it in viewing the loss of most of North America, could not afford
to leave the Grass to its own devices, content to receive the refugees
it drove out or watch them die. A World Congress to Combat the Grass was
hastily called in London. It was a distinguished body of representatives
from all the nations and resembled at its best the now functionless
Federal Disruptions Committee.

At the opening sitting a delegation with credentials from the President
of the United States attempted to join in the proceedings. One of the
French members rose to inquire of the chairman, Where was the United
States? He, the delegate, had read of such a country, had heard it
spoken of--and none too favorably--but did it exist, _de facto_?

The delegate from Haiti asked for the floor and wished to assure his
distinguished colleague from the motherland of culture--especially did
he wish to assure this learned gentleman, bound as they were by the same
beautiful and meticulous language--that his country had good reason to
know the United States actually existed--or had done so at one time. His
glorious land bore scars inflicted by the barbarians. His own
grandfather, a great patriot, had been hunted down by the United States
Marines as a bandit. He implored a congress with humanitarian designs to
refuse admission to the delegates of the socalled United States.

One of the German delegates, after wiping the perspiration from the
three folds on the back of his neck, said he spoke with great diffidence
for fear of being misunderstood. The formerly existent country had twice
defeated, or apparently defeated, his own in a war and his distinguished
colleagues might misinterpret the spirit which moved him. Nevertheless,
he could not refrain from remarking that it appeared to him that a Just
Providence had wiped out the United States and therefore it would be
illogical if not blasphemous for this august body to admit a delegation
from a nonexistent country.

The American delegation attempted to point out feebly that Hawaii still
remained and Puerto Rico and Guam. The members from the various sections
of the British Commonwealth, arguing the precedents of the
governmentsinexile, urged the acceptance of their credentials. The
representative of Switzerland called for a vote and the credentials were
rejected.

This controversy being settled, the body, in high good humor, selected a
governing committee to take whatever measures it deemed necessary to
pro