House under the
pseudonym "Martin." This caution proved to be fully justified, as
the inquiry by the Senate Committee has shown that the letters
from the Embassy were frequently opened by agents of the Entente
propaganda, whether with or without the connivance of the American
secret police I will not definitely say. I have already had occasion
to mention this question in connection with the robbing of Mr.
Albert. There are in the secret police of all countries men of
doubtful honor. It might be taken as certain that there were such
men in the pay of the Entente agents.

Soon after the settlement of the _Sussex_ incident--on 27th May--Mr.
Wilson made public, for the first time, his plan for the League
of Nations. This idea was to constitute the foundation-stone of
his mediation and fulfil all the hopes of the American pacifists
for a compulsory court of arbitration in international disputes
and general disarmament. Before the war many shrewd men in the
United States thought that the arbitration system initiated by the
American Government would exclude the possibility of great wars.
The outbreak of the World War showed that this was an illusion,
and the question arose what precautions could be taken to prevent
a recurrence of the world catastrophe. Mr. Wilson was one of the
first in whom the idea matured that the scheme, hitherto regarded
as utopian, of a league binding all civilized nations to a peaceful
settlement of their disputes was capable of being made a practical
proposition if backed, as a means of compulsion, by a commercial
boycott, similar to that which the Entente, in contravention of
international law, employed with such terrible results against
Germany.

The most important sentences of the speech which the President addressed
to the American peace league ran as follows:

"When the invitation for me to be here to-night came to me, I was
glad to accept,--not because it offered me an opportunity to discuss
the programme of the League,--that you will, I am sure, not expect
of me,--but because the desire of the whole world now turns eagerly
towards the hope of peace, and there is just reason why we should
take our part in counsel upon this great theme....

"With its causes and its objects we are not concerned. The obscure
fountains from which its stupendous flood has burst forth we are
not interested to search for or explore....

"And the lesson which the shock of being taken by surprise in a
matter s