h. "Of course," he said, "we have our private
sympathies, which incline us one way or the other, and there is the
language tie--though here we are greatly attached to our Bernese
patois--but I would have you believe the Swiss are essentially just and
impartial, they look at the war objectively.

"We have good-will toward all the nations. Need I say that we respect
and esteem England? Have you not found that you are well received? There
is no antagonistic feeling against any one. Our neutrality is imposed
upon us by our position, a neutrality that is threefold in its effects,
for it is political, financial, and economic. Italy, France, Germany,
Austria, are our neighbors; we send them goods, and we receive supplies
from them in return."

We then talked of the army, of that wonderful little army which, at this
moment, is watching the snowy passes of the Alps. Two years ago it is
said to have impressed the Kaiser on manoeuvres; perhaps for that reason
he has refrained to pass that way. Outside, in the slippery streets,
over which the red-capped children passed with shouts of glee, I had
seen something of the preparations; the men, steel-like and stolid,
marching by, the officers, stiff and martial-looking, saluting right and
left under the quaint arcades of this charming city. Colored photographs
of corps commanders adorned the windows and seemed to find a ready sale.
These things pointed in the same direction. Switzerland, posted on her
crests, was watching the issue of the terrific struggle in the plains.

"We must defend our neutrality," the President said, "our 600 years of
freedom. There is not a single man in the country who thinks
differently. I am an Italian-Swiss, one of the least numerous of our
nationalities, but there is only one voice here as elsewhere--only one
voice from Ticino to Geneva. That we shall defend our neutrality is
proved by the great expenditure on our army; otherwise, it would be the
height of folly."

The President spoke of army expenditure, of the simple army system, of
the reorganization which had been carried out some years before.
Switzerland was spending L20,000 a day, a large sum for a small country.
Since the day when the general mobilization had been decreed--some
classes have now been liberated--Switzerland had spent L4,500,000. It
was a lot of money.

The army, of course, was a militia; some few officers were professional
soldiers, others were drawn from a civil career and were