The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, Volume II eBook

Burton J. Hendrick
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 516 pages of information about The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, Volume II.

The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, Volume II eBook

Burton J. Hendrick
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 516 pages of information about The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, Volume II.
own book of forty-five years ago—­these two and no more—­may be forced on the Germans themselves.  They are both quite legitimate, too.  You can read a recollection of both these events between the lines of the interviews that Sir Edward and Mr. Balfour recently gave to American newspapers.
There is nothing but admiration here for the strategy of the President’s last note to Germany.  That was the cleverest play made by anybody since the war began—­clever beyond praise.  Now he’s “got ’em.”  But nobody here doubts that they will say, sooner or later, that the United States, not having forced the breaking of the British blockade, has not kept its bargain—­that’s what they’ll say—­and it is in order again to run amuck.  This is what the English think—­provided the Germans have enough submarines left to keep up real damage.  By that time, too, it will be clear to the Germans that the President can’t bring peace so long as only one side wishes peace.  The Germans seem to have counted much on the Irish uprising, which came to pass at all only because of the customary English stupid bungling; and the net result has been only to put the mass of the Irish on their mettle to show that they are not Sinn Feiners.  The final upshot will be to strengthen the British Army.  God surely is good to this bungling British Government.  Wind and wave and the will of High Heaven seem to work for them.  I begin to understand their stupidity and their arrogance.  If your enemies are such fools in psychological tactics and Heaven is with you, why take the trouble to be alert?  And why be modest?  Whatever the reason, these English are now more cocky and confident than they’ve been before since the war began.  They are beginning to see results.  The only question seems to be to hold the Allies together, and they seem to be doing that.  In fact, the battle of Verdun has cemented them.  They now have visible proof that the German Army is on the wane.  And they have trustworthy evidence that the blockade is telling severely on the Germans.  Nobody, I think, expects to thrash ’em to a frazzle; but the almost universal opinion here is that the hold of militarism will be shaken loose.  And the German High Canal Navy—­what’s to become of that?  Von Tirpitz is down and out, but there are thousands of Germans, I hear, who complain of their naval inactivity.  But God only knows the future—­I don’t.  I think that I do well if I keep track of the present....

     My kindest regards to Mrs. House,

     Yours very heartily,
     W.H.P.

     To Edward M. House

     London, 25 May, 1916.

     DEAR HOUSE: 

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The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, Volume II from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.