was taken as a
visitor to the House of Commons. In the Distinguished Visitors Gallery
he sat watching the scene before him though he himself in reality was
the observed of all the observers, as perhaps he was made aware a little
later when as a guest of the members he "took tea" on the Terrace.

In the evening he was the guest of Ambassador Page at dinner when among
others he met Premier Lloyd George, Arthur J. Balfour, Lord Derby, Lord
Robert Cecil, Viscount French, Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, Vice-Admiral
William S. Sims, U. S. N., and General Jan Smuts. It may all have been a
part of the formal reception of a welcome visitor, but it also was more,
for in this way England and America were doing their utmost to express
to the world the cordial relations existing between the two great
nations now banded together to fight a common foe.

There are many formalities which have grown to be a part of the
reception of the representative of a foreign power by the country which
receives him. In a democratic land, like the United States these may
appear to be somewhat exaggerated, but they have also become the
expression of the desire to honor the land from which the visitor comes
and consequently cannot be ignored. Shaking hands as an expression of
personal regard is doubtless a somewhat meaningless conventionality, but
the man who refuses to shake hands is looked upon as a boor. Doubtless
General Pershing, whatever his simpler tastes might have dictated, was
well aware that behind all the formal display was the deep-seated desire
to honor the country whose personal representative he was.

After a visit to a training camp to witness the British method of
training for fighting in the trenches, he was the guest at a luncheon
of Lord Derby, the British Secretary of State for War. Although the day
had been strenuous, nevertheless in the evening he and eighteen members
of his staff were the guests of the British Government at a formal
war-dinner. This dinner was served at Lancaster House, a beautiful
building which the Government uses solely for state entertainment of
distinguished visitors from abroad. Eight members of the British Cabinet
were among the thirty present. The dinner was served in the
magnificently furnished dining-hall. The guests were seated at six round
tables, each presided over by one of the distinguished men of Great
Britain, the Prime Minister sitting at the head of the first table and
Lord Curzon, Lord Preside