None of this conveys the idea I am trying to explain—­the change in the English point of view and outlook—­a half century’s change in less than three years, radical and fundamental change, too.  The mother of the Duke of X came to see me this afternoon, hobbling on her sticks and feeble, to tell me of a radiant letter she had received from her granddaughter who has been in Washington visiting the Spring Rices.  “It’s all very wonderful,” said the venerable lady, “and my granddaughter actually heard the President make a speech!” Now, knowing this lady and knowing her son, the Duke, and knowing how this girl, his daughter, has been brought up, I dare swear that three years ago not one of them would have crossed the street to hear any President that ever lived.  They’ve simply become different people.  They were very genuine before.  They are very genuine now.

It is this steadfastness in them that gives me sound hope for the future.  They don’t forget sympathy or help or friendship.  Our going into the war has eliminated the Japanese question.  It has shifted the virtual control of the world to English-speaking peoples.  It will bring into the best European minds the American ideal of service.  It will, in fact, give us the lead and make the English in the long run our willing followers and allies.  I don’t mean that we shall always have plain sailing.  But I do mean that the direction of events for the next fifty or one hundred years has now been determined.

[Illustration:  Lord Robert Cecil, Minister of Blockade, 1916-18, Assistant Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1918]

[Illustration:  General John J. Pershing, Commander-in-Chief of the American Expeditionary Force in the Great War]

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Yet Page found one stolid opposition to his attempts to establish the friendliest relations between the two peoples.  That offish attitude of the Washington Administration, to which reference has already been made, did not soften with the progress of events.  Another experience now again brought out President Wilson’s coldness toward his allies.  About this time many rather queer Americans—­some of the “international” breed—­were coming to England on more or less official missions.  Page was somewhat humiliated by these excursions; he knew that his country possessed an almost unlimited supply of vivid speakers, filled with zeal for the allied cause, whose influence, if they could be induced to cross the Atlantic, would put new spirit into the British.  The idea of having a number of distinguished Americans come to England and tell the British public about the United States and especially about the American preparations for war, was one that now occupied his thoughts.  In June, 1917, he wrote his old friend Dr. Wallace Buttrick, extending an invitation to visit Great Britain as a guest of the British Government.  Dr. Buttrick made a great success; his speeches drew large crowds and proved a source of inspiration to