I talked the Mexican situation out thoroughly with him and one of your dispatches came while I was there.  I found that he was becoming prejudiced against the British Government, believing that their Mexican policy was based purely upon commercialism, that they were backing Huerta quietly at the instance of Lord Cowdray, and that Cowdray had not only already obtained concessions from the Huerta Government, but expected to obtain others.  Sir Lionel Carden was also all to the bad.

I saw the President and his views were not very different from those of Mr. Bryan.  I asked the President to permit me to see Sir William Tyrrell and talk to him frankly and to attempt to straighten the tangle out.  He gave me a free hand.

I lunched with Sir William at the British Embassy although Sir Cecil Spring Rice was not well enough to be present.  I had a long talk with Sir William after lunch and found that our suspicions were unwarranted and that we could get together without any difficulty whatever.

I told him very frankly what our purpose was in Mexico and that we were determined to carry it through if it was within our power to do so.  That being so I suggested that he get his government to cooeperate cordially with ours rather than to accept our policy reluctantly.

I told him that you and I had dreamed of a sympathetic alliance between the two countries and that it seemed to me that this dream might come true very quickly because of the President and Sir Edward Grey.  He expressed a willingness to cooeperate freely and I told him I would arrange an early meeting with the President.  I thought it better to bring the President into the game rather than Mr. Bryan.  I told him of the President’s attitude upon the Panama toll question but I touched upon that lightly and in confidence, preferring for the President himself to make his own statement.

I left the Bryans in the morning of the luncheon with Sir William, intending to take an afternoon train for New York, but the President wanted me to stay with him at the White House over night and meet Sir William with him at half past nine the following morning.  He was so tired that I did not have the heart to urge a meeting that night.

From half past nine until half past ten the President and Sir William repeated to each other what they had said separately to me, and which I had given to each, and then the President elaborated upon the toll question much to the satisfaction of Sir William.

     He explained the matter in detail and assured him of his entire
     sympathy and purpose to carry out our treaty obligations, both in
     the letter and the spirit.