WALTER PAGE AS AMBASSADOR
[To the Editor of THE Sm.:ma:roil.] Sia,--It was not I but Mr. Millis who described the conduct of Walter Hines Page' as " treasonable." In my review I objected to the word as does Mr. Rees. As far as Page's com- petence is concerned, the effects of his—shall_ we say " tactless " ?--reiterations was to alienate Wilson so as to make Page useless' for the cause he bad so much at heart. I refer Mr. Rees to the ievicw of Lansing's Memoirs in the same number of The Spectator as his letter. Possibly through my own fault, Mr. Rees has Misunderstood my reference to the " blockade " question. As I had hoped that my letter made clear, I knew that we did not formally " blockade " Germany ; my remark was merely intended as a defence of Lord Grey against the slighting way in which Mr. Rees referred to that' very prudent and very skilful diplomat.
As for Mr. Baker's letter, I hope I did not imply that all professional diplomats benefited by their training. ..In any case, whatever faults Lord Bertie committed, no one, as far as I am aware, has made him into a hero. If the French treated the memory of Bertie .as we treat that of Page we might scrutinise the conduct of our ambassadors to Paris in the same critical spirit that many Americans employ towards their anibassadors'to London. That Americans do so I believe to be a fact worth noting, and it was for that reason that I originally raised the question of the Page cult.—Yours, Sze., K'ybald Twychen, Kybald Street, Oxford. D. W. BROGAN.
[Correspondence now closed.---Eo. The Spectator.]
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