and personal qualities, to head such a commission; on this point there was no discussion.  Mr. Balfour was now in his seventieth year; his activities in British politics dated back to the times of Disraeli; his position in Great Britain had become as near that of an “elder statesman” as is tolerable under the Anglo-Saxon system.  By this time Page had established the friendliest possible relations with this distinguished man.  Mr. Balfour had become Foreign Secretary in December, 1916, in succession to Lord Grey.  Greatly as Page regretted the resignation of Grey, he was much gratified that Mr. Balfour had been selected to succeed him.  Mr. Balfour’s record for twenty-five years had been one of consistent friendliness toward the United States.  When President Cleveland’s Venezuelan message, in 1896, had precipitated a crisis in the relations of the two countries, it was Mr. Balfour’s influence which was especially potent in causing Great Britain to modify its attitude and to accept the American demand for arbitration.  That action not only amicably settled the Venezuelan question; it marked the beginning of a better feeling between the English-speaking countries and laid the basis for that policy of benevolent neutrality which Great Britain had maintained toward the United States in the Spanish War.  The excellent spirit which Mr. Balfour had shown at this crisis he had manifested on many occasions since.  In the criticisms of the United States during the Lusitania troubles Mr. Balfour had never taken part.  The era of “neutrality” had not ruffled the confidence which he had always felt in the United States.  During all this time the most conspicuous dinner tables of London had rung with criticisms of American policy; the fact was well known, however, that Mr. Balfour had never sympathized with these reproaches; even when he was not in office, no unfriendly word concerning the United States had ever escaped his lips.  His feeling toward this country was well shown in a letter which he wrote Page, in reply to one congratulating him on his seventieth birthday.  “I have now lived a long life,” said Mr. Balfour, “and most of my energies have been expended in political work, but if I have been fortunate enough to contribute, even in the smallest degree, to drawing closer the bonds that unite our two countries, I shall have done something compared with which all else that I may have attempted counts in my eyes as nothing.”

Page’s letters and notes contain many references to Mr. Balfour’s kindly spirit.  On the day following the dismissal of Bernstorff the American Ambassador lunched with the Foreign Secretary at No. 4 Carlton Gardens.