Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1920-03-25

"But Mr.. Wilson, from the spring
of 1913, when he took the oath of
office, really closed the doors of the
and made himself harder to see
than the kings of Europe"
Can our representatives see the
kings in Europe without trouble?"
asked Jack
I'm England, Jack,'I answered
Uncle Ted, "our ambassador can
call on King George at any time
without asking for what is called on
audience, Ambassador Wallace,
our ambassador in Paris, can call on
the president of France any time he
likes without even more than making
an appointment by telephone But
the foreign ENJOYS in Washington
when they wish to see President Will
son, no matter how important the
calls may be or how secret, they
must take sometimes days and days
asking for such a talk through the
state department and even tell the
secretary of state by written re-
quest Just what they want to talk
about. You can see that such a
way of doing things makes these rep
resentatives of other governments
feel that they might as well not be
in Washington and it has made it
hard for the foreign governments to
get men to go to Washington to rep
resent them.
Now let me tell you about the
way President Wilson treated Lord
Grey, who was the representative of
Great Britain in Washington for
many months. Before Lord Grey
came to Washington a man named
Lord Reading was the British am
bassador. When he went back to
England the place was offered to
many men but it was very hard to
find man who would go and take
the chance of not being able to talk
with the :, president when it was
necessary. Finally, because Eng
land did not want to leave this
asked to go and although he is very
old man and was not well at the
time, he consented to take the post,
as it Is called"
when did he conner" asked
Ruth.
"He landed in America in the ear
ly part of last fall and after spend
ing several months in Washington
he never ONCE was given an OPP
portunity to give his letters OF intro
duction to the. president, as is al
ways the custom. Not only that,
but he never was permitted to see
the president"
But the president was sick,
wasn't he, and couldn't see him?"
asked Jack.
Eyes, the president was if, Jack"
answered his uncle, and that excuse
would have been all right but the
president DID see other people.
When the Prince of Wales visited
Washington he talked with Mr.. Will
son in his bedroom and the British
ambassador, Lord Grey was not in
vited. Besides the visit of the
Prince of Wales, the president. had
talk with the King and Queen Of
Belgium and the Crown Prince OF
Belgium. He has also had several
talks with senators and other Of
ficials and private citizens"
"That must have made Lord Grey
mad" said Jack.
''No, Jack, Lord Grey wasn't an
CRY, / guess, but he must have felt
that he was badly treated, especial
ly at a time when such big ques-
tions as the league of nations were
being discussed and 1t was very inn
portant that he be rightly establish
ed as the representative of his gov
eminent in Washington. But he re-
turned to England last January,
when, you will remember told you,
he anAfIad NJ IITi1onntp f,oa tu t,1a 10
by writing, a letter which was pub
lished in the papers saying that
England would not object to the
United States having as many votes
in the world club as England and al
SO that he didn't blame the United
States senate for wanting to protect
and think of America First
81 will tell you a little of the
rights which time has handed down
to those men who represent their
governments Ambassadors are sup
posed to have the right to do bust
ness directly with the president or
king, as the case may be, instead OF
through his representatives. That
is, an ambassador in Washington is
supposed to have the right to call on
the president of the United States at
any time il Is necessary without
having to make an appointment thru
the state department. But such is
not the way ii is done in Washing
ton, at least since Mr.. Wilson has
been president. He has never al
lowed any member of his cabinet to
have any rights to speak of, so far as
international relations are concern
ed. He has demanded ever since
1912 that he do it all himself. The
way in which he dismissed Mr.. Lam
sing, because Mr.. Lansing had tried
to keep our foreign affairs running
when Mr.. Wilson was too sick to do
anything, proves what say. No
man wants to represent his country
in Washington so long as he has to
do the business of his country with
a secretary of state who may be dis
missed at any moment.
LAS far back as 1914, TO show You
that this condition Of affairs is not
new with Mr.. Wilson, members Of
the British parchment AS theiv body
like our congress is called, criticised
Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, who was zen
British ambassador In Washington,
because in a whole year he had only
seen President Wilson twice. II is
said that another foreign ambassador
wrote 2 letter to the newspapers ~
his own country at the time to de-
fend Sir Cecil in which he said that
the British ambassador was NOT 10