American Ambassador thus had great historic
importance, for it makes this point clear. The two men had recently
had many discussions on another subject in which the violation
of a treaty was the great consideration---that of Panama tolls---and
there was a certain appropriateness in this explanation of the
British Foreign Secretary that precisely the same point had determined
Great Britain's participation in the greatest struggle that has
ever devastated Europe.

<br><br>Inevitably the question of American mediation had come to the
surface in this trying time. Several days before Page's interview
with Grey, the American Ambassador, acting in response to a cablegram
from Washington, had asked if the good offices of the United States
could be used in any way. &quot;Sir Edward is very appreciative
of our mood and willingness,&quot; Page wrote in reference to
this visit. &quot;But they don't want peace on the continent---the
ruling classes do not. But they will want it presently and then
our opportunity will come. Ours is the only great government in
the world that is not in some way entangled. Of course I'll keep
in daily touch with Sir Edward and with everybody who can and
will keep me informed.&quot;

<br><br>This was written about July 27th; at that time Austria had
sent her ultimatum to Serbia but there was no certainty that Europe
would become involved in war. A demand for American mediation
soon became widespread in the United States; the Senate passed
a resolution requesting the President to proffer his good offices
to that end. On this subject the following communications were
exchanged between President Wilson and his chief adviser, then
sojourning at his summer home in Massachusetts. Like Mr. Tumulty,
the President's Secretary, Colonel House usually addressed the
President in terms reminiscent of the days when Mr. Wilson was
Governor of New Jersey. Especially interesting also are Colonel
House's references to his own trip to Berlin and the joint efforts
made by the President and himself in the preceding June to forestall
the war which had now broken out.

<br><br>.

<BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P ALIGN=CENTER><I><FONT SIZE="+1">Edward M. House to the President</FONT></I>
  <br><br>Pride's Crossing (Mass.),<BR>
  August 3, 1914. [Monday.]
  <br><br>THE PRESIDENT,<BR>
  The White House, Washington, D. C.
  <br><br>DEAR GOVERNOR:
  <br><br>Our people are deeply shocked at the enormity of this general
  European war, and I see here and there regret that you did not
  use your good offices in behalf of peace.
  <br><br>If this grows into criticism so as to become noticeable I
  believe everyone would be pleased and proud that you had anticipated
  this world-wide horror and had done all that was humanly possible
  to avert it.
  <br><br>The more terrible the war becomes, the greater credit it will
  be that you saw the trend of events long before it was seen by
  other statesmen of the world.
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <br><br>Your very faithfully,
    <br><br>E. M. HOUSE.</BLOCKQUOTE>
  <br><br>P. S. The question might be asked why negotiations were only
  with Germany and England and not with France and Russia. This,
  of course, was because it was thought that Germany would act
  for the Triple Alliance and England for the Triple Entente.(<A
  NAME="n65"></A><A HREF="Pagenotes.htm#65">65</A>)
  <br><br>.
  <P ALIGN=CENTER><I><FONT SIZE="+1">The President to Edward M.
  House</FONT></I>
  <br><br>The White House,<BR>
  Washington, D. C.<BR>
  August 4th, 1914. [Tuesday.]
  <br><br>EDWARD M. HOUSE,<BR>
  Pride's Crossing, Mass.
  <br><br>Letter of third received. Do you think I could and should
  act now and if so how?
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <br><br>WOODROW WILSON.</BLOCKQUOTE>
  <br><br>.
  <P ALIGN=CENTER><I><FONT SIZE="+1">Edward M. House to the President</FONT></I>
  <br><br>[Telegram]
  <br><br>Pride's Crossing, Mass.<BR>
  August 5th, 1914. [Wednesday.]
  <br><br>THE PRESIDENT,<BR>
  The White House, Washington, D. C.
  <br><br>Olney(<A NAME="n66"></A><A HREF="Pagenotes.htm#66">66</A>)
  and I agree that in response to the Senate resolution it would
  be unwise to tender your good offices at this time. We believe
  it would lessen your influence when the proper moment arrives.
  He thinks it advisable that you make a direct or indirect statement
  to the effect that you have done what was humanly possible to
  compose the situation before this crisis had been reached. He
  thinks this would satisfy the Senate and the public in view of
  your disinclination to act now upon the Senate resolution. The
  story might be told to the correspondents at Washington and they
  might use the expression &quot;we have it from high authority.&quot;
  <br><br>He agrees to my suggestion that nothing further should be
  done now than to instruct our different ambassadors to inform
  the respective governments to whom they are accredited, that
  you stand ready to tender your good offices whenever such an
  offer is desired.
  <br><br>Olney agrees with me that the shipping bill(<A NAME="n67"></A><A
  HREF="Pagenotes.htm#67">67</A>) is full of lurking dangers.
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <br><br>E. M. HOUSE.</BLOCKQUOTE>
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<br><br>.

