As it is, both halves of
the English-speaking race are apt to make official bogeys,--to spell
Washington or London as the case may be with a very big capital letter,
and then to envisage this impersonation as something dark, mysterious,
or even terrible. How useful it would be if, when this sort of talk was
in the air, someone could say, "Honestly, they really are not a bit like
that (in Washington, or in London). You picture them as hard-shell
Machiavellis with sinister reasons for not answering our despatches or
proposals promptly, or as going behind our backs in this or that matter.
Believe me, they are just about like what we are here. They go out to
lunch as we do; they forget big things and trifle with small things, and
for fear of their trivialities being exposed, they talk big as if they
had some great and ruthless reasons of state for their official
misadventures. When you begin to ask, 'What are they up to? What is
their game?' the answer ninety-nine times out of a hundred is 'There is
not any game at all.'"
Before I take leave of Hay, I want to add a fact which deeply touched
me. It will be remembered that the Secretary of State, after a breakdown
in his health at Washington, came over to Europe to try the Mannheim
cure.
Pages:
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563