How long will it take ?" Mr.Balfour replied that it would be necessary to consult his naval and military advisers before he answered that question.

He said that he would return in a day or two and make an explicit statement.

He did so and his answer was this: Under these circumstances--that the United States should make war to the full limit of its power, in men and resources--the war could not be ended until the summer or the autumn of 1919.

Mr.McAdoo put the same question in the same form to the French and Italian Missions and obtained precisely the same answer.
Page's papers show that Mr.Balfour, in the early stages of American participation, regarded the financial situation as the thing which chiefly threatened the success of the Allied cause.

So much greater emphasis has been laid upon the submarine warfare that this may at first seem rather a misreading of Great Britain's peril.