cans, having fallen out for a short time with us, are
now quarrelling with the Germans, the cause being a very insolent
message to the White House from the German Ambassador. In frantic
tones Count Bernstorff demands that America shall cease to supply
munitions of war to England and her Allies, his object being to
neutralise the effect of our sea-power.

Paul joined the Army on April 15, 1915, within a month of his 19th
birthday. His application for a commission in the Infantry was refused
point-blank because of his defective vision. The War Office
authorities, much impressed by his school and athletic record, had
requested him to undergo a special examination by an oculist; and on
receipt of the oculist's report showing how extreme was his short
sight, wrote to me on March 26, "It is quite impossible to think of
passing him for a commission, as his sight is so very much below the
necessary standard." Subsequently at an interview at the War Office he
admitted that if his spectacles were lost or broken he would be
helpless; but he said he would equip himself with several pairs to
provide against such emergencies. It was pointed out to him that in
wet weather rain-spots on the lenses of his glasses would obscure his
vision.

"I am willing to take the risk," was his reply.

"Yes," came the rejoinder, "but as an officer you would be
jeopardising other lives and not merely your own."

He was constrained to admit the force of this reasoning. Nevertheless,
his rejection for the Infantry was a grievous disappointment to him.

Eventually he obtained a commission in the Army Service Corps. He was
very proud to don the King's uniform. On April 15 he reported himself
for duty at a home port which is the principal centre of supply for
our armies abroad. There he remained for over three months. As his
nature was in taking up any work, he got absorbed in his new duties,
and, I am informed, executed them with the utmost efficiency. To keep
himself physically fit he gave some of his leisure to golf and to long
walks, some days tramping twenty miles and more. Looking forward
impatiently to the prospect of going abroad, he used to worry himself
by the thought that he, an athlete, had no more useful work to do than
to superintend the unloading of railway trucks and the loading of
vessels and seeing that supplies were up to specification. At
Whitsuntide his mother, brother and I spent a week-end in the vicinity