he game, I verily
believe that Lloyd George is holding up best. He organized British
finance. Now he's organizing British industry.

It's got hot in London--hotter than I've ever known it. It gets
lonelier (more people going away) and sadder--more wounded coming
back and more visible sorrow. We seem to be settling down to
something that is more or less like Paris--so far less, but it may
become more and more like it. And the confident note of an earlier
period is accompanied by a dull undertone of much less
cheerfulness. The end is--in the lap of the gods.

W.H.P.

_To Arthur W. Page_

American Embassy, London,

July 25, 1915.

DEAR ARTHUR:

... Many men here are very active in their thought about the future
relations of the United States and Great Britain. Will the war
bring or leave them closer together? If the German machine be
completely smashed (and it may not be completely smashed) the
Japanese danger will remain. I do not know how to estimate that
danger accurately. But there is such a danger. And, if the German
wild beast ever come to life again, there's an eternal chance of
trouble with it. For defensive purposes it may become of the very
first importance that the whole English-speaking world should stand
together--not in entangling alliance, but with a much clearer
understanding than we have ever yet had. I'll indicate to you some
of my cogitations on this subject by trying to repeat what I told
Philip Kerr[17] a fortnight ago--one Sunday in the country. I can
write this to you without seeming to parade my own opinions.--Kerr
is one of "The Round Table," perhaps the best group of men here for
the real study and free discussion of large political subjects.
Their quarterly, _The Round Table_, is the best review, I dare
say, in the world. Kerr is red hot for a close and perfect
understanding between Great Britain and the United States. I told
him that, since Great Britain had only about forty per cent. of the
white English-speaking people and the United States had about sixty
per cent., I hoped in his natural history that the tail didn't wag
the dog. I went on:

"You now have the advantage of us in your aggregation of three
centuries of accumulated wealth--the spoil of all the world--and in
the talent th