Already Mr.Churchill's proposal for a "naval holiday" had so wrought up the French that a hurried trip to France by Mr.Asquith had been necessary to quiet them; the consternation that would have been caused in Paris by the presence of Sir Edward Grey at Kiel can only be imagined.

The fact that the British statesmen entertained so little apprehension of a German attack may possibly be a reflection on their judgment; yet Colonel House's visit has great historical value, for the experience afterward convinced him that Great Britain had had no part in bringing on the European war, and that Germany was solely responsible.

It certainly should have put the Wilson Administration right on this all-important point, when the great storm broke.
The most vivid recollection which the British statesmen whom Colonel House met retain of his visit, was his consternation at the spirit that had confronted him everywhere in Germany.

The four men most interested--Sir Edward Grey, Sir William Tyrrell, Mr.Page, and Colonel House--met at luncheon in the American Embassy a few days after President Wilson's emissary had returned from Berlin.

Colonel House could talk of little except the preparations for war which were manifest on every hand.
"I feel as though I had been living near a mighty electric dynamo," Colonel House told his friends.