M

ARSHAL JOFFRE and Vice Premier Viviani, with the other members of the French diplomatic mission to the United States, sailed secretly from New York in the night of May 15, and the world knew nothing of their departure until their safe arrival at Brest was announced on May 23. They traveled on the same French steamer that had brought them over, and were convoyed by a French warship. The State Department at Washington issued a note of appreciation to the press, which had imposed a voluntary censorship on itself, for having successfully withheld every detail of news that might have jeopardized the safety of the visitors.

The series of eloquent speeches delivred in the United States by René Viviani, head of the French mission, was recorded at length in the June issue of CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE, with the exception of the final one in New York, delivered at the official dinner of the Mayor's committee at the Waldorf-Astoria.

Viviani's Waldorf Speech

After paying a graceful tribute to New York and to the American people, M. Viviani recalled again the deeds of Joffre at the battle of the Marne, and continued:

Well, what did we make manifest to the whole world? Two qualities: One which all men knew who know the glorious traditions of France throughout the ages-dash, intrepidity, valor, contempt of death; but another quality was denied us, that of endurance, that of patience, that of quiet courage; the steady heart and unshaken nerves under the storm of shot and shell. Now, in two battles we combined both qualities as if we would offer them up to the whole world as a homage and a lesson. In August, 1914, we showed what dash French troops possessed in spite of weariness, in spite of the heat of an endless Summer, the exhaustion of three weeks' incessant fighting. Suddenly, miraculously, the whole French Army stood at bay and turned upon its enemy.

And the man who commanded that army had remained calm and impassive. Every evening he telephoned to me, who was then Premier of France, the result of the military operations; at this very moment I can hear his voice come to me over the wires, quiet, grave, unbroken by the slightest emotion. And that voice spoke its unflinching confidence in final victory in spite of all. And when the hour had struck, the moment come, the order was issued, was forwarded to the armies, the Generals; every officer read it to his men: "My children, here we stand. Halt and face the barbarians. Die to the last man rather than retreat another step!" Such was French dash, French valor. It counted for nothing in German eyes. But the day came when the other virtue was shown, that on which they relied yet less. One day they dreamed Verdun could be taken, not because it was in itself the greatest prize; it would have been no victory-but to drive into France and impose peace-for our enemies think they can let peace loose on the world as they unchain war. And so German armies were piled up on the French front. It was impossible for us to advance against such odds. Our Generals spoke: "Children, not one step back; if you yield a yard, let every yard have its bloody cost for your enemy." And through the endless days and nights, under shot and shell, under the avalanche of shells that tore up the very earth, among their falling comrades, led by their officers, our men held fast, contesting every inch of ground, fighting for months and months without an instant's respite, checking the whole weight of the German Army. And now when we leave our land, when we say those two names-the Marne and Verdun-we mingle in one the two master virtues of our racevalor and patience, courage and endurance. What yet remains to be done? For three long years the English and the French, sword in hand, have fought, not for England alone, not for France alone, but for humanity, for right, for democracy. For three long years the Russian soldiers in the northern snows, victorious in southern Europe, have fought for the same ideal; for two years seductive, virile Italy has scaled the Alps and shattered with its hands the stony barrier that stifled its liberty; for three years Serbia, murdered, trampled under foot ruthlessly, has fought; for three years heroic Belgium has maintained her honor against a perjured foe. For three long years we have striven, face to face with our enemy, tightened our grasp upon her throat, held our own.

And now, when we are still strong and unout dismayed, neither worn nor doubting, still full of force and resource, comes free America to our side, radiant with its democratic ideals and ancient traditions, to fight with us. She read in President Wilson's incomparable message which has gone to the heart of every Frenchman the deep reasons why she could not but enter into this war. Yes; doubtless you had your slaughtered dead to avenge, to avenge the insults heaped on your honor. You could not for one moment conceive that the land of Lincoln, the land of Washington, could bow humbly before the imperial eagle. But not for that did you rise; not for your national honor alone; do not say it was for that. You are fighting for the whole world; you are fighting for all liberty; you are fighting for civilization; that is why you have risen in battle. And just now Mr. Choate said: "The English and French Missions are here to tell us what to avoid and what to do."

