at one can be sure
are worth writing. For instance a soldier--a man in the War
Office--told me to-day that Lord Kitchener had just told him that
the war may last for several years. That, I confess, seems to me
very improbable, and (what is of more importance) it is not the
notion held by most men whose judgment I respect. But all the
military men say it will be long. It would take several years to
kill that vast horde of Germans, but it will not take so long to
starve them out. Food here is practically as cheap as it was three
months ago and the sea routes are all open to England and
practically all closed to Germany. The ultimate result, of course,
will be Germany's defeat. But the British are now going about the
business of war as if they knew they would continue it
indefinitely. The grim efficiency of their work even in small
details was illustrated to-day by the Government's informing us
that a German handy man, whom the German Ambassador left at his
Embassy, with the English Government's consent, is a spy--that he
sends verbal messages to Germany by women who are permitted to go
home, and that they have found letters written by him sewed in some
of these women's undergarments! This man has been at work there
every day under the two very good men whom I have put in charge
there and who have never suspected him. How on earth they found
this out simply passes my understanding. Fortunately it doesn't
bring any embarrassment to us; he was not in our pay and he was
left by the German Ambassador with the British Government's
consent, to take care of the house. Again, when the German
Chancellor made a statement two days ago about the causes of the
war, in a few hours Sir Edward Grey issued a statement showing that
the Chancellor had misstated every important historic fact.--The
other day a commercial telegram was sent (or started) by Mr. Bryan
for some bank or trading concern in the United States, managed by
Germans, to some correspondent of theirs in Germany. It contained
the words, "Where is Harry?" The censor here stopped it. It was
brought to me with the explanation that "Harry" is one of the most
notorious of German spies--whom they would like to catch. The
English were slow in getting into full action, but now they never
miss a trick, little