ntaining our
self-respect.

Nor do they neglect other things because of the war. I went to the
annual dinner of the Scottish Corporation the other night-an
organization which for 251 years has looked after Scotchmen
stranded in London; and they collected $20,000 then and there.
There's a good deal of Christmas in 'em yet. One fellow in a little
patriotic speech said that the Government is spending twenty-five
million dollars a day to whip the Germans.--"Cheap work, very cheap
work. We can spend twice that if necessary. Why, gentlemen, we
haven't exhausted our pocket-change yet."

Somehow I keep getting away from Christmas. It doesn't stay put.
It'll be a memorable one here for its sorrows and for its grim
determination--an empty chair at every English table. But nowhere
in the world will it be different except in the small neutral
states here and in the lands on your side the world.

How many Christmases the war may last, nobody's wise enough to
know. That depends absolutely on Germany. The Allies announced
their terms ten months ago, and nothing has yet happened to make
them change them. That would leave the Germans with Germany and a
secure peace--no obliteration or any other wild nonsense, but only
a secure peace. Let 'em go back home, pay for the damage they've
done, and then stay there. I do hope that the actual fighting will
be ended by Christmas of next year. Of course it _may_ end with
dramatic suddenness at any time, this being the only way, perhaps,
for the Kaiser to save his throne. Or it may go on for two or three
years. My guess is that it'll end next year--a guess subject to
revision, of course, by events that can't be foreseen.

But as I said before--to come back to Christmas. Mrs. Page and I
send you and Mrs. House our affectionate good wishes and the hope
that you keep very well and very happy in your happy, prosperous
hemisphere. We do, I thank you. We haven't been better for
years--never before so busy, never, I think, so free from care. We
get plenty to eat (such as it is in this tasteless wet zone), at a
high cost, of course; we have comfortable beds and shoes (we spend
all our time in these two things, you know); we have good company,
enough to do (!!), no grievances nor ailments, no ill-will, no
disappointments,