ourses to
Sir Edward--with what effect, I don't know. If the American press
could be held in a little, that would be as good as it is
impossible.

I'm now giving the Foreign Office the chance to refrain from more
premature recognizing.

Very hastily yours,

WALTER H. PAGE.

Sir William Tyrrell, to whom Page refers so pleasantly, was one of the
most engaging men personally in the British Foreign Office, as well as
one of the most influential. Though he came to America on no official
mission to our Government, he was exceptionally qualified to discuss
Mexico and other pending questions with the Washington Administration.
He had an excellent background, and a keen insight into the human
aspects of all problems, but perhaps his most impressive physical trait
was a twinkling eye, as his most conspicuous mental quality was
certainly a sense of humour. Constant association with Sir Edward Grey
had given his mind a cast not dissimilar to that of his chief--a belief
in ordinary decency in international relations, an enthusiasm for the
better ordering of the world, a sincere admiration for the United States
and a desire to maintain British-American friendship. In his first
encounter with official Washington Sir William needed all that sense of
the ludicrous with which he is abundantly endowed. This took the form of
a long interview with Secretary Bryan on the foreign policy of Great
Britain. The Secretary harangued Sir William on the wickedness of the
British Empire, particularly in Egypt and India and in Mexico. The
British oil men, Mr. Bryan declared, was nothing but the "paymasters" of
the British Cabinet.

"You are wrong," replied the Englishman, who saw that the only thing to
do on an occasion of this kind was to refuse to take the Secretary
seriously. "Lord Cowdray hasn't money enough. Through a long experience
with corruption the Cabinet has grown so greedy that Cowdray hasn't the
money necessary to reach their price."

"Ah," said Mr. Bryan, triumphantly, accepting Sir William's bantering
answer as made in all seriousness. "Then you admit the charge."

From this he proceeded to denounce Great Britain in still more
unmeasured terms. The British, he declared, had only one interest in
Mexico, and that was oil. The Foreign Office had simply handed its
Mexican policy over to the "oil barons" for predatory purposes.

"That's just what the Standard Oil people told me in New York," the