, some of which has perhaps not been wholly undeserved.
But whether it was by design or was the result of some happy accident,
Downing Street managed to be most efficiently represented at the
courts of northern Europe during the epoch of the Great War. Sir G.
Buchanan's outstanding services in Russia are now recognized on all
hands--even apparently by H.M. Government. But the country also owes
much to Sir E. Howard and to Sir M. Findlay, who represented us so
worthily in Sweden and Norway during periods of exceptional stress and
difficulty. It was a real pleasure when passing backwards and forwards
through Scandinavia to meet these two strong men who were so
successfully keeping the flag flying, to discuss with them the course
of events, to be made acquainted with the peculiar problems that were
constantly confronting them, to note the marked respect in which they
were held on all hands, and to enjoy the hospitality of two typical
English homes planted down in a foreign land. On one occasion Sir E.
Howard was good enough to make special arrangements for me to meet the
Russian and French Ministers at Stockholm and the French Military
Attache at luncheon at the Legation, thereby enabling us to examine
into a number of points of common interest.

Bergen was reputed to be a regular hotbed of German spydom, and
apparently with justice. A party of Russian officers coming over on a
mission to this country and France some months later were taken off
the Bergen-Newcastle packet by a U-boat. The commander of the U-boat
had a list of their names, with ranks and everything in order, and he
knew all about his prisoners. One officer was overlooked, and he
brought news of the _contretemps_ to this country; he had, as it
happened, only joined the party at the very last moment as an
afterthought, and the Boche agents at Stockholm and Bergen had
evidently overlooked him on the way through. An idea prevailed over
here that the Swedes in general were decidedly hostile to the Entente;
Stockholm, a cold spot in winter--almost as cold as, but without the
blistering rawness of, Petrograd--was undoubtedly full of Germans, and
the red, white and black colours were freely displayed. But partiality
for the Central Powers seemed in the main to be confined to the upper
classes and to the officers, and, even so, the Swedish officials were
always civility itself. It was indeed much easier to get through the
formalities at Haparanda on the Swedish side