THE BALFOUR MISSION TO THE UNITED STATES I Page now took up a subject which had been near his heart for a long time.

He believed that one of the most serious causes of Anglo-American misunderstanding was the fact that the leading statesmen of the two countries had never had any personal contact with one another.

At one time, as this correspondence shows, the Ambassador had even hoped that President Wilson himself might cross the ocean and make the British people an official visit.

The proposal, however, was made before the European war broke out, the occasion which Page had in mind being the dedication of Sulgrave Manor, the old English home of the Washington family, as a perpetual memorial to the racial bonds and common ideals uniting the two countries.

The President found it impossible to act upon this suggestion and the outbreak of war made the likelihood of such a visit still more remote.