have possibly avoided committing himself on the proposition, any more
than Mr. Chamberlain could avoid committing himself on the ownership of
the Orkneys if some Scandinavian country suddenly claimed them. If this
embodied other points to which there was legitimate doubt, I believe Mr.
Chamberlain would act fairly and squarely in deciding the matter; but if
he appointed a commission to settle up all these questions, I certainly
should not expect him to appoint three men, if he could find them, who
believed that as to the Orkneys the question was an open one. I wish to
make one last effort to bring about an agreement through the Com-
mission.... But if there is a disagreement... I shall take a position
which will prevent any possibility of arbitration hereafter;... will
render it necessary for Congress to give me the authority to run the line
as we claim it, by our own people, without any further regard to the
attitude of England and Canada. If I paid attention to mere abstract
rights, that is the position I ought to take anyhow. I have not taken it
because I wish to exhaust every effort to have the affair settled
peacefully and with due regard to England's honor."

That is the way to do these things: not by a peremptory public letter,
like Olney's to Salisbury, which enrages a whole people and makes
temperate action doubly difficult, but thus, by a private letter to the
proper persons, very plain, very unmistakable, but which remains private,
a sufficient word to the wise, and not a red rag to the mob. "To have the
affair settled peacefully and with due regard to England's honor." Thus
Roosevelt. England desired no war with us this time, any more than at the
other time. The Commission went to work, and, after investigating the
facts, decided in our favor.

Our list of boundary episodes finished, I must touch upon the affair with
the Kaiser regarding Venezuela's debts. She owed money to Germany, Italy,