To put India on a gold basis a few years ago, a tax was levied on
Indian silver imports with the result that India has absorbed
$400,000,000 in gold from England in the last five or six years, and
where payments to India were formerly one-quarter gold and
three-quarters silver, they are now one-quarter silver and
three-quarters gold.

All these matters are being sharply watched by the English economists.

A fifth lesson we may draw from the war is the necessity for a larger
official representation abroad. It was fortunate that before the
outbreak of the war the American embassy in London had been moved to
larger quarters by the gardens west of Buckingham Palace.

The strain that was thrown upon that embassy for information,
passports, transportation, etc., was something terrific. United States
statutes allow this embassy only three secretaries, but it had to use
eight, and the work continued until 3 A.M., and sometimes 5 A.M. There
was only one relief in the situation and that was in a study of the
queer characters one finds abroad, insisting that they are
representative Americans. Some of the people demanding free
transportation back to America declared their residence to be in
Hoboken, but could not tell if Hoboken were nearer New York City than
to San Francisco. It was a great temptation for some people to get out
of the war zone and into America at the expense of Uncle Sam. The
amount of business transacted by this embassy may be illustrated by the
fact that the cable tolls alone for several months cost more than the
former total expenses of the embassy.