fast ship, protected in every possible way from German spies, who might have sent out word to lurking submarines. The voyage was entirely uneventful, however, and the party arrived at Halifax April 20. Crossing to St. John, a special train took them to the little Canadian town of McAdam, just across the International Bridge, which Werner Horn, a former German officer, had attempted to blow up.

Meanwhile the American Reception Committee, headed by Breckinridge Long, Third Assistant Secretary of State; Rear Admiral Fletcher, and Major Gen. Wood, slipped out of Washington April 15 under the impression that the British party had started two days earlier than it did. With a five-car special train standing with steam up, the committee waited anxiously from Monday until Friday afternoon, when the word came from Halifax which sent them on a night ride to the border. At 9 A. M. of the 21st they arrived at the little frontier town of Vanceboro, Me. The American officials, with the army and navy representatives in uniform, descended to a dingy and deserted station platform in a thick, cold mist. News of the distinguished guests' arrival soon brought a small gathering of railroad workers, farmers, and French Canadians, reinforced by a squad of youngsters who came marching up with three worn American flags.

To these modest surroundings the special train, which had gone on to McAdam, returned two hours later bearing Mr. Balfour and his party. As it drew across the bridge, Secretary Long and his party mounted the rear of the observation car and disappeared inside to welcome the commission formally to American soil.

Mr. Balfour's Statement

The party reached Washington on Sunday, April 22. While en route Mr. Balfour issued the following statement:

I have not come here to make speeches or indulge in interviews, but to do what I can to make co-operation easy and effective between those who are striving with all their power to bring about a lasting peace by the only means that can secure it, namely, a successful war.

On my own behalf let me express the deep gratification I feel at being connected in any capacity whatever with events which associate our countries in a common effort for a great ideal.

On behalf of my countrymen, let me express our gratitude for all that the citizens of the United States of America have done to mitigate the lot of those who, in the allied countries, have suffered from the cruelties of the most deliberately cruel of all wars. To name no others, the efforts of Mr. Gerard to alleviate the condition of British and other prisoners of war in Germany and the adminIstrative genius which Mr. Hoover has ungrudgingly devoted to the relief of the unhappy Belgians and French in the territories still in enemy occupation, will never be forgotten, while an inexhaustible stream of char itable effort has supplied medical and nursing skill to the service of the wounded and the sick.

These are the memorable doing of a beneficent neutrality. But the days of neutrality are, I rejoice to think, at an end, and the first page is being turned in a new chapter in the history of mankind.

Your President, in a most apt and vivid phrase, has proclaimed that the world must be made safe for democracy. Democracies, wherever they are to be found, and not least the democracies of the British Empire, will hail the pronouncement as a happy augury.

That self-governing communities are not to be treated as negligible simply because they are small, that the ruthless domination of one unscrupulous power imperils the future of civilization and the liberties of mankind, are truths of political ethics which the bitter experiences of war are burning into the souls of all freedom-loving peoples. That this great people should have thrown themselves wholeheartedly into this mighty struggle, prepared for all the efforts and sacrifices that may be required to win success for this most righteous cause, is an event at once so happy and so momentous that only the historian of the future will be able, as I believe, to measure its true proportions.

At Washington the party was met in the station by Secretary of State Lansing and Colonel W. W. Harts, the President's Aid; Frank L. Polk, Counselor of the State Department and Assistant Secretary of State; Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, the British Ambassador, and others. Escorted by two troops of cavalry, the visitors were taken to the private residence of Franklin MacVeagh, former Secretary of the Treasury, which had been placed at their disposal. The streets through which they passed were filled with welcoming crowds, and as they passed they were everywhere greeted with cheers and waving flags, the Stars

and Stripes and the union jack being freely intermingled.

Mr. Balfour first conferred with PresiIdent Wilson on the morning of the 23d, and that night the President and Mrs. Wilson gave a dinner at the White House in honor of the party.

Seeking No Formal Alliance

On April 25 Mr. Balfour made his first important official declaration, in which he stated that the Entente Powers did not seek a formal alliance with the United States. Speaking to a group of newspaper correspondents, he said:

I do not suppose that it is possible for youI am sure it would not be possible for me were I in your place-to realize in concrete detail all that the war means to those who have been engaged in it for now two years and a half. That is a feeling which comes, and can only come, by actual experience. We on the other side of the Atlantic have been living in an atmosphere of war since August, 1914, and you cannot move about the streets, you cannot go about your daily business, even if your affairs be disassociated with the war itself, without having evidences of the war brought to your notice every moment.