<br><br>For some reason, however, the suggested statement was not made.
The fact that Colonel House had visited London, Paris, and Berlin
six weeks before the outbreak of war, in an effort to bring about
a plan for disarmament, was not permitted to reach the public
ear. Probably the real reason why this fact was concealed was
that its publication at that time would have reflected so seriously
upon Germany that it would have been regarded as &quot;un-neutral.&quot;
Colonel House, as already described, had found Germany in a most
belligerent frame of mind, its army &quot;ready,&quot; to use
the Kaiser's own word, for an immediate spring at France; on the
other hand he had found Great Britain in a most pacific frame
of mind, entirely unsuspicious of Germany, and confident that
the European situation was daily improving. It is interesting
now to speculate on the public sensation that would have been
caused had Colonel House's account of his visit to Berlin been
published at that exciting time.

<br><br>Page's telegrams and letters show that any suggestion at mediation
would have been a waste of effort. The President seriously forebore,
but the desire to mediate was constantly in his mind for the next
few months, and he now interested himself in laying the foundations
of future action. Page was instructed to ask for an audience with
King George and to present the following document:

<br><br>.

<BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P ALIGN=CENTER><I><FONT SIZE="+1">From the President of the
  United Slates to His Majesty the King</FONT></I>
  <br><br><FONT SIZE="+1">SIR:</FONT>
  <br><br>As official head of one of the Powers signatory to the Hague
  Convention, I feel it to be my privilege and my duty under Article
  3 of that Convention to say to your Majesty, in a spirit of most
  earnest friendship, that I should welcome an opportunity to act
  in the interest of European peace either now or at any time that
  might be thought more suitable as an occasion, to serve your
  Majesty and all concerned in a way that would afford me lasting
  cause for gratitude and happiness.
  <BLOCKQUOTE>
    <br><br>WOODROW WILSON.</BLOCKQUOTE>
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<br><br>.

<br><br>This, of course, was not mediation, but a mere expression of
the President's willingness to mediate at any time that such a
tender from him, in the opinion of the warring Powers, would serve
the cause of peace. Identically the same message was sent to the
American Ambassadors at the capitals of all the belligerent Powers
for presentation to the heads of state. Page's letter of August
9th, printed above, refers to the earnestness and cordiality with
which King George received him and to the freedom with which His
Majesty discussed the situation.

<br><br>In this exciting week Page was thrown into intimate contact
with the two most pathetic figures in the diplomatic circle of
London---the Austrian and the German Ambassadors. To both of these
men the war was more than a great personal sorrow: it was a tragedy.
Mensdorff, the Austrian Ambassador, had long enjoyed an intimacy
with the British royal family. Indeed he was a distant relative
of King George, for he was a member of the family of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha,
a fact which was emphasized by his physical resemblance to Prince
Albert, the consort of Queen Victoria. Mensdorff was not a robust
man, physically or mentally, and he showed his consternation at
the impending war in most unrestrained and even unmanly fashion.
As his government directed him to turn the Austrian Embassy over
to the American Ambassador, it was necessary for Page to call
and arrange the details. The interview, as Page's letter indicates,
was little less than a paroxysm of grief on the Austrian's part.
He denounced Germany and the Kaiser; he paraded up and down the
room wringing his hands; he could be pacified only by suggestions
from the American that perhaps something might happen to keep
Austria out of the war. The whole atmosphere of the Austrian Embassy
radiated this same feeling. &quot;Austria has no quarrel with
England,&quot; remarked one of Mensdorff's assistants to one of
the ladies of the American Embassy; and this sentiment was the
general one in Austrian diplomatic circles. The disinclination
of both Great Britain and Austria to war was so great that, as
Page relates, for several days there was no official declaration.

