Good Old Bernstorff!




Then entrance of America in the war has been nothing short of a
miracle--perhaps, with the Marne, the most wonderful miracle, among
many others, which we have witnessed since August, 1914.

I do not wish to be misunderstood. I am not necessarily referring
to supernatural influences. This will remain a matter of opinion--or
rather of belief. I am merely speaking from the ordinary point
of view of the main in the street concerning what is likely or not
likely to happen in the world.

People have very generously admired Belgium's attitude, but anybody
knowing the Belgians and their King might have prophesied Liege,
and the Yser battle. Others have praised the timely interference
of England and the self-sacrifice of the many thousand British
volunteers who rushed to arms, during the early days of the war,
to avenge the wrong done to a small people whose only crime was
to stand in the way of a blind and ruthless military machine. But
such an attitude was too much in the tradition of British fair
play to come as a surprise to those who knew intimately the country
and the people. Besides, from the Government's point of view,
non-intervention would have been a political mistake for which the
whole nation would have had to pay dearly in the near future, as
subsequent events have conclusively shown.

But America? What had America to do in the conflict? She had not