I arrived here on Sunday afternoon and went out in the evening after dark, and I was struck by a somewhat unusual feeling which at the first moment I did not analyze; and suddenly it came upon me that this was the first time for two years and a half or more when I had seen a properly lighted street. There is not a street in London, there is not a street in any city in the United Kingdom in which after dark the whole community is not wrapped in a gloom exceeding that which must have existed before the invention of gas or electric lighting. But that is a small matter, and I only mention it because it happened to strike me as one of my earliest experiences in this city.

Of course, the more tragic side of war is never, and cannot ever be, absent from our minds. I saw with great regret this morning in the newspapers that the son of Bonar Law, our Chancellor of the Exchequer, was wounded and missing in some of the operations now going on in Palestine, and I instinctively cast my mind back to the losses of this war in all circles, but as an illustration it seems to me impressive. I went over the melancholy list, and, if my memory serves me right, out of the small number of Cabinet Ministers, men of Cabinet rank who were serving the State when the war broke out in August, 1914, one has been killed in action, four at least have lost sons. That is the sort of things that have happened in quite a small and narrowly restricted class of men, but it is characteristic of what is happeneing throughout the whole country.

The condition of France in that respect is evidently even more full of sorrow and tragedy than our own, because we had not a great army, we had but a small army when war broke out, whereas the French Army was of the great Continental type, was on a war footing, and was, from the very inception of military operations, engaged in sanguinary conflict with the common enemy.

Tribute to General Joffre

We have today among us a mission from France. I doubt not-indeed, I am fully convinced-that they will receive a welcome not less warm, not less heartfelt, than that which you have so generously and encouragingly extended to us. That was and certainly will be increased by the reflection that one member of the mission is Marshal Joffre, who will go down through all time as the General in command of the allied forces at one of the most critical moments in the world's history. I remember when I was here before there was a book which was given out in the schools called "The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World." I do not know whether they all quite deserve that title, but there can be no doubt or question whatever that, among the decisive battles of the world, the Battle of the Marne was the most decisive. It was a turning point in the history of mankind, and I rejoice that the hero of that event is today coming among us and will join us, the British Nation in laying before the people of the United States our gratitude for the sympathy which they have shown and are showing, and our warm confidence in the value of the assistance which they are affording the allied

cause.

Gentlemen, I do not believe that the magnitude of that assistance can by any possibility be exaggerated. I am told that there are some doubting critics who seem to think that the object of the mission of France and Great Britain to this country is to inveigle the United States out of its traditional policy and to entangle it in formal alliances, secret or public, with European powers. I cannot imagine any rumor with less foundation, nor can I imagine a policy so utterly unnecessary.

*

Our confidence in the assistance which we are going to get from this community is not based upon such shallow considerations as those which arise out of formal treaties. No treaty could increase the undoubted confidence with which we look to the United States, who, having come into the war, are going to see the war through. * I feel perfectly certain that you will throw into it all your unequaled resources, all your powers of invention, of production, all your man power, all the resources of that country which has greater resources than any other country in the world, and, already having come to the decision, nothing will turn you from it but success crowning our joint efforts.

The vessel bearing the French High Commission was convoyed across the

At

Atlantic by French warships, and was met about a hundred miles at sea by American naval officers aboard a flotilla of our destroyers. The meeting was at night, and not a light was shown by either party; the vessels knew of each other's presence only by the phosporescence kicked up by the propellers. dawn the flotilla and its guests fell in by rendezvous with an American cruiser, which led the way to Hampton Roads, arriving there on April 24. Here the visitors were tendered the use of President Wilson's yacht, the Mayflower, which they at once boarded.

French Mission Welcomed

Meanwhile, every American ship in the harbor hoisted the French tricolor to the masthead, and the band of a warship played "The Star-Spangled Banner." Marshal Joffre and the military and naval members stood at salute until the last note had floated across the water, while the civilian members stood with bared heads. Immediately after came the French national anthem, which was saluted in a similar manner.

The ship bearing the mission dropped anchor off Fort Monroe, while the convoy steamed several miles further on. High army and navy officers greeted the visitors and accompanied them to Washington, where the Mayflower arrived soon after noon on April 25.

On the broad landing stage were assembled a company of marines and two troops of the Second Cavalry, with the Marine Band at hand to play appropriate music, all these military contingents in blue dress uniforms, with service facings. The members of the French Embassy Staff were there also.

As the yacht docked, Secretary Lansing, accompanied by Frank L. Polk, the Counselor of the State Department; William Phillips, the Assistant Secretary of State, and Colonel W. W. Harts, U. S. A., the President's aid, walked up the gangplank to extend a welcome to the French Commissioners in the nation's name. As Mr. Lansing reached the deck of the ship trumpeters gave him four flourishes, and the Mayflower's band played a few bars of a ceremonial

Only

march. The greeting of the Secretary of State was first extended to M. Viviani, and then to Marshal Joffre, and was of an extremely cordial character. a few minutes were spent in exchanging felicitations, however, and then the whole party, French and American, came ashore, while the Marine Band played "The Marseillaise," the marines and troopers saluted, and the spectators applauded.

