with one another. At one
time, as this correspondence shows, the Ambassador had even hoped that
President Wilson himself might cross the ocean and make the British
people an official visit. The proposal, however, was made before the
European war broke out, the occasion which Page had in mind being the
dedication of Sulgrave Manor, the old English home of the Washington
family, as a perpetual memorial to the racial bonds and common ideals
uniting the two countries. The President found it impossible to act upon
this suggestion and the outbreak of war made the likelihood of such a
visit still more remote. Page had made one unsuccessful attempt to bring
the American State Department and the British Foreign Office into
personal contact. At the moment when American irritation had been most
keen over the blockade and the blacklist, Page had persuaded the Foreign
Office to invite to England Mr. Frank L. Polk, at that time Counsellor
of the Department; the Ambassador believed that a few conversations
between such an intelligent gentleman as Mr. Polk and the British
statesmen would smooth out all the points which were then making things
so difficult. Unfortunately the pressure of work at Washington prevented
Mr. Polk from accepting Sir Edward Grey's invitation.

But now a greater necessity for close personal association had arisen.
The United States had entered the war, and this declaration had
practically made this country an ally of Great Britain and France. The
British Government wished to send a distinguished commission to the
United States, for two reasons: first, to show its appreciation of the
stand which America had taken, and secondly, to discuss plans for
cooeperation in the common task. Great Britain frankly admitted that it
had made many mistakes in the preceding three years--mistakes naval,
military, political, and economic; it would welcome an opportunity to
display these errors to Washington, which might naturally hope to profit
from them. As soon as his country was in the war, Page took up this
suggestion with the Foreign Office. There was of course one man who was
preeminently fitted, by experience, position, and personal qualities, to
head such a commission; on this point there was no discussion. Mr.
Balfour was now in his seventieth year; his activities in British
politics dated back to the times of Disraeli; his position in Great
Britain had become as near that of an "elder statesman" as is tolerable
under the