<br><br>Even more tragical than the fate of the Austrian Ambassador
was that of his colleague, the representative of the German Emperor.
It was more tragical because Prince Lichnowsky represented the
power that was primarily responsible, and because he had himself
been an unwilling tool in bringing on the cataclysm. It was more
profound because Lichnowsky was a man of deeper feeling and greater
moral purpose than his Austrian colleague, and because for two
years he had been devoting his strongest energies to preventing
the very calamity which had now become a fact. As the war went
on Lichnowsky gradually emerged as one of its finest figures;
the pamphlet which he wrote, at a time when Germany's military
fortunes were still high, boldly placing the responsibility upon
his own country and his own Kaiser, was one of the bravest acts
which history records. Through all his brief Ambassadorship Lichnowsky
had shown these same friendly traits. The mere fact that he had
been selected as Ambassador at this time was little less than
a personal calamity. His appointment gives a fair measure of the
depths of duplicity to which the Prussian system could descend.
For more than fourteen years Lichnowsky had led the quiet life
of a Polish country gentleman; he had never enjoyed the favour
of the Kaiser; in his own mind and in that of his friends his
career had long since been finished; yet from this retirement
he had been suddenly called upon to represent the Fatherland at
the greatest of European capitals. The motive for this elevation,
which was unfathomable then, is evident enough now. Prince Lichnowsky
was known to be an Anglophile; everything English---English literature,
English country life, English public men---had for him an irresistible
charm; and his greatest ambition as a diplomat had been to maintain
the most cordial relations between his own country and Great Britain.
This was precisely the type of Ambassador that fitted into the
Imperial purpose at that crisis. Germany was preparing energetically
but quietly for war; it was highly essential that its most formidable
potential foe, Great Britain, should be deceived as to the Imperial
plans and lulled into a sense of security. The diabolical character
of Prince Lichnowsky's selection for this purpose was that, though
his mission was one of deception, he was not himself a party to
it and did not realize until it was too late that he had been
used merely as a tool. Prince Lichnowsky was not called upon to
assume a mask; all that was necessary was that he should simply
be himself. And he acquitted himself with great success. He soon
became a favourite in London society; the Foreign Office found
him always ready to cooperate in any plan that tended to improve
relations between the two countries. It will be remembered that,
when Colonel House returned to London from his interview with
the Kaiser in June, 1914, he found British statesmen incredulous
about any trouble with Germany. This attitude was the consequence
of Lichnowsky's work. The fact is that relations between the two
countries had not been so harmonious in twenty years. All causes
of possible friction had been adjusted. The treaty regulating
the future of the Bagdad Railroad, the only problem that clouded
the future, had been initialled by both the British and the German
Foreign Offices and was about to be signed at the moment when
the ultimatums began to fly through the air. Prince Lichnowsky
was thus entitled to look upon his ambassadorship as one of the
most successful in modern history, for it had removed all possible
cause of war.

<br><br>And then suddenly came the stunning blow. For several days
Lichnowsky's behaviour was that of an irresponsible person. Those
who came into contact with him found his mind wandering and incoherent.
Page describes the German Ambassador as coming down and receiving
him in his pajamas; he was not the only one who had that experience,
for members of the British Foreign Office transacted business
with this most punctilious of diplomats in a similar condition
of personal disarray. And the dishabille extended to his mental
operations as well.

<br><br>But Lichnowsky's and Mensdorff's behaviour merely portrayed
the general atmosphere that prevailed in London during that week.
This atmosphere was simply hysterical. Among all the intimate
participants, however, there was one man who kept his poise and
who saw things clearly. That was the American Ambassador. It was
certainly a strange trick which fortune had played upon Page.
He had come to London with no experience in diplomacy. Though
the possibility of such an outbreak as this war had been in every
man's consciousness for a generation, it had always been as something
certain yet remote; most men thought of it as most men think of
death---as a fatality which is inevitable, but which is so distant
that it never becomes a reality. Thus Page, when he arrived in
London, did not have the faintest idea of the experience that
awaited him. Most people would have thought that his quiet and
studious and unworldly life had hardly prepared him to become
the representative of the most powerful neutral power at the world's
capital during the greatest crisis of modern history. To what
an extent that impression was justified the happenings of the
next four years will disclose; it is enough to point out in this
place that in one respect at least the war found the American
Ambassador well prepared. From the instant hostilities began his
mind seized the significance of it all. &quot;Mr. Page had one
fine qualification for his post,&quot; a great British statesman
once remarked to the present writer. &quot;From the beginning
he saw that there was a right and a wrong to the matter. He did
not believe that Great Britain and Germany were equally to blame.
He believed that Great Britain was right and that Germany was
wrong. I regard it as one of the greatest blessings of modern
times that the United States had an ambassador in London in August,
1914, who had grasped this overwhelming fact. It seems almost
like a dispensation of Providence.&quot;

<br><br>It is important to insist on this point now, for it explains
Page's entire course as Ambassador. The confidential telegram
which Page sent directly to President Wilson in early September,
1914, furnishes the standpoint from which his career as war Ambassador
can be understood:

<br><br>.

<BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P ALIGN=CENTER><I><FONT SIZE="+1">Confidential to the President</FONT></I>
  <br><br>September 11, 3 A. M. <BR>
  No. 645.
  <br><br>Accounts of atrocities are so inevitably a part of every war
  that for some time I did not believe the unbelievable reports
  that were sent from Europe, and there are many that I find incredible
  even now. But American and other neutral observers who have seen
  these things in France and especially in Belgium now convince
  me that the Germans have perpetrated some of the most barbarous
  deeds in history. Apparently credible persons relate such things
  without end.
  <br><br>Those who have violated the Belgian treaty, those who have
  sown torpedoes in the open sea, those who have dropped bombs
  on Antwerp and Paris indiscriminately with the idea of killing
  whom they may strike, have take to heart Bernhardi's doctrine
  that war is a glorious occupation. Can any one longer disbelieve
  the completely barbarous behaviour of the Prussians?
<BLOCKQUOTE>
    <br><br>PAGE.</BLOCKQUOTE>
</BLOCKQUOTE>


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[[Main Page | WWI Document Archive]] > [[Diaries, Memorials, Personal Reminiscences]] > [[The_Life_and_Letters_of_Walter_H._Page|Walter H. Page]] > '''Chapter X'''
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