New-York tribune., 1918-08-28
Walter H. Page
Resigns Post as
Envoy to Britain
President Agrees to Retire.
ment of Ambassador Be-
cause of Ill-Health

WASHINGTON, Aug. q. Due to
continued i'll health, Walter Hines
Page, Ambassador of the United States
to Great Britain, has offered his res
gnatlon to President Wilson.
While no official announcement was
forthcoming to-day it was learned in
ofhc'al circles that the President at
the urgent request of the ambassador
had decided to accept the resignation.
First news of the intention of Am
bassador Page, who was appointed to
his post in April, 1918, to retire came
to-day in an Associated Press dispatch
from London.
SO many and so various have been
the activities and accomplishment of
Ambassador Page during his stay at
the Court Of St. James's that it was
said to-day at the State Department
that they form a compendious history
of American diplomacy from the be-
ginning to the present stage of the
world war.
When Mr.. Page assumed Office he
was entirely without diplomatic expe-
rience or training, his career preced
ing that date having been in the line
of literary endeavor with a practical
experience as publisher
With the outbreak of the war in the
year following his assumption of office,
Mr.. Page was called upon to display
unusual talents of craftsmanship. New
issues of the gravest Importance were
constantly arising, growing out of the
reckless disregard by Germany of all
established principles Of warfare. These
issues involved counter measures by
the Allies, and the State Department
cXerted itself TO restrain the belliger-
ents on both sides from eXcesses and
particularly against attractions Of the
rights of neutrals.
Mr.. Page was called upon to present
the protests of this government against
many of these illegal actions and or
ders-in- council, but it was said at the
State Department that so tactfully and
wisely did he handle these delicate
questions that he was able TO obtain
from the British and French govern
ments, then in a highly excited and
sometimes unreasonable state of mind
notifications of the orders that went
posed upon neutral commerce by the
war.
Under the stress of these great tasks
it was only natural that the health OF
Mr.. Page, never very robust, should
show signs of impairment, and it is re
called that nearly year ago he sought
TO resign his office, but was prevailed
upon to continue on the understanding
that his work would be lightened.
Walter Hines Page was editor of
"Thc Worlds Work" and member Of
the firm of Doubleday. Page g. Co
before he was appointed to the
Court of st. James, in 1913 He be-
came acquainted with President Will
son while the latter was president Of
Princeton. Mr. Page was a graduate
of Randolph Macon College and later
became a fellow of Johns Hopkins
University.
Ambassador Page attracted atten
tion in March, 1914, by speech made
at dinner in which he referred to the
Monroe Doctrine and the Panama
Canal. 1t aroused considerable dis
cussion, but was ndorsed by Presi-
dent Wilson after Mr.. Page had cabled
the full text to Washington.
Reports in October, 1915. and
December. 1916. that Mr.. Page was to
resign proved erroneous. There were
also rumors that he was involved in
controversies with other American
diplomats abroad. Since America en-
tered the war, Mr.. Page has under
taken many missions of importance.