Punches with Kicks

At Westminster Hall in London was delivered the first of a series of memorial lectures to be given in memory of the late Walter Hines Page, U. S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James' during the War.

The first lecture was given by Sir Auckland Geddes, ex-British Ambassador to the U. S., before 3,000 people. Lord Balfour presided, and Premier Baldwin and U. S. Ambassador Frank B. Kellogg were present on the platform.

Sir Auckland did not mince matters. He had come to tell the Nation the plain, unvarnished truth. He had come to deliver a much-needed punch and characteristically he hit with all the force of his intellect. Said he:

"Walter Page, before the War, was able to see that this great Empire, owing to its conscious diversity, was likely to yield more and more to a compact Empire. It is no use to pretend that America does not at this time profoundly influence us and the Empire. We knew we have yielded the position of leadership to America in connection with the work designed for the higher service of humanity.

"The Dominions speak of us as the motherland and of our Parliament as the mother of Parliaments. I think that the insistence on the word 'mother,' which is affectionate in intention, makes that a tribute to something of old age, if not senility, in regard to our institutions.

"They look upon the Government of Washington as of their own generation, and any one who knows of what the people of our sister dominions are thinking knows that some of them, particularly those who look out on the Pacific, feel that in Washington there is an instinctive understanding of difficulties which, when they come to London, they have laboriously to explain to Downing Street.

"In Canada, American newspapers, magazines and goods are all there; an invisible border divides the territories under the British flag and the flag of the United States. They pass and repass that border and play the same games with one another without knowing anything of the difference in nationalities.

''It often happens that when our Dominions look to us here there is no sympathetic answer, no understanding; and they look to Washington. And Washington is not devoid of eyes and will look back at them."

Such punches with such kicks both surprised and pained some of the audience. It was evident, however, that all had been deeply moved.