The trip through Washington to the residence of Henry White, former Ambassador to France, which was placed at their disposal, was one continuous ovation. The streets were lined with people, all of whom were carrying the French tricolor and the Stars and Stripes, and as the visitors passed they were greeted with enthusiastic cheers of welcome. Secretary Lansing issued this statement:

It is very gratifying to this Government and to the people that we should have as our guests such distinguished representatives of the French Republic as arrived this noon. In sending men who so fully represent the French Government and people we have the very best evidence of the spirit and feeling of France toward the United States. We can assure the French people that we reciprocate this spirit which induced them to send these Commissioners, and rejoice that the two great nations are battling side by side for the liberty of mankind.

Statement by M. Viviani

M. Viviani's first official statement was issued on the 26th, after he had paid his formal visit to President Wilson. It was addressed to the representatives of the press, as follows:

I am indeed happy to have been chosen to present the greetings of the French Republic to the illustrious man whose name is in every French mouth today, whose incomparable message is at this very hour being read and commented upon in all our schools as the most perfect charter of human rights and which so fully expresses the virtues of your race-long suffering patience before appealing to force; and force to avenge that long suffering patience when there can be no other

means.

Since you are here to listen to me I ask you to repeat a thousandfold the expression of our deep gratitude for the enthusiastic reception the American people has granted us in Washington. It is not to us, but to our beloved and heroic France that reception was accorded. We were proud to be her children

in those unforgettable moments when we read in the radiance of the faces we saw the noble sincerity of your hearts. And I desire to thank also the press of the United States represented by you. I fully realize the ardent and disinterested help you have given by of your tireless propaganda in the cause right.

We have come to this land to salute the American people and its Government, to call to fresh vigor our lifelong friendship, sweet and cordial in the ordinary course of our lives, and which these tragic hours have raised to all the ardor of brotherly love-a brotherly love which in these last years of suffering has multiplied its most touching expressions. You have given help, not only in treasure, but also in every act of kindness and good-will. For us your children have shed their blood, and the names of your sacred dead are inscribed forever in our hearts. And it was with a full knowledge of the meaning of what you did that you acted. Your inexhaustible generosity was not the charity of the fortunate to the distressed-it

was

an affirmation of your conscience, a reasoned approval of your judgment.

Your fellow-countrymen knew that under the savage assault of a nation of prey which has made of war, to quote a famous saying, "its national industry," we were upholding with our incomparable allies, faithful and valiant to the death, with all those who are fighting shoulder to shoulder with us on the firing line, the sons of indomitable England, a struggle for the violated rights of man, for that democratic spirit which the forces of autocracy were attempting to crush throughout the world. We are ready to carry that struggle on to the end.

And now, as President Wilson has said, the Republic of the United States rises in its strength as a champion of right and rallies to the side of France and her allies. Only our descendants, when time has removed them sufficiently far from present events, will be able to measure the full significance, the grandeur of a historic act which has sent a thrill through the whole world. From today on all the forces of freedom are let loose, and not only victory, of which we were already assured, is certain; the true meaning of victory is made manifest. It cannot be merely a fortunate military conclusion to this struggle-it will be the victory of morality and right, and will forever secure the existence of a world in which all our children shall draw free breath in full peace and undisturbed pursuit of their labors.

"France Day" in New York

April 26 was officially designated as France Day by Governor Whitman of New York in commemoration of the historic friendship between the United States and the French Republic, with particular significance as the accepted

anniversary of Lafayette's departure from France in 1777 to fight by the side of Washington.

From one end of New York City to the other the tricolor flew with the American flag to proclaim the union of the two republics in the war. Groups of children in their schoolrooms and of their elders in meeting halls sang the "Marseillaise" and applauded tributes in poetry and prose to Lafayette and France. Wreaths of flowers were piled high about the statue of Lafayette in Union Square, and Frenchmen were the guests of honor at luncheons and dinners. By order of Dr. Finley, State Commissioner of Education, President Wilson's war address to Congress was read in all the schools.

