MR. BALFOUR IN AMERICA.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—The newspapers announce that the British Mission has finished its work; Mr. Balfour has left us. " May he reach home safely! " is on every lip. Doubtless what the Mission has accom- plished in regard to speeding up the works,, and has arranged with our Government, is clearly understood in Washington and London and Paris; but what it has effected in the mind of the public, though it cannot be stated like the rest of the work in figures and plans, has been of incalculable good and benefit. Perhaps there are people in England who do not wholly realize what Mr. Balfour's arrival here meant to Americans. Will you let me attempt through your journal to give an impression of that event?
We saw in it the high honour paid us by your Government in the sending of Mr. Balfour as the head of such a Mission; but we fell more than that. We knew the risks he must run in under- taking what was fraught with so many dangers, and what difficult and exhausting tasks his work here must involve. We perceived all this, and it was to the high patriotism and noble qualities implied in such service as Mr. Balfour and the rest of the Mission had undertaken in coming that America did homage in her welcome. It was Great Britain at war, defending civilization and democracy, heroic, undismayed by the long, bitter sacrifice, that was embodied in that little group of men. Trusting to our sympathy and understanding, they stood among us. How should the crowd—the country—not have been, as it was, profoundly 'sieved in greeting them? Emotion begets emotions.
But there were moments yet more significant than the arrival of the Mission that were to stir the heart of America. Surely the spring day when over Washington's tomb at Mount Vernon the lags of America, Great Britain, and France were set up together, and the emblems that stood for our hopes and joint endeavour to " make the world safe -for democracy " were laid upon the grave of that great citizen of the-modern world by Mr. Balfour and Marshal Joffre—surely that hour must stand out in*history as one of the most dramatic and soul-stirring episodes in momentous. years. Let me add, I write as one who was not present. Nothing could have meant more to Americans, no pomp and ceremony, na heralded occasion, than that little gathering in that beautiful and sacred spot. What formal treaties are needed after that? Rave not Old Glory, the Union Jack, and the Tricolour been hung above that tomb? And Mr. Balfour's words on that day—the message bound upon the wreath—spoke of the ideals we of the English-speaking race hold by, spoke of the man—the friend— who had come to us from England. He leaves us now with his work here accomplished, carrying the gratitude, the respect, the affection of America with him.
When the great service of Union—shall we not call it so?—at St. Paul's is recalled let us remember the pilgrimage of the British Mission and the French to Mount Vernon, the wreath and palm laid upon Washington's tomb, and our flags " to April's breeze unfurled " together.—I am, Sir, &c., SARA NORTON.
Boston, Mass., May 26th.
Previous page
