Each time the Kaiser, with an angry gesture, waved the interrupter away.

Despairing of the usual resources, the Kaiserin was sent with the same message.

The Kaiser did not treat her so summarily, but he paid no attention to the request, and continued to discuss the European situation with the American.
[Illustration: Walter H.Page, from a photograph taken a few years before he became American Ambassador to Great Britain] [Illustration: The British Foreign Office, Downing Street] The subject that had mainly aroused the Imperial warmth was the "Yellow Peril." For years this had been an obsession with the Kaiser, and he launched into the subject as soon as Colonel House broached the purpose of his visit.

There could be no question of disarmament, the Kaiser vehemently declared, as long as this danger to civilization existed.

"We white nations should join hands," he said, "to oppose Japan and the other yellow nations, or some day they will destroy us." It was with difficulty that Colonel House could get His Majesty away from this subject.