At Washington's Tomb

One of the most imposing and significant episodes during the sojourn of the distinguished guests was a visit by both commissions to the tomb of Washington at Mount Vernon on April 29. The two former Premiers of France and Great Britain, standing before the tomb of the first President, with the flags of the three great democracies floating together above it, spoke with deep emotion of the common fight for freedom in which all three were together engaged, while Joseph Jacques Césaire Joffre, Marshal of France, laid on the marble sarcophagus with his own hands a bronze palm wound with the French tricolor. A card attached to a huge wreath of lilies placed beside the French palm bore the following words in Mr. Balfour's handwriting:

"Dedicated by the British Mission to the immortal memory of George Washington, soldier, statesman, patriot, who would have rejoiced to see the country of which he was by birth a citizen and the country his genius called into existence fighting side by side to save mankind from a military despotism."

An Eloquent Tribute

Mr. Viviani's speech on that occasion was a notable tribute in the following eloquent terms:

In this spot lies all that is mortal of a great hero. Close by this spot is the modest abode where Washington rested after the tre

mendous labor of achieving for a nation its emancipation. In this spot meet the admiration of the whole world and the veneration of the American people. In this spot rise before us the glorious memories left by the soldiers of France led by Rochambeau and Lafayette. A descendant of the latter, my friend, M. de Chambrun, accompanies us. And I esteem it a supreme honor as well as a satisfaction for my conscience to be entitled to render this homage to our cestors in the presence of my colleague and friend, Mr. Balfour, who so nobly represents his great nation. By thus coming to lay here the respectful tribute of every English mind, he shows, in this historic moment of communion which France has willed, what nations that live for liberty can do.

an- .

When we contemplate in the distant past the luminous presence of Washington; in nearer times the majestic figure of Abraham Lincoln; when we respectfully salute President Wilson, the worthy heir of these great memories, we at one glance measure the vast It is because career of the American people.

the American people proclaimed and won for the nation the right to govern itself, it is because it proclaimed and won the equality of all men, that the free American public, at the hour marked by fate, has been enabled with commanding force to carry its action beyond the seas. It is because it was resolved to extend its action still further that Congress was enabled to obtain within the space of a few days the vote of conscription and to proclaim the necessity for a national army in the full splendor of civil peace.

In the name of France I salute the young army which will share in our common glory. While paying this supreme tribute to the memory of Washington I do not diminish the effect of my words when I turn my thoughts to the memory of so many unnamed heroes. ask I before bow in to this tomb you earnest meditation and all the fervor of piety before all the soldiers of the allied nations who for nearly three years have been fighting under different flags for the same ideal. I beg you to address the homage of your hearts and souls to all the heroes, born to live in happiness, in the tranquil pursuit of their labors, in the enjoyment of all human affections, who went into battle with virile cheerfulness and gave themselves up, not to death alone, but to the eternal silence that closes over those whose sacrifice remains unnamed, in the full knowledge that save for those who loved them their names would disTheir monument is appear with their bodies. in our hearts. Not the living alone greet us here; the ranks of the dead themselves rise to surround the soldiers of liberty.

At this solemn hour in the history of the world, while saluting from this sacred mound the final victory of justice, I send to the Republic of the United States the greetings of the French Republic.

Mr. Balfour, who followed M. Viviani, said:

My friend and colleague, M. Viviani, in phrases burning with emotion, and in eloquent language, not only has paid tribute to the hero who is buried here, but has brought our thoughts down to the present crisis, the greatest in the world's history. He has told us of the people of France, England, Belgium, Russia, Italy, and Serbia who have sacrificed their lives for what they believe to be the cause of liberty. No spot on the face of the earth, where a speech in behalf of liberty might be made, could be more appropriate than the tomb of Washington.

Mr. Balfour concluded by reading the inscription on the card attached to the British wreath, which he himself had written.

Mr. Balfour was followed by Governor Stuart of Virginia, who spoke of the pride of his State in claiming Washington as its son, and expressed the appreciation of America at the honor that had been paid to her hero.

Marshal Joffre, as France's greatest soldier, added a tribute to the greatest soldier of the United States.

"In the French Army," he said, all venerate the name and memory of Washington. I respectfully salute here the great soldier and lay upon his tomb the palm we offer our soldiers who have died for their country."

The bronze palm which is the symbol with which France honors her military heroes was laid on the sarcophagus by Marshal Joffre, assisted by Lieutenant de Tossan, his aid.

Mr. Balfour and General Bridges, Great Britain's chief army representative in the mission, placed the British wreath. The three flags of Great Britain, France and the United States rested on it. The French palm had on it only a wide band in the French national colors.

The earnestness and feeling with which the allied representatives spoke carried with it a full conviction of the reality of the symbolism which they sought to

convey.

Visit to Senate Chamber

In the United States Senate Chamber May 1 Vice Premier Viviani, Marshal Joffre, and Ambassador Jusserand were A granted the courtesies of the floor. demonstration followed such as had not been witnessed in that Chamber since