Perhaps the unusual relations that the United States bore toward Cuba warranted Mr.Knox in making such an approach; yet the British refused to see the matter in that light; not only did they fail to displace Carden, but they knighted him--the traditional British way of defending a faithful public servant who has been attacked.

Sir Lionel Carden refused to mend his ways; he continued to indulge in what Washington regarded as anti-American propaganda; and a second time Secretary Knox intimated that his removal would he acceptable to this country, and a second time this request was refused.

With this preliminary history of Carden as a background, and with the British-American misunderstanding over Huerta at its most serious stage, the emotions of Washington may well be imagined when the news came, in July, 1913, that this same gentleman had been appointed British Minister to Mexico.

If the British Government had ransacked its diplomatic force to find the one man who would have been most objectionable to the United States, it could have made no better selection.

The President and Mr.Bryan were pretty well persuaded that the "oil concessionaires" were dictating British-Mexican policy, and this appointment translated their suspicion into a conviction.