Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-08-14
GOSSIP Of LONDON
How the English Have Interpreted
Secretary SheFman's Seal Letter.
AMERICAN DIPLOMATS SO IGNORANT
Views of a Washingtonian on Our
Representatives at the Jubilee.
SUCCESS OF SPECIAL ENVOY

Special London Correspondence Of The Evening Star.
| LONDON, August 4. 1897.
| 1t may be fact unpleasant for Ameri-
! cans to contemplate. but 1t Is nevertheless
a fact. that American diplomacy is just at
present under a cloud in the estimation of
| the English. The reason for the bad 1epute
| Of the State Department in British eyes is
| furnished, Of course, by the much-talked- of
ldispatch on the seal fisheries. It's reception
over here has been an unusual one. If
Britons had said, when they read the seal
ing correspondence, 1--WE see that you are
| angry, and that you want to fight, and we
are ready to pick up the gauntlet your
Secretary throws down." the visiting
American might have thrust his hands
| into his pockets with his accustomed air
of readiness to challenge the world, and
retorted, Lay on, Macduff." But unfortu-
| nately for his pride, his English cousins. as
Mr.. Bayard calls them, have not interpreted
the message a challenge They have
| very politely, and with calling condescen-
sion. replied. "Of course, my dear fellow.
we know that you don't mean to be bel
| ngerent. We understand perfectly that
your government does not intend war We
know that 1T is merely your ignorance of
| the amenities of diplomatic intercourse that
,eaus you 10 use such rude language; that
drafted from the farms and offices for a
| TOUR years term. If minister of any
European power were to address such
note to the foreign office our only possible
| answer would be to give the ambassador
| mis- passports, but with the United States
| it is different"
| In such terms high official of the for
eign office expounded the governments
| view to the interviewers of American ma
| pers. To be told that he is too eager for
hight rather feeds a mans pride than
/ hppf tn tNn fr,fo
making himself offensive merely through
| ignorance cuts the ground from under him.
10 attempt to explain that Americans are
plain people who believe in saying what
| they mean without beating about the bush
and sugar-coating their pills has been a
| waste of effort. because the Englishman
| would reply that the Americans were such
good fellows it was really a pity that they
| could not learn that there was a way of
| saying these unpleasant things without
making themselves offensive. He regards
| diplomacy as one of the fine arts and can
DOT understand why any one should prefer
| 10 drive directly TO the ultmatum stage
| rather than to drfbblB through months of
| hair splitting, as thei Ambassadors of the
| powers have been doing at the sublime
| porte.
| They Care LITE for the Seals.
AS for the seals, the English appear not
to care farthipgs worth about them.
The people at large have a hazy notion
that the whole question is a scramble for
spoils between the United States and
| Canada, and Canada, is nothing to them
but colony for which they cherish pla-
tonic affection SO long, as it will pay taxes
and give the goods of the mother country
| preferential tariff rates without demanding
| any reciprocity.
The official of the foreign office who
| explained the governments idea of Amer
lean diplomacy. DIS Missed the main issue
1 iS osaI an offr
to nothing but fight between two trusts"
ne declared with wave of the hand. "a
| United States fur company on one side and
! a Canadian fur company on the other
SIDE. Since the last presidential campai IN
English people have seen behind every
| political wave IN the United States the
nachinat ions of a trust. The New York
correspondents for the London papers feed
them on trust stories until they have come
! to believe that every American officeholder
| Is the personal agent of a corporation.
WITH the ed DEED Of sale Of his vote signed
| NTH as implicitly they believe that
| every American who Is not a millionaire
Is half-starved, 'under-paid victim of the
protective tariff; that the labitual state of
affairs in the great cities borders on civil
war; that legislation is conducted sackless-
| ~ ana In shirt sleeves; that American wo-
men wear boomers 20 church and smoke
cigarettes after dinner, and are married by
preference after fifteen-minute engage
ment or in balloon. With these current
impressions of the United States confront
| Ing him 1t has been a discouraging effort to
try to convince an Englishman that tie
correspondence on the sealing question was
not dictated by a trust nor written to catch
the Irish vote, but merely meant what it
said.
Among American Diplomats.
The prevailing prejudice against American
diplomacy has not extended to American
diplomats. If it had many coed dinners
unp1d n
| months, or it has been impossible for
champagne cork to pop astray in any Lon
don banquet hall without hitting some gen.
tleman well known to Washington who
carried In his inside pocket commission
bearing President McKinley's signature
There has been a procession of Americans
filing through the foreign office, ambassa-
doris, ENJOYS, commissioners and states
men at large, on general missions and spe-
clai missions. and some on merely spectacu-
| iar missions. and nearly every train to
WINDSOR mas taken down some one of them
10 present his credentials to her most gra-
c1ous majesty. and bow himself out back
Wara from the audience room. barking his
caves against the gilded chairs, afterWard
to curl his knickerbockers under the royal
mahogany at one of those peculiarly dreary
functions known as state dinners with
Lord Salisbury, VINO loves an American
with the aHection felt by the devil for holy
water, doing the honors
Ike profusicn of American representa-
yves mere during the jubilee furnished the
newspapers with budget of rumors OF
strained relations between different branch
es Of the delegation which may have made
IT appear that a diplomatic Denny brook
was on the boards. 1t Is true that some
tread1ng on one anotber's toes and polite
scrambling for precedence occurred. Mr..
creighton Webb aud Mr.. Erskine Hewitt of
Mr.. Reds staff beihbahed bitterly because
Mr.. ogden Mills wAS permitted to emblazon
on MS visiting cards 1.-the portentous title
nrst secretary of the special embassy
There was also friction between General
Miles and Admiral Miller over the division
OF the apartments allotted to them by the
government at thehhotel where they were
installed as guests Of the queen with armed
red coats pacing before the doors day ana
I night But diplomat is as Jealous of his
prerogatives as prinAa donna, and there
were no more heartbnfnings among those
from the United States than among the
ambassadors, princes tand potentates from
other 9;ns1.s quarters usr whp helped make up the
| 3uniiee show and .Werss nearly driven hys-
| tericai by one occult breach of etiquette
| winch consisted in giving the papal envoy
second place in carriage which conveyed
! the emissary of the Emperor of China.
| The Special Envoy.
Mr.. Whitelaw Reid has been easily the
| star OF the American delegaffon Tn nm