But You are

And your Mayor expressed in an accurate formula his generous conception of our relations when he said: "America is founded on French idealism and English common law." Nothing could be truer; it is all the truth; I can add nothing to his words. I will tell you what you can do. remote from our battlefields; no Zeppelins can fly above your towns and scatter their bombs over the cradles of your innocent children; German ships are blocked in the Kiel Canal; they cannot defile your waters; at this distance you cannot hear the roar of the cannon. But can you imagine that you are not, in sooth, as close to us, in spite of distance, as we are to you-that Germany is not as near you as she is to us, that the peril is remote! No. The menace of Germany lies where Mr. Balfour so philosophically defined it. He told you that the menace of Germany lies in her scientific organization, and I will attempt to interpret his words in the spirit that prompted them. are all agreed Prussian militarism must be crushed; so long as the world contains it there is no safety in it for democracy. But what is Prussian militarism? It was not It born yesterday; it was not born in 1914.

We

is an ancient sore. It is the bestial and inhuman expression of a philosophy, the outcome of a whole race so madly intoxicated with conceit, that it imagines it is predestined to dominate the world, and is amazed to see free men dare to rise and contest its rights. And if you had not risen against it, it is not with artillery, not with shells, not with submarines, not with Zeppelins, you would have been attacked.

It is by the methods and spirit of Germany gradually filtering into your brains, impregnating invisibly your hearts, and little by little violating your souls and consciences. That was the hidden danger, the menace of Germany. You realized the peril, and you

have risen to face it, to fight a menace not Now to you alone, but to all civilization. all we free men are one in will. The hour for the liberation of all men has struck at last. All have risen in arms in the good fight, fought by us, by our children, to the bitter end. And we will never falter till victory crowns our aims. And when in faroff days after this war history shall tell why we fought, in days yet ringing with this strife, long after the voice of the cannon is silent, then impartial history shall speak. It will say why all the peoples arose in battle, why the free allied peoples fought. Not for conquest. They were not nations of prey. No morbid ambitions lay festering in their hearts and consciences.

Why then did they fight? To repel the most brutal and insidious of aggressions. They fought for the respect of international treaties trampled under foot by the brutal soldiery of Germany, they fought to raise all the peoples of the earth to free breath, to the ideal of liberty for all, so that the world might be And habitable for free men-or to perish. history will add: "They did not perish. They vanquished. They shattered the ponderous sword that German militarism aimed against the conscience and the heart of all free men." And thus together we shall have won the moral victory and a material one. It is that dawn I greet, that hour of fate I bow my head before. May the soul of Washington inspire our souls; may the great shade of Lincoln rise from its shroud. We are all resolved to battle till the end for the deliverance of humanity, the deliverance of democracy. Rise then, brother citizens, and lift your brows to the level of your flag!

Results of Conferences

Arthur J. Balfour, head of the British mission, delivered his farewell address before the National Press Club at Washington on May 24. The next day he and the other Commissioners crossed into Canada on their way home, after having spent six fruitful weeks in the United States, a longer period than any other Foreign Secretary had been away from London since the Napoleonic wars.

The situation in France depicted by M. Viviani and Marshal Joffre is believed to have been largely responsible for the American Government's decision to send at once an expeditionary force of about 25,000 men, a division of nine regiments of railroad engineers, and six base hospitals. The British visitors, having faced the same problems that now confront America in training large armies for foreign service, were able to clear away many doubts in technical matters.

The most important understandings arrived at were in trade matters. In general it was decided that the United States should give the Allies preferential treatment in commerce. It was agreed that all shipping, so far as possible, should be devoted to emergency transportation, with a view to defeating the German submarine campaign. British trade experts have worked out accurately the amount of ship tonnage needed to continue the flow of life necessities to England and France, and the Federal Shipping Board has a detailed program for meeting that need, with a priority schedule showing the order of importance of the various commodities and the minimum amounts necessary. A definite understanding was reached to and cover both American Canadian

wheat for sale to the Allied Wheat Executive Committee, and arrangements were made for full Canadian co-operation through the proposed Food Administration Bureau.

Munitions control and purchase were similarly centralized through the Allied Buying Committee, although without price control. The Council of National Defense charged itself with so increasing manufacture as to provide for the American war army without cutting off exports vitally needed abroad.

It was agreed that the United States would co-operate as far as possible in maintaining the British blockade, and would participate through Consuls in the rationing of Holland and Scandinavia, with a view to preventing American products from reaching firms dealing regularly with the enemy.

The shipping problem, in view of the April ravages of submarines, was the most urgent of all, and the American shipbuilding program was speeded up as a direct result of the British representations on this subject. One of England's greatest shipping experts was moned across the seas to supply more technical details than the mission possessed. Three members of the British party were left in Washington to continue work on trade problems. Conferences with General Goethals and Mr.

