ernments. Mr.
Balfour discussed shipping problems for the most part with Mr. Polk,
under whose jurisdiction these matters fell. As one of these conferences
was approaching its end Mr. Balfour slightly coughed, uttered an "er,"
and gave other indications that he was about to touch upon a ticklish
question.

"Before I go," he said, "there--er--is one subject I would--er--like to
say something about."

Mr. Polk at once grasped what was coming.

"I know what you have in mind," said Mr. Polk in his characteristically
quick way. "You want us to apply your blacklist to neutrals."

In other words, the British hoped that the United States, now that it
was in the war, would adopt against South America and other offenders
those same discriminations which this country had so fiercely objected
to, when it was itself a neutral.

The British statesman gave Mr. Polk one of his most winning smiles and
nodded.

"Mr. Balfour," said Mr. Polk, "it took Great Britain three years to
reach a point where it was prepared to violate all the laws of blockade.
You will find that it will take us only two months to become as great
criminals as you are!"

Mr. Balfour is usually not explosive in his manifestations of mirth, but
his laughter, in reply to this statement, was almost uproarious. And the
State Department was as good as its word. It immediately forgot all the
elaborate "notes" and "protests" which it had been addressing to Great
Britain. It became more inexorable than Great Britain had ever been in
keeping foodstuffs out of neutral countries that were contiguous to
Germany. Up to the time the United States entered the war, Germany, in
spite of the watchful British fleet, had been obtaining large supplies
from the United States through Holland, Denmark, and the Scandinavian
peninsula. But the United States now immediately closed these leaks. In
the main this country adopted a policy of "rationing"; that is, it would
furnish the little nations adjoining Germany precisely the amount of
food which they needed for their own consumption. This policy was one of
the chief influences in undermining the German people and forcing their
surrender. The American Government extended likewise the blacklist to
South America and other countries, and, in doing so, it bettered the
instruction of Great Britain herself.

Though the whole story of the blockade thus seems finally to have ended
in a joke, the whole proceeding has its serious side. The Unit