rmanent. His constant wish and effort were
to lessen and if possible to remove all misunderstandings.

* * * * *

Lord Bryce was one of the Englishmen with whom Page was especially
inclined to discuss pending problems.

_Notes on a conversation with Lord Bryce, July 31, 1916_

Lord Bryce spoke of the President's declaration that we were not
concerned with the causes or objects of the war and he said that that
remark had caused much talk--all, as he thought, on a misunderstanding
of Mr. Wilson's meaning. "He meant, I take it, only that he did not
propose at that time to discuss the causes or the objects of the war;
and it is a pity that his sentence was capable of being interpreted to
mean something else; and the sentence was published and discussed here
apart from its context--a most unfair proceeding. I can imagine that the
President and his friends may be much annoyed by this improper
interpretation."

I remarked that the body of the speech in which this remark occurred
might have been written in Downing Street, so friendly was it to the
Allies.

"Quite, quite," said he.

This was at dinner, Lady Bryce and Mrs. Page and he and I only being
present.

When he and I went into the library he talked more than an hour.

"And what about this blacklist?" he asked. I told him. He had been in
France for a week and did not know just what had been done. He said that
that seemed to him a mistake. "The Government doesn't know
America--neither does the British public. Neither does the American
Government (no American government) know the British. Hence your
government writes too many notes--all governments are likely to write
too many notes. Everybody gets tired of seeing them and they lose their
effect."

He mentioned the blockade and said that it had become quite
effective--wonderfully effective, in fact; and he implied that he did
not see why we now failed to recognize it. Our refusal to recognize it
had caused and doubtless is now causing such ill-feeling as exists in
England.

Then he talked long about peace and how it would probably be arranged.
He judged, from letters that he receives from the United States as well
as from Americans who come over here, that there was an expectation in
America that the President would be called in at the peace settlement
and that some persons even expected him to offer mediation. He did not
see how that could be. He knew no precedent for such