We are uninformed as to the nature of the Allied
reply. It is reported that the Allies profess their inability to depart from the compromise reached in January after the Americans had left the Conference. There have been rumours that two or three drafts of the reply were written before agreement was reached. The Times stated that Lord Grey of Fallodon and Lord Robert Cecil had earnestly impressed upon the Government their sense of the disastrous results which would follow if there were any breach of friendship with America, but this was denied by Mr, Boner Law in the House of Commons on Wednesday. As we have said elsewhere, the guiding rule for us in this very delicate situation should be that we must absolutely refuse to quarrel with the American people or allow the American people to quarrel with us. An Anglo-Saxon quarrel is the one thing which we could not afford, and which indeed would be the greatest of all humiliations and reverses for our statesmanship.
