d to be taken in, to become
Anglophile; and often when one undertakes to enlighten Englishmen
about the United States one becomes aware of a feeling inside the
English of unbelief, as if he said, "Oh, well! you are one of those
queer people who believe in republican government." All this is
simply amazing. Poor Admiral Sims sometimes has a sort of mania, a
delusion that nobody at Washington trusts his judgment because he
said seven or eight years ago that he liked the English. Yet every
naval officer who comes here, I understand, shares his views about
practically every important naval problem or question. I don't
deserve the compliment (it's a very high one) that some of my
secretaries sometimes pay me when they say that I am the only man
they know who tries to tell the whole truth to our Government in
favour of the Englishman as well as against him. It is certain that
American public opinion is universally supposed to suspect any
American who tries to do anything with the British lion except to
twist his tail--a supposition that I never believed to be
true.--But it is true that the mutual ignorance is as high as the
Andes and as deep as the ocean. Personal acquaintance removes it
and nothing else will.

_To Arthur W. Page_

American Embassy,
London, April 7, 1918.

DEAR ARTHUR:

I daresay you remember this epic:

Old Morgan's wife made butter and cheese;
Old Morgan drank the whey.
There came a wind from West to East
And blew Old Morgan away.

I'm Old Morgan and your mother got ashamed of my wheyness and made
the doctor prescribe cream for me. There's never been such a
luxury, and anybody who supposes that I am now going to get fat and
have my cream stopped simply doesn't know me. So, you see why I'm
intent on shredded wheat biscuits. That's about the best form of
real wheat that will keep. And there's no getting real wheat-stuff,
pure and simple, in any other form.

There's no use in talking about starving people--except perhaps in
India and China. White men can live on anything. The English could
fight a century on cabbage and Brussels sprouts. I've given up hope
of starving the Germans. A gut of dogmeat or horse flesh and a
potato will keep them in fighting trim forever. I've read daily for
two years