The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1931-04-23

After luncheon the king, the ambas-
looking the garden, which, as his mai
esty explained, instead Of growing
flowers. was producing potatoes. The
king told of the kaiser's visit to Lon
don a few years before and how he
had brought his chief of secret Serv-
ice along and put him up at one of
the hotels to learn all he could while
the kaiser himself was guest at
Buckingham palace.
His majesty spoke bitterly of the
inhumanity of the Germans, dwelling
especially on the night bombing Of
London. Pointing to the beautiful
statue of Queen Victoria just outside
the window, the king suddenly ex-
claimed:
'The kaiser, God damn him, has
even tried to destroy the statue Of
his own grandmother"
For a moment was surprised at
his words, but quickly realized that
it was solemn expression of pro-
Calls on Chief of Staff.
After leaving the palace called on
Gen. Sir William Robertson, chief of
the imperial general staff. He was a
rugged, heavy-set, blunt soldier, Of
Scotch descent, whose record in the
army had been exceptional in that he
had risen from the grade of private
to his then high position.
AS he slipped his tea explained our
plan for the organization of our armies
by using the small regular force and
the National Guard as nucleus. AS
the British themselves had gone
through the same experience two years
before, 1 stressed the fact that it
would take considerable time.
Like all the British officials, he was
much in favor of having our forces
serve with or near their own. He
pointed out that we were both Anglo
Saxons, spoke the same language, and
gave other reasons to support his
views.
It seemed necessary to explain in de-
tail that as the American navy was
working with the British navy we
should probably plan to place our
army beside the French if there was
to be any preference. 1t appeared
logical that we should do this, as we
were to operate on French soil and
use French ports, railways and ma
terial. The main thing, 1 went on to
say, was to form our own army as
soon as possible for use wherever 1t
seemed best.
No British Aid in Shipping.
1 emphasized our lack of tonnage
and told him that we must have ad-
ditional shipping if we were to bring
over an army worth while, but his re-
action to this was not encouraging.
He said he thought that it was entire
~ out of the question for them to pro-
vide US with any British shipping, as
they were already in sore straits to
cessities.
1 called on Mr. David Lloyd George,
LlC pl I1c Wei W
the point and asked when troops would
be organized and trained and the num-
bers we expected to send over. He
was cordial enough and expressed a
desire to assist us in every possible
manner, but when 1 stressed our need
of assistance to bring over our troops
he did not seem to be particularly in
terested and gave little hope that the
British would be able to furnish us
any shipping whatever.
Under the circumstances the ap-
parent unconcern of the British as to
our need of shipping is not difficult
to understand They were seriously
alarmed regarding their own food stu
alton. 1t seemed to me, however, that
they had allowed their pessimism to
carry them too far in the direction of
| hopeleSSness. At the moment, they
could see no relief for the future and
no prospect Of aiding us in tonnage.