knocked out in that quarter and he doesn’t squeal.  His experiences will serve us many a good turn in the future—­as a warning.  I rather like him.  He eats out of my hand in the afternoon and has one of his papers jump on me in the morning.  Some time in the twenty-four hours, he must attain about the normal temperature—­say about noon.  He admires the President greatly—­sincerely.  Force meets force, you see.  With the President behind me I could really enjoy Cowdray centuries after X had danced himself into oblivion.

By the way, Cowdray said to me to-day:  “Whatever the United States and Great Britain agree on the world must do.”  He’s right. (1) The President must come here, perhaps in his second term; (2) these two Governments must enter a compact for peace and for gradual disarmament.  Then we can go about our business for (say) a hundred years.

     Heartily,
     W.H.P.

In spite of the continued pressure of the United States and the passive support of its anti-Huerta policy by Great Britain, the Mexican usurper refused to resign.  President Wilson now began to espouse the interests of Villa and Carranza.  His letters to Page indicate that he took these men at their own valuation, believed that they were sincere patriots working for the cause of “democracy” and “constitutionalism” and that their triumph would usher in a day of enlightenment and progress for Mexico.  It was the opinion of the Foreign Office that Villa and Carranza were worse men than Huerta and that any recognition of their revolutionary activities would represent no moral gain.

     From President Wilson

     The White House, Washington,
     May 18, 1914.

     MY DEAR PAGE: 

. . .  As to the attitude of mind on that side of the water toward the Constitutionalists, it is based upon prejudices which cannot be sustained by the facts.  I am enclosing a copy of an interview by a Mr. Reid[43] which appeared in one of the afternoon papers recently and which sums up as well as they could be summed up my own conclusions with regard to the issues and the personnel of the pending contest in Mexico.  I can verify it from a hundred different sources, most of them sources not in the least touched by predilections for such men as our friends in London have supposed Carranza and Villa to be.

     Cordially and faithfully yours,
     WOODROW WILSON.

     HON.  WALTER H. PAGE,
     U.S.  Embassy,
     London, England.

     The White House, Washington,
     June 1, 1914.

     MY DEAR PAGE: