Under such circumstances, with Europe none too well-disposed and
the Kaiser watching events with a jealous eye, it was very
important to the United States not to be without a friend. In
England sympathy for America ran strong and deep. The British
Government was somewhat in alarm over the political solitude in
which Great Britain found herself, even though its head, Lord
Salisbury, described the position as one of "splendid isolation."
The unexpected reaction of friendliness on the part of Great
Britain which had followed the Venezuela affair continued to
augment, and relations between the two countries were kept smooth
by the new American Ambassador, John Hay, whom Queen Victoria
described as "the most interesting of all the ambassadors I have
known." More important still, in Great Britain alone was there a
public who appreciated the real sentiment of humanity underlying
the entrance of the United States into the war with Spain; and
this public actually had some weight in politics. The people of
both Great Britain and the United States were easily moved to
respond with money and personal service to the cry of suffering
anywhere in the world. Just before the Spanish American War,
Gladstone had made his last great campaign protesting against the
new massacres in Armenia; and in the United States the Republican
platform of 1896 had declared that "the massacres in Armenia have
aroused the deep sympathy and just indignation of the American
people, and we believe that the United States should exercise all
the influence it can properly exert to bring these atrocities to
an end."

John Hay wrote to Henry Cabot Lodge, of the Senate Committee on
Foreign Affairs, April 5, 1898, as follows: "For the first time