Once again an ordered and countermanded train has played a
historic part in diplomacy at Berlin. Nothing, I am told, made a greater impression in German official circles last week, as evidence of the British view of the crisis that had arisen over Czechoslovakia, than the action of the British Embassy in ordering a special train to convey British women and children out of Germany. The train was not needed and the order for it was withdrawn. So does history repeat itself after sixty years. When Disraeli was chief British delegate at the Congress of Berlin in 1878 and his patience finally broke down in face of interminable deadlocks and delays he ostentatiously ordered a train to take him home. The demonstration did its work, the Conference got moving and conclusions were reached. The Disraeli episode was freely recalled when President Wilson, sick of Peace Con- ference obstructions, ordered his ship the 'George Washington,' then lying at Brest, to prepare for sea in April, 1919. * * * *
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