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Denman of the Federal Shipping Board helped to shape the plans of that body. Many of the seized German ships were turned over to the French, Italians, and Russians upon the British statement that England had enough tonnage for herself and was strained only to meet the needs of her allies. The Shipping Board, however, decided not to pool all American shipping with the other allies in the International Committee in London, owing to the need of American imports from outside the war zone. Means for curtailing the wasteful use of ocean tonnage, which were communicated by the British envoys, have been embodied in a bill on that and kindred subjects now before Congress.

Balfour in Canada

The British mission remained in Canada until the end of May. The most striking address delivered there by Mr. Balfour was the one before the two houses of Parliament at Ottawa, in which he declared that the British Empire had "staked its last dollar on democracy," and continued:

I know the democraries of the Old World and the New will come out of this struggle, not merely triumphant in the military sense, but strengthened in their own inner life, more firmly convinced that the path of freedom is the only path to national greatness.

Foreign speculators about the British Empire, before the war began, said to themselves that this loosely constructed State resembled nothing that ever existed in history before, that it was held together by no coercive power, that the mother country could not raise a Corporal's guard in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or wherever you will; that she could not raise a shilling by taxation.

She had no power except the power which a certain class of politician never rememers-the moral power of affection, sentiment, common aims, and common ideals. Even those of us who believed the new experiment of the British Empire was going to succeed felt it was difficult that so vast an empire, so loosely knit, should be animated by one soul, or that the indirect thrill of common necessity should go from end to end.

No greater miracle has ever happened in the history of civilization than the way in which the co-ordinated British democracies worked together with a uniform spirit of self-sacrifice in the cause in which they believed not merely their own individual security but the safety of the empire and the progress of civilization and liberty itself were at stake.

ent without denying the very reasons of our existence.

Italy wants the safety of her boundaries and her coasts, and she wants to secure herself against new aggressions. Italy wants to deliver from long-standing martyrdom populations of Italian race and language that have been persecuted implacably, and are nevertheless prouder than ever of their Italian nationality. But Italy has not been and will never be an element of discord in Europe, and as she willed her own free national existence at the cost of any sacrifice, so she will contribute with all her strength to the free existence and development of other nations.

By increasing the ruthlessness of submarine warfare and thus rendering navigation unsafe and dangerous, our enemies hope to win the war by increasing misery and suffering. They hope that our powerful ally, Great Britain, will lack food; that France will lack food and men, and that Italy will lack especially food, and that which is more important, coal for the war, for industries, and for railways. The problem of shipping is for all of us the greatest problem of the

war.

With our united efforts we shall vanquish all these difficulties, and that which the force of arms, secretly prepared and unexpectedly employed, was not able to accomplish, will not be accomplished by disloyal means on land and water. We shall triumph over all these difficulties if we continue our efforts in brotherly agreement, united by the great duty which we now have voluntarily taken upon us for a cause which is superior to all worldly interests, and which partakes of an almost divine nobility.

The mission of which I have the honor to be the head and in which there are representatives of the Senate of the kingdom, of the Chamber of Deputies, and members of the Government, desires to express through me the liveliest sympathy to the representatives of the American people.

The mission was officially received by the House of Representatives June 2 and the Prince delivered an address expressing warmest appreciation of America's entry into the war, which gave an

assurance of victory. An address was also delivered by Senator Marconi. The mission was hospitably entertained in various cities.

State of Italian Finances

A résumé of the Italian financial condition before the United States entered the war and granted a loan of $100,000,000 to the Government at Rome showed that Italy had spent up to Dec. 31, 1916, $2,783,075,040 for the War Department and $156,198,335 for the Navy. For the departments of Commerce, Agriculture, Transportation, Colonies, Interior, and Treasury the expenditures amounted in the same period to $3,200,000,000.

Comparing the future expenditures and the income of the nation, it was calculated that the income would be about. $80,000,000 larger than the expenditures. This result was attained by sound financing, together with the imposition at that time of new taxes. The total loans raised by Italy up to June 15, 1917, during the war is about $3,000,000,000, chiefly at 5 and 51⁄2 per cent.

Viterio Scialoia, a member of the Italian Chamber, in an address to the American people delivered at Rome June 7, expressed the warmest appreciation of the reception given the mission by the American people, closing with these words:

The alliance between Italy and America will lead to new and greater commercial relations, new sympathy in spirit and in common political actions with a view to realization of conditions of liberty for the peoples who still suffer from the violence imposed upon heir nations by tyrannical Governments, such as Austria, or from violent conquest, such as the conquests of Germany. All this will be a solid basis for the relations of the future, which can never be shaken, as it is impossible to see how even the slightest of differences could arise.