s, and Commons, feathers and all, and to make 'em
follow our _courteous_ lead anywhere. The President had them in
this mood when the war started and for a long time after--till the
_Lusitania_ seemed to be forgotten and till the lawyers began to
write his Notes. He can get 'em back, after the war ends, by
several acts of courtesy--if we could get into the habit of doing
such things as sending generals and admirals as compliments to
them. The British Empire is ruled by a wily use of courtesies and
decorations. If I had the President himself to do the
correspondence, if I had three or four fine generals and admirals
and a good bishop or two, a thoroughbred senator or two and now and
then a Supreme Court Justice to come on proper errands and be
engineered here in the right way--we could do or say anything we
liked and they'd do whatever we'd say. I'd undertake to underwrite
the whole English-speaking world to keep peace, under our
leadership. Instead whereof, every move we now make is to _follow_
them or to _drive_ them. The latter is impossible, and the former
is unbecoming to us.

But to return to Christmas.--I could go on writing for a week in
this off-hand, slap-dash way, saying wise things flippantly. But
Christmas--that's the thing now. Christmas! What bloody irony it is
on this side the world! Still there will be many pleasant and
touching things done. An Englishman came in to see me the other day
and asked if I'd send $1,000 to Gerard[25] to use in making the
English prisoners in Germany as happy as possible on Christmas
Day--only I must never tell anybody who did it. A lady came on the
same errand--for the British prisoners in Turkey, and with a less
but still a generous sum. The heroism, the generosity, the
endurance and self-restraint and courtesy of these people would
melt a pyramid to tears. Of course there are yellow dogs among 'em,
here and there; but the genuine, thoroughbred English man or woman
is the real thing--one of the realest things in this world. So
polite are they that not a single English person has yet mentioned
our Note to me--not one.

But every one I've met for two days has mentioned the sending of
Von Papen and Boy-Ed[26] home--not that they expect us to get into
the war, but because they regard this action as mai