File No. 763.72119/253
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Page) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 23, 9 a. m.]
5363. Your circular 18th.3 The dominant tone in public and private comment on the President’s suggestion is surprise and sorrowful consternation, and all public comment so far is visibly restrained. The Foreign Office gave the British press a hint last night to maintain its comments cautiously and not to question the President’s sincerity. Beneath open comment is a deep feeling of disappointment and in many quarters even of anger. The only section of opinion that is pleased is the small group of pacifists.
The President’s suggestion itself would have provoked little or no criticism if it had been made at another time. But his remarks accompanying his suggestion are interpreted as placing the Allies and the Central powers on the same moral level. The Westminster Gazette this afternoon, alone among all the London dailies, explains [Page 109] that such an interpretation is not warranted by a careful reading of the note.
The opinion even in the least excitable and most friendly circles is that the note was a mistake because they judge it ill-timed and because they interpret it to show a misunderstanding of the aims of the Allies. The British feel that this is a holy and defensive war which must be fought to a decisive conclusion to save free government in the world from a military tyranny, and that even to suggest ending it indecisively is a blow at free government.
Bryce came to see me profoundly depressed. He has written the President a personal letter which I send in to-night’s pouch.
Northcliffe tells me that his papers, the Times and the Daily Mail, are saying and will continue to say as little as possible, but that “the people are as mad as hell.” I am told that Mr. Asquith when asked about the note replied sadly, “Don’t talk to me about it. It is most disheartening.” A luncheon guest at the palace yesterday informed me that the King wept while he expressed his surprise and depression.
It is perhaps too soon to venture an opinion about the permanent effect of the note on British feeling towards our Government; but there is reason to fear that it will for a long time cause a deep, even if silent, resentment because, as the British interpret it, it seems to them to mean that the President fails to understand the motives and high necessities, the aims and the sacrifices of the Allies who regard themselves as fighting, now with good hope, to save the world from a despotic inundation.
I presume the comments of the chief London newspapers have been telegraphed to the American press. The following sentences are from to-day’s morning Chronicle which has always been sympathetic and friendly. The editorial from which they are taken is thought in newspaper circles to reflect the opinion of the Prime Minister. They are typical of the restrained comment thus far made:
As a liberal newspaper which has always made a special feature of endeavoring to bring Britain and America more closely together and has through evil report as well as good consistency [consistently] championed United States in this country, we may ask our friends across the Atlantic to believe us when we say that no American state paper within our generation has been calculated to cause so much pain, not merely to Englishmen but to liberal opinion throughout western and southern Europe, as the note from President Wilson communicated to our Foreign Office on December 20.
The President beyond all doubt whatever did not intend his words as an insult, but they are deeply insulting none the less, and none of the Allied peoples can be expected to relish them.