The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, Volume II by Burton Jesse Hendrick
page 49 of 510 (09%)
page 49 of 510 (09%)
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articles in each of two succeeding numbers, entirely forgets us
this week. But they've all said their say. I am, in a sense, isolated--lonely in a way that I have never before been. I am not exactly avoided, I hope, but I surely am not sought. They have a polite feeling that they do not wish to offend me and that to make sure of this the safest course is to let me alone. There is no mistaking the great change in the attitude of men I know, both in official and private life. It comes down and comes back to this--that for five months after the sinking of the _Lusitania_ the Germans are yet playing with us, that we have not sent Bernstorff home, and hence that we will submit to any rebuff or any indignity. It is under these conditions--under this judgment of us--that we now work--the English respect for our Government indefinitely lessened and instead of the old-time respect a sad pity. I cannot write more. Heartily yours, WALTER H. PAGE. "I have authoritatively heard," Page writes to President Wilson in early September, "of a private conversation between a leading member of the Cabinet and a group of important officials all friendly to us in which all sorrowfully expressed the opinion that the United States will submit to any indignity and that no effect is now to be hoped for from its protests against unlawful submarine attacks or against anything else. The inactivity of our Government, or its delay, which they assume is the same as inactivity, is attributed to domestic politics or to the lack of national, consciousness or unity. |
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