Esme Speaks

With the Atlantic between him and home, Sir Esme Howard, new British Ambassador to the U. S., rose from the banqueting table to deliver his first expression of British policy to the Yankees. The occasion was a dinner given by the Pilgrims of the U. S. at the Waldorf-Astoria, Manhattan. John W. Davis, whom Britishers used to know as U. S. Ambassador, and Frank L. Polk, onetime U. S. Under Secretary of State, were preliminaries on the program. Radio spread the proceedings far and wide; while the dinner was still in progress, a radiogram from the Pilgrims of London was on its way back: "We are now listening to the speeches." But London did not hear all. Jules Jusserand, French Ambassador to Washington, followed Mr. Polk on the program. He objected to the radio microphone before him; so it was removed, and England did not hear him say: "We have a goodly number of airplanes, which have been the subject of much criticism. 'Does France really build her airplanes to attack the English?' is the question some people are asking. I can give the answer as briefly and emphatically as possible. 'She does not.' "

Then it was Sir Esme's turn. Whether from pure disinclination, or with a deeper motive, he too, objected to the microphone, and his compatriots did not hear him say: "One of our most eminent Ambassadors, Lord Duf- fer in, used to say that the cause of peace would be greatly promoted if it was an understood thing that at the outbreak of war the respective Ambassadors of the belligerent countries were forthwith hung.

"I think that the respective Ministers for Foreign Affairs, not to mention the Prime Ministers, might with both justice and equity precede the Ambassadors to the scaffold. While, if each Ambassador was allowed to pick out for execution six of the most flamboyant newspaper editors or proprietors in his own country, I believe that I, for my own part, would go smiling to the stake.

"The American Ambassador to Madrid told us the other night of a conversation he had with the King of Spain in which his Majesty had said to him: 'You Americans are very smart.' Mr. Moor replied, 'We know it.' The King said, 'Yes, but you don't know quite how smart you are; at least, you don't realize how smart you were when you put 3,000 miles between yourselves and Europe.'

"That was a very true saying and I can well understand the weariness and despair which must be caused to an American observer by the very mention of the old traditional dissensions of Europe which have their roots far back in the twilight of the dawn of history.

"And yet an attitude of complete aloofness and lack of interest in the affairs of the other white continent cannot be either wholesome or in the end good business for either of the two.

"We in England, gentlemen, have long ago realized that a policy of splendid isolation was but an idle dream and a vain imagining. . . .

"Indeed, America under his [President Harding's] Administration was not splendidly isolated, but was rather splendidly helpful in many ways, and now, under President Coolidge, she is doing her best through the instrumentality of her experts on the Reparation Commission to help straighten out that tangled skein.

"And, therefore, I do not believe that the American people will just leave Europe to stew in her own juice."