The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page Volume II Part 35

DEAR RALPH:

There used to be a country parson down in Wake County who, when other subjects were talked out, always took up the pleasing topic of saving your soul. That's the way your mother and I do--with the subject of going home. We talk over the battle, we talk over the boys, we talk over military and naval problems, we discuss the weather and all the babies, and then take up politics, and talk over the gossip of the wiseacres; but we seldom finish a conversation without discussing going home. And we reach just about as clear a conclusion on our topic as the country parson reached on his. I've had the doctors going over me (or rather your mother has) as an expert accountant goes over your books; and I tried to bribe them to say that I oughtn't to continue my arduous duties here longer. They wouldn't say any such thing. Thus that device failed--dead. It looks as if I were destined for a green old age and no _martyr_ business at all.

All this is disappointing; and I don't see what to do but to go on.

I can't keep from hoping that the big battle may throw some light on the subject; but there's no telling when the big battle will end. Nothing ends--that's the trouble. I sometimes feel that the war may never end, that it may last as the Napoleonic Wars did, for 20 years; and before that time we'll all have guns that shoot 100 miles. We can stay at home and indefinitely bombard the enemy across the Rhine--have an endless battle at long range.

So, we stick to it, and give the peach trees time to grow up.

We had a big day in London yesterday--the anniversary of our entry into the war. I send you some newspaper clippings about it.

The next best news is that we have a little actual suns.h.i.+ne--a very rare thing--and some of the weather is now almost decent....

Affectionately, W.H.P.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 68: Mr. Henry Morgenthau, American Amba.s.sador to Turkey, 1913-16, an American of Jewish origin who opposed the Zionist movement as un-American and deceptive.]

[Footnote 69: American member of the Supreme War Council. Afterward member of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace.]

[Footnote 70: Sir Henry Wilson had recently succeeded Sir William Robertson as Chief of the Imperial General Staff.]

[Footnote 71: First Lord of the Admiralty.]

[Footnote 72: Secretary of Agriculture.]

[Footnote 73: See Chapter XXIV.]

[Footnote 74: This meeting, on April 6, 1918, was held at the Mansion House. Page and Mr. Balfour were the chief speakers.]

CHAPTER XXVI

LAST DAYS IN ENGLAND

In spite of the encouraging tone of the foregoing letters, everything was not well with Page. All through the winter of 1917-1918 his a.s.sociates at the Emba.s.sy had noticed a change for the worse in his health. He seemed to be growing thinner; his face was daily becoming more haggard; he tired easily, and, after walking the short distance from his house to his Emba.s.sy, he would drop listlessly into his chair.

His general bearing was that of a man who was physically and nervously exhausted. It was hoped that the holiday at St. Ives would help him; that he greatly enjoyed that visit, especially the westward--homeward--outlook on the Atlantic which it gave him, his letters clearly show; there was a temporary improvement also in his health, but only a temporary one. The last great effort which he made in the interest of the common cause was Secretary Baker's visit; the activities which this entailed wearied him, but the pleasure he obtained from the resultant increase in the American partic.i.p.ation made the experience one of the most profitable of his life. Indeed, Page's last few months in England, though full of sad memories for his friends, contained little but satisfaction for himself. He still spent many a lonely evening by his fire, but his thoughts were now far more pleasurable than in the old _Lusitania_ days. The one absorbing subject of contemplation now was that America was "in." His country had justified his deep confidence. The American Navy had played a determining part in defeating the submarine, and American s.h.i.+pyards were turning out merchant s.h.i.+ps faster than the Germans were destroying them. American troops were reaching France at a rate which necessarily meant the early collapse of the German Empire. Page's own family had responded to the call and this in itself was a cause of great contentment to a sick and weary man. The Amba.s.sador's youngest son, Frank, had obtained a commission and was serving in France; his son-in-law, Charles G. Loring, was also on the Western Front; while from North Carolina Page's youngest brother Frank and two nephews had sailed for the open battle line. The bravery and success of the American troops did not surprise the Amba.s.sador but they made his last days in England very happy.

Indeed, every day had some delightful experience for Page. The performance of the Americans at Cantigny especially cheered him. The day after this battle he and Mrs. Page entertained Mr. Lloyd George and other guests at lunch. The Prime Minister came bounding into the room with his characteristic enthusiasm, rushed up to Mrs. Page with both hands outstretched and shook hands joyously.

"Congratulations!" he exclaimed. "The Americans have done it! They have met the Prussian guard and defeated them!"

Mr. Lloyd George was as exuberant over the achievement as a child.

This was now the kind of experience that had become Page's daily routine. Lively as were his spirits, however, his physical frame was giving way. In fact Page, though he did not know it at the time, was suffering from a specific disease--nephritis; and its course, after Christmas of 1917, became rapid. His old friend, Dr. Wallace b.u.t.trick, had noted the change for the worse and had attempted to persuade him to go home.

"Quit your job, Page," he urged. "You have other big tasks waiting you at home. Why don't you go back?"

"No--no--not now."

"But, Page," urged Dr. b.u.t.trick, "you are going to lay down your life."

"I have only one life to lay down," was the reply. "I can't quit now."

_To Mary E. Page_[75]

London, May 12, 1918.

DEAR MARY:

You'll have to take this big paper and this paint brush pen--it's all the pen these blunt British have. This is to tell you how very welcome your letter to Alice is--how very welcome, for n.o.body writes us the family news and nothing is so much appreciated. I'll try to call the shorter roll of us in the same way:

After a miserable winter we, too, are having the rare experience of a little suns.h.i.+ne in this dark, damp world of London. The constant confinement in the city and _in the house_ (that's the worst of it--no outdoor life or fresh air) has played hob with my digestion.

