It comes as something of a shock to find Mr.
Joseph Kennedy, the Ambassador to Great Britain, going home to exhort his countrymen to keep out of the war at any cost. Not, of course, that we ever expected America to come in, unless the situation changes catastrophically, but there would seem to be plenty of eminent persons in the United States to give isolationist advice without the Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, knowing all our anxieties and all our ordeal, finding it necessary to join himself to the number—though, of course, he has every right to speak his mind. We have perhaps been a little spoiled by the memory of an American Ambassador in the last war. Walter Hines Page was described as almost more English than the English, and such incidents as his delivery to Sir Edward Grey of a barbed Note from Washington, followed by the remark, " I don't agree with the Note ; now, let's consider how it might be answered," go some way to justify the comment.
* * * *
Previous page
