New York City.
November 14, 1913.

DEAR PAGE:

Things have happened quickly since I last wrote to you. I went to
Washington Monday night as the guest of the Bryans. They have been
wanting me to come to them and I thought this a good opportunity.

I talked the Mexican situation out thoroughly with him and one of
your dispatches came while I was there. I found that he was
becoming prejudiced against the British Government, believing that
their Mexican policy was based purely upon commercialism, that they
were backing Huerta quietly at the instance of Lord Cowdray, and
that Cowdray had not only already obtained concessions from the
Huerta Government, but expected to obtain others. Sir Lionel Carden
was also all to the bad.

I saw the President and his views were not very different from
those of Mr. Bryan. I asked the President to permit me to see Sir
William Tyrrell and talk to him frankly and to attempt to
straighten the tangle out. He gave me a free hand.

I lunched with Sir William at the British Embassy although Sir
Cecil Spring Rice was not well enough to be present. I had a long
talk with Sir William after lunch and found that our suspicions
were unwarranted and that we could get together without any
difficulty whatever.

I told him very frankly what our purpose was in Mexico and that we
were determined to carry it through if it was within our power to
do so. That being so I suggested that he get his government to
cooeperate cordially with ours rather than to accept our policy
reluctantly.

I told him that you and I had dreamed of a sympathetic alliance
between the two countries and that it seemed to me that this dream
might come true very quickly because of the President and Sir
Edward Grey. He expressed a willingness to cooeperate freely and I
told him I would arrange an early meeting with the President. I
thought it better to bring the President into the game rather than
Mr. Bryan. I told him of the President's attitude upon the Panama
toll question but I touched upon that lightly and in confidence,
preferring for the President himself to make his own statement.

I left the Bryans in the morning of the luncheon with Sir William,
intending to take an afternoon train for New Y