definite was for a time made known as to when or where the commissioners would arrive. The activity of German submarines, which about this time reached their highest point of intensified and unrestricted warfare, combined with the tragic fate of Lord Kitchener, off the Orkney Isles, in the spring of 1916, had led to the imposition of absolute secrecy as to details. Then suddenly on April 21 it became known that one of the commissions had actually arrived on American soil.

Mr. Balfour and his associates and staff, to the number of perhaps twoscore, had landed in Halifax. The ship which brought them over had been guarded by torpedo boats for a short distance from the port of sailing, but no sign of submarines or hostile craft had been seen anywhere during the voyage. They were met at Vanceboro, Maine, by American State Department officials who for five days with a fivecar Government train, had been waiting at a New England station for word from Halifax. On receipt of news that Mr. Balfour's ship had arrived there, this train by a night run crossed the State of Maine, and at nine in the morning reached Vanceboro, a frontier town, where the American officials, including representatives of the Army and Navy in uniform, descended in a dense fog from their train to a dingy, deserted little station, there to wait for the arrival of Mr. Balfour's train from Halifax. Two hours later Mr. Balfour's train brought him and his party to Vanceboro, across the bridge that spans the St. Croix River, a bridge. which in the early days of the war German plotters had laid plans to blow up. Ten minutes afterward the train, guarded as perhaps no other train had ever been guarded in this country, got under way for Washington by way of Portland and New York. Boston was avoided and New York was entered and left by tunnels.

There was no flaw in the welcome that Washington on April 22 extended officially and personally to Mr. Balfour and to those who came with him. At 3.10 o'clock that afternoon a great crowd assembled at the Union Station, where, at the open train gate, appeared a tall, slender man of almost 70, with silver-gray hair and drooping moustache, at his right Sir Cecil Arthur Spring-Rice, the British Ambassador,

at his left Robert Lansing, Secretary of State. The crowd cheered with spontaneous enthusiasm as Mr. Balfour passed through a long lane of police to the President's room at the opposite side of the station. No guest of the nation had ever received a more cordial or wholehearted welcome at the American capital. It

UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD, N. Y.

MR. BALFOUR AND MR. CHOATE The picture shows the two men on their way to the New York City Hall at the time of the reception to Mr. Balfour

The French Commission reached Washington a few days later and had a tumultuous welcome. They had landed at Hampton Roads on April 24, whence, on board the President's yacht Mayflower, they went up Chesapeake Bay to Washington. American naval officials, with a flotilla of destroyers, had met them about 100 miles at sea, former French passenger liner having brought them over. After signals were exchanged, the destroyers reversed their course and escorted the French ship to the Virginian Capes. Not

a light on any ship was shown at night. The vessels knew of each other's presence only by the phosphorescence that played about their propellers. At dawn they fell in with an American cruiser which led the way to the harbor at Hampton Roads. Once inside the harbor, the destroyers slipt away to anchorages, while every American ship in those waters hoisted to its masthead the French tricolor, and a band played "The Star-Spangled Banner." Marshal Joffre and the military and naval members of the Commission stood at salute and civilian members bared their heads. The French national anthem was played and saluted in similar

manner.

The visitors were at once made to see in Washington that our traditional affection for France had not waned. They realized before they went to bed that the cause of France had become America's cause also. The day's incidents made a deep impression even on staid and seasoned veterans of public life, long used to patriotic or partizan demonstrations. From the moment when M. Viviani and Marshal Joffre stept ashore from the Mayflower at one of the great naval workshops of the Government, where men in jeans were busily engaged in turning out huge guns for the war, they found themselves among enthusiastic friends anxious to emphasize the stirring truth that America had gone into the struggle for the cause of Democracy, with an intention of seeing it through. Phlegmatic, unemotional Washington shouted, yelled, and cheered with a fanaticism that before might have been equaled in America once, but only onceat the time of the second coming of Lafayette. Through crowded streets at midday the visitors went in motors, two troops of American cavalry galloping briskly as an escort. Secretary Lansing rode with M. Viviani and other French officials. Marshal Joffre was alone with Ambassador Jusserand, in full-dress uniform, easily recognizable because of the many pictures of him which had appeared in the American press. Pennsylvania Avenue was packed with people on sidewalks, in automobiles, in every available space. People shouted, threw their hats in the air, waved handkerchiefs and clapped hands in a noisy enthusiasm which, with the blowing of whistles, the tooting of horns, and the clanging

of street-car gongs, merited description as an extraordinary reception, as if to royalty itself. It was a tribute not alone to the genius of Marshal Joffre, but a greeting to France, the country that had aided America when she was in need-a reflection of a national desire to repay in some measure an historic debt.

Part of the Italian Commission quietly slipt into New York unnoticed on May 11. Its quiet entrance was due to the fact that the State Department had not been definitely advised of its coming. Next day it slipt off to Washington as quietly and as unexpectedly as it had entered New York. Italy's War Mission was headed by Ferdinando di Savoja, Prince of Udine, a member of the Italian reigning house, and included Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor. The choice of the Prince of Udine as head of the Commission had more significance than appeared in the fact that he was a member of the royal family. Though young-he had just turned 33-he was no merely decorative representative of the Italian throne. He was an able and dashing officer, and had come to this country, after stepping ashore from the deck of a destroyer in the Adriatic, where his flotilla had been close on the trail of Austrian U-boats since the war beThe Belgian Commission of five members arrived in New York on June 16, and next day went to Washington to present credentials and make official calls. They had had a pleasant, uneventful voyage, their steamship nowhere annoyed by submarines. The commission was headed by a distinguished diplomat formerly the Belgian Minister to this country, Baron Moncheur. The Commissioners from Russia arrived by way of the Pacific, their train from the coast

THE PRINCE OF UDINE

reaching Washington on June 19. Washington opened its arms with warmth and enthusiasm also to this mission, which was headed by the new Ambassador, Boris Bakhmetieff. They were escorted through streets lined with cheering people and honking automobiles. It was a welcome meant to be expressive of the country's response to the Democratic upheaval that had taken place in Russia. The Commissioners presented an impressive sight as they alighted from the train, several being in Russian uniform of khaki coat, blue trousers and black knee

boots

More than two months after the Russians arrived, a mission from Japan headed by Viscount Ishii reached Washington, where a cordial welcome was extended to them. It was understood that the purpose of this visit differed essentially from those of the other commissions, and especially from the purpose of the British and French visits, which had direct relation to a vigorous part being taken by this country in the war and that purpose had now been fully accomplished. The Jap

GUGLIELMO MARCONI

anese were believed to have come more for the purpose of emphasizing the friendship that existed between their country and our own. In that sense it aimed at a correction of many persistent rumors, believed to be of German origin, that Japan was eager for war with us.

The several commissions in coming here made a new departure in the world's history. The subject about which they were to confer was not how to apportion among their own states conquered territory, but how to restore territory to its original owners, and how to make mankind secure in a long spell of peace. In the history of the United States