READJUSTMENT AFTER WAR 33 



cordial respect and friendship would be said to 

 have prevailed between Great Britain and the 

 United States in the years immediately follow 

 ing the end of the war. Even when, as in re 

 gard to the right of search, differences of view 

 were obstinate and irreconcilable, the debate 

 had involved no display of bitterness. All the 

 negotiations had been correct and amicable 

 according to the most exacting requirements 

 of the diplomatist s art. The technique of this 

 art, however, consists largely in devices through 

 which good manners shall cover feelings of quite 

 another sort. A model plenipotentiary may be 

 an indifferent index of the national spirit which 

 he represents. Like the second in an affair of 

 honor, he must guide his principal along the 

 lines of the established proprieties, however 

 deeply he may sympathize with the principal s 

 impulse to slay the adversary out of hand. In 

 the period with which we are dealing there is 

 no room for doubt that the statesmen chiefly 

 concerned with Anglo-American relations re 

 garded one another with sincere respect, and 

 were earnest in their desire for harmony between 

 the peoples. They were all aware, at the same 

 time, of deep feelings and powerful interests 

 on both sides of the Atlantic that worked inces- 



