BRITISH WAR COMMISSION.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 May 1917, Page 6

BRITISH WAR COMMISSION.

THE AMERICAN .VISIT. .. OUTBURST OF ENTHUSIASM.SOME NOTABLE SPEECHES. » San Francisco, April 2G. Tno pilgrimage to the United States of the British War Commission, headed by that veteran statesman of the Britisli Empire, the Hon. Arthur James Balfour produced an electrical effect throughout the States, and warrants the assertion that it has done more to cement international relations between the AngloSaxon races of the old and new worlds than any other single- historic function for many generations. Assuredly Mr. Balfour and his .distinguished retinue have ore ?d such an exceptionally favourable impression in America that the visitors were at once convinced that their sojourn to Washington will not only be fruitful in arranging a beneficial war policy,.,but will establish an everlasting friendship between the two great nations of Great Britain and the United States of America. The British commission announced that, its purpose .in coming to America was purely one of co-operation, service, and gratitude, and that the direction of the conferences would rest largely with the American Government. At the same time, the American officials convinced their visitors that the United States deply appreciated England's courtesy in sending such distinguished spokesmen, and \yas fully dedicated to every possible effort against the common foe.

Perfect spring weather greeted the British party when it arrived in Wash-1 ington, the national capital. Overnight'! the city had sprung into a veritable conflagration of brilliant bunting. Not only from the splendid residences lining the prospective route of the distinguished Britons from the great presidential entrance to the Union Station to the Sixteenth Street palace, which became the British council's residence during their stay in Washington, Jmt in the business sections, tho apartment house regions, and even in the more obscure quarters of the city, the Stars and Stripes mingled with the Union Jack and the tricolor of Franco in gay intimacy. As' the hour of the arrival of the British commission approached, the streets leading to the Union Station became thronged with pedestrians, motor-cars, equestrians, cyclists, and even the new autoped was in evidence, all moying towards the one objective. Many carried flags. - i " ALLIED FUGS WAVE WELCOME. From ihe graceful Venetian masts in front of the great white granite pile floated the flags of Great Britain, France, and the United States. They had been formally raised with much blaring of bugles and due ceremony at 7 o'clock that morning. This'was the beginning of Washington's reception of her distinguished visitors. At half-past two o'clock a battalion of uniformed police-men tramped into the Union Station plaza. They found waiting them the regular station blueeoats and nearly a hundred Central Office detectives and secret service operatives. A fe\y moments later troopß C and B, of the Second United States Cavalry, the guard of honor, arrived. Dismounting they awaited the coming of the party, while Station Department officials, army and navy officers, and the heads of the district of Columbia government arrived in groups. The great doorways of the President's entrance to the station, seldom opened except for the Chief magistrate himself, swung wide, and then, within a few moments of train time, Sir Richard Crawford, commercial attache, and Councillor Barclay arrived, and joined Secretary of State Lansing, Councillor Polk, Assistant Secretaries Phillips- and Breckenridge Long, and Hugh Gibson, who were to constitute .the diplomatic receiving party. , WAR COUNCIL ON TIME. Then came a brief wait. The stage had been set for the ceremony, and all that was needed was for the train to trundle up to the station platform with its important burden. Promptly at 3 o'clock there was a sharp bugle blast. The cavalrymen swung into their saddles. The deep murmur of applause from inside the station drifted through the ' arches. There was another bugle blast, and a. sharp command, and 200 sabres flashed in the sun as they came to the salute, and the bright guidons dropped as the head of the British Foreign Utlice and the Secretary of State of the United States emerged into the daylight. , , Then the crowd broke loose. Cheer followed cheer; not the concrete football sort of cheere that are significant of studied drill and military regularity in American colleges, but the spontaneous ;Sort of cheers, yells, hurrahs, and bravos ' intermingled without regard for euphony or unison, but superbly noisy, and withal supremely genuine. .Automobile horns added to the din, which soon was taken up by the locomotive drivers in the railway yards. From the ranks of the crowd there was a vast amount of wavino- of flags and handkerchiefs in enthusiastic accompaniment to the cheering. Mr. Balfour, hat in hand, smiled iiisTeeting, and the crowd yelled again. Back of the noted British statesman there appeared Major-General Leonard Wood, in army, blue, accompanying Major-General Bridges, R.A., in the greenish khaki of the British war service uniform, with its scarlet-banded cap and collar marks. 'The appearance of the two soldiers was greeted with more enthusiastic shrieks from the motor horns and move strenuous yells from the crowd . , Several minntcs were occupied in getting the numerous .party comfortably ptowed in the waiting motor cars, ij|everal of them handsome dark-blue 'cars from the White House garage, bearing the famous "soda biscuit" emblazoned nn their doors. Meanwhile Troop 0 trotted to the head of the line and Troope B fell in with a farewell shout from the multitude, which was growin"- more and more enhusiastic every ■■n" more and more enthusiastic every on"its triumphant way through the capiil Mr Balfour, as lie emerged from the Union Station, was very much attracted bv the noisy welcome given by the throng in true American fashion. •Vliis is very very moving," he said to Mr "'Lansing as they were stepping into their automobile. He recalled his first vWt to the United States, in 18/0. At that time he had just graduated at Cambridge, and was making a, tour ot the world. That he recalled the difference forty-seven years had made in Ins Outside the station another,, photo-

life was evident from a remark he dropped later to Geoffrey Butler, of the British Foreign Office, who is a member of the Commission.