It's not bad, but it's troublesome, and for some time I've had the feeling of being one half well. It occurred to me the other day that I hadn't had leave from my work for four years, except my short visit home nearly two years ago. I asked for two months off, and I've got it. We are going down by the sh.o.r.e where there is fresh air and where I can live outdoors and get some exercise. We have a house that we can get there and be comfortable. To get away from London when the weather promises to be good, and to get away from people seemed a joyous prospect. I can, at any time I must, come to London in two hours.

The job's too important to give up at this juncture. This, then, is the way we can keep it going. I've no such hard task now as I had during the years of our neutrality, which, praise G.o.d! I somehow survived, though I am now suffering more or less from the physical effects of that strain. Yet, since I have had the good fortune to win the confidence of this Government and these people, I feel that I ought to keep on now until some more or less natural time to change comes.

Alice keeps remarkably well--since her influenza late in the winter; but a rest away from London is really needed as much by her as by me. They work her to death. In a little while she is to go, by the invitation of the Government and the consent of the King, to christen a new British wars.h.i.+p at Newcastle. It will be named the "Eagle." Meantime I'll be trying to get outdoor life at Sandwich.

Yesterday a regiment of our National Army marched through the streets of London and were reviewed by the King and me; and the town made a great day of it. While there is an undercurrent of complaint in certain sections of English opinion because we didn't come into the war sooner, there is a very general and very genuine appreciation of everything we have done and of all that we do.

Nothing could be heartier than the welcome given our men here yesterday. Nor could any men have made a braver or better showing than they made. They made us all swell with pride.

They are coming over now, as you know, in great quant.i.ties. There were about 8,000 landed here last week and about 30,000 more are expected this week. I think that many more go direct to France than come through England. On their way through England they do not come to London. Only twice have we had them here, yesterday and one day last summer when we had a parade of a regiment of engineers.

For the _army_ London is on a sidetrack--is an out of the way place. For our navy, of course, it's the European headquarters, since Admiral Sims has his headquarters here. We thus see a good many of our sailors who are allowed to come to London on leave. A few days ago I had a talk with a little bunch of them who came from one of our superdreadnaughts in the North Sea. They had just returned from a patrol across to the coast of Norway. "Bad luck, bad luck," they said, "on none of our long patrol trips have we seen a single Hun s.h.i.+p!"

About the war, you know as much as I know. There is a general confidence that the Allies will hold the Germans in their forthcoming effort to get to Calais or to Paris. Yet there is an undercurrent of fear. n.o.body knows just how to feel about it.

Probably another prodigious onslaught will be made before you receive this letter. It seems to me that we can make no intelligent guess until this German effort is finished in France--no guess about the future. If the Germans get the French ports (Calais, for example) the war will go on indefinitely. If they are held back, it _may_ end next autumn or winter--partly because of starvation in Germany and partly because the Germans will have to confess that they can't whip our armies in France. But, even then, since they have all Russia to draw on, they may keep going for a long time.

One man's guess is as good as another's.

One sad thing is certain: we shall at once begin to have heavy American casualties. Our Red Cross and our army here are getting hospitals ready for such American wounded as are brought over to England--the parts of our army that are fighting with the British.

We have a lot of miserable politics here which interfere with the public feeling. The British politician is a worse yellow dog than the American--at times he is, at least; and we have just been going through such a time. Another such time will soon come about the Irish.

Well, we have an unending quant.i.ty of work and wear--no very acute bothers but a continuous strain, the strain of actual work, of uneasiness, of seeing people, of uncertainty, of great expense, of doubt and fear at times, of inability to make any plans--all which is only the common lot now all over the world, except that most persons have up to this time suffered incomparably worse than we.

And there's nothing to do but to go on and on and on and to keep going with the stoutest hearts we can keep up till the end do at last come. But the Germans now (as the rest of us) are fighting for their lives. They are desperate and their leaders care nothing for human life.

The Emba.s.sy now is a good deal bigger than the whole State Department ever was in times of peace. I have three buildings for offices, and a part of our civil force occupies two other buildings. Even a general supervision of so large a force is in itself a pretty big job. The army and the Navy have each about the same s.p.a.ce as the Emba.s.sy proper. Besides, our people have huts and inns and clubs and hospitals all over the town. Even though there be fewer vexing problems than there were while we were neutral, there is not less work--on the contrary, more. Nor will there be an end to it for a very long time--long after my time here. The settling of the war and the beginning of peace activities, whenever these come, will involve a great volume of work. But I've no ambition to have these things in hand. As soon as a natural time of relief shall come, I'll go and be happier in my going than you or anybody else can guess.

Now we go to get my digestion stiffened up for another long tug--unless the Germans proceed forthwith to knock us out--which they cannot do.

With my love to everybody on the Hill,

Affectionately yours, W.H.P.

Mr. and Mrs. Waldorf Astor--since become Viscount and Viscountess Astor--had offered the Pages the use of their beautiful seaside house at Sandwich, Kent, and it was the proposed vacation here to which Page refers in this letter. He obtained a six weeks' leave of absence and almost the last letters which Page wrote from England are dated from this place. These letters have all the qualities of Page at his best: but the handwriting is a sad reminder of the change that was progressively taking place in his physical condition. It is still a clear and beautiful script, but there are signs of a less steady hand than the one that had written the vigorous papers of the preceding four years.