osition to assume the leadership.

To a certain extent, one is not prepared to say how far, the military
and social crises are interdependent. And undoubtedly the military
problem rests on the suppression of the submarine. If Germany continues
to destroy shipping on the seas, if we are not able to supply our new
armies and the Allied nations with food and other things, the increasing
social ferment will paralyze the military operations of the Entente.
The result of a German victory under such circumstances is impossible to
predict; but the chances are certainly not worth running. In a sense,
therefore, in a great sense, the situation is "up" to us in more
ways than one, not only to supply wise democratic leadership but to
contribute material aid and brains in suppressing the submarine, and to
build ships enough to keep Britain, France, and Italy from starving.
We are looked upon by all the Allies, and I believe justly, as being a
disinterested nation, free from the age-long jealousies of Europe.
And we can do much in bringing together and making more purposeful the
various elements represented by the nations to whose aid we have come.

I had not intended in these early papers to comment, but to confine
myself to such of my experiences abroad as might prove interesting and
somewhat illuminating. So much I cannot refrain from saying.

It is a pleasure to praise where praise is due, and too much cannot be
said of the personnel of our naval service--something of which I can
speak from intimate personal experience. In these days, in that part of
London near the Admiralty, you may chance to run across a tall, erect,
and broad-shouldered man in blue uniform with three stars on his collar,
striding rapidly along the sidewalk, and sometimes, in his haste,
cutting across a street. People smile at him--costermongers, clerks,
and shoppers--and whisper among themselves, "There goes the American
admiral!" and he invariably smiles back at them, especially at the
children. He is an admiral, every inch a seaman, commanding a devoted
loyalty from his staff and from the young men who are scouring the seas
with our destroyers. In France as well as in England the name Sims is a
household word, and if he chose he might be feted every day of the week.
He does not choose. He spends long hours instead in the quarters devoted
to his administration in Grosvenor Gardens, or in travelling in France
and Ireland supervising the growing forces under