When Mr. Balfour stepped from his J car in the station he faced the inevitable Yankee camera. Obligingly he slackened his gait while the photographer got his picture. Just as he turned through the gateway a small Belgian flag was waved l by a woman in the front line. The Foreign Secretary turned for a moment from Secretary Lansing, and waved his hat in her direction. l

grapher awaited. Mr Lansing evidently thought that Mr. Balfour must be tiring, and suggested that he did not want to be bothered again by photographers. ; 'lndecd, no; do no send him away,'' he said to Mr. Lansing, and again held back so the photographer might get the advantage of the best light. - SECRECY-CLOAKED VOYAGE. To guard against any repetition of the Kitchener disaster, the grcateav secrecy cloaked the voyage of the party across the Atlantic, and not until they were safely in Washington would the United States Government allow any information to leak out. The trip was surrounded with secrecy and precautions never before equalled in America. The Britisli Commissioners stole away secretly from England on April 11,-on a fast cruiser protected in every possible way from German spies, who might have gob out word to lurking submarines. The voyage was entirely uneventful, however,and the party rarived at Halifax safely. Crossing to St. John, a special tvan took them to the little town in Canada of MeAdam, just across the international bridge, which Werner Horn, a former German officer, attempted to blow up months ago. The party arrived later at the frontier town of Vanceboro, where the American reception committee welcomed them to American soil. The various members of the Commission including Mr. Balfour himself, brought with them much of the atmosphere of quiet suffering and pain that has afflicted England during the last two and a-half years.

After his arrival in Washington Mr. Balfour/said:—"Even in t'--i few hours we have been in the United States we nave been struck with the atmosphere of calm and peacefulness which naturally prevails. *We feel ourselves far removed here from the stress and horror that Germany has thrust on Europe, much as many of our people felt distant from France in the early days of the war.-The United States, fortunately, probably will not experience the human losses that France for so long and ourselves during the past months have experienced. ''Nevertheless I doubt if you can foresee what fundamental changes the war will bring into your ordinary life. We in England look back with amazement at the vital changes during our past thirty months of mobilisation, and imagine that many of the changes we have gone through, so salutary even for themselves alone, will be repeated here in America." Mr. Balfour, while unwilling at that time to speculate on what form American participation in the war might take, said he, had no doubt that America's efforts would astonish the world, particularly Germany. He indicated that it was his opinion that if Germany had foreseen how fully the United States would enter the struggle she would not have precipitated war between the two countries. SECOND DAY'S ACTIVITIES.

The war commission spent the second day of their visit/to" the American capital receiving every mark of honor and courtesy within the gift of the United States Government Mr. Balfour, formally presented by Mr. Lansing to President Wilson in the morning, was the 1 finest at night at the most notable dinner given in the White House for a generation. During the day he was presented to Vice-President Marshall at the Capitol, lunched at the French Embassy, and received cards or calls from many prominent persons, including William J. Bryan.

Meanwhile the remaining members of the British Council conferred with United States officials, and the courtesies and cordialities • extended to the Britishers' took them by complete surprise. In fact, Mr. Balfour, after three-quarters of an hour's conversation with the President, remarked enthusiastically that his trip alone had been justified by that interesting meeting in Washington. All during the day members of the Commission exclaimed over the warmth of the welcome. As if to make it more perfect, Washington just at the time was blossoming into the full richness of its spring dress.

As regards tho conferences themselves it was the pooling of Britisli brains and bitter war experiences with American wealth and resourcefulness, but it was made abundantly clear that the thought uppermost in the minds of the British that the Allies must have food above all other considerations. The British Commissioners were not immediately concerned over the sending of troops, it was explained. Their man power is sufficient for the moment, and the sending of great masses of men to Europe now would make the food problem critical and out of all proportion to the fighting strength gained. One particularly outstanding feature of the Britisli Commission visit was that the Britishers, or the Allies as a whole, did not desire to use the situation to hamper or coerce the United States in any of its international relations. All they wanted to do was to help, they said. FRENCH COUNCIL DODGES SUBMARINES. The French War Commission arrived two days after the Britishers had reached Washington, and another noisy welcome awaited the second section of tfic Allied conference for co-ordination of action on America's participation. Naturally the French party had a somewhat anxious time directly after leaving France secretly owing to having to thread their way through.the German submarine-infested zone, but their convoy piloted them through safely, and they saw no Hun pirate craft.

• To the assembled American newspapermen Marshal Joffre said:—"French soldiers are fighting in the trenches with American flags pinned to their breasts, and French mothers and children arc praying for America and their own land. There is no question about how the war will end. But when it will end is another question." He also expressed the opinibn that America would send an army to France, and that they would see some active fighting in the trendies. He said the Germans were being hit the hanlest blow of the war around Arras and the rest of the "Bindenburg lino." The campaign, however, had been a severe strain on the French armies, and new men were being sent into the fighting bv the thousands every day. The casualties on the French side had been I nothing, compared with those of the Get-

mans, but the strain had been so great that the men, uninjured so far as wounds were concerned, had been made unfit for military duty by continuous marching .and little rest.

Ho thought that fresh American troops arriving in France would greatly relieve the situation. The Germans had about brought in all their soldiers, and had few fVcsh troops to call. If they were made to fight without lot-up for some time, the strain on them would become even more severe and certain victory for the Entente would he the result.