BANQUET. 317 



ing signal?" The officer replied, "We are looking for it, but cannot find it." I then asked, 

 "Wliat are you going to say?" He replied, "We are trying to find if we have any flags that 

 will say 'Damned if I know.' " 



This state of affairs, distinctly not on our program, lasted twenty minutes, when the en- 

 gineer came up from below, covered with grime, with some object in his hand which I did 

 not at once recognize, but it seems that the starboard water feeder had blown its head off 

 and the engineer was carrying the head. We made some improvised repairs and got under 

 way, and the story had a happy ending. But I am told that the starboard water feeder on 

 the St. Louis has blown its head out about every three months since the ship has been in 

 commission, and it was the unanimous opinion of the crew, and I may say also of the three 

 passengers on the St. Louis, that the delay was altogether the fault of the Navy in not carry- 

 ing an extra supply of starboard water feeders — at least on that ship. 



It was a very interesting trip. I remember one very interesting moment to which I have 

 never made any reference before, and I hope that the admiral will protect me in any impro- 

 priety that I may be committing by referring to it now. We met the British Cabinet on a 

 day never to be forgotten in the Prime Minister's House on Downing Street. On one side 

 of a long table, with Mr. Lloyd George in the center, was seated every one of those great 

 men who have covered the English name with such luster during the war — Curzon, Milner, 

 Reading and Northcliffe, Gen. Sir William Robertson, the Early of Derby, Bonar Law and 

 all the others. I remember the gracious way in which Mr. Lloyd George opened the meeting. 

 He alluded to an event which occurred some 140 years ago, Mr. President. He said, look- 

 ing at us Americans: — "This meeting would be very interesting, my friends, were it only 

 by reason of the place in which it occurs." I wish I could even suggest to you the deliberate 

 and impressive way in which this accomplished speaker pronounced his words. He contin- 

 ued : — "It was in this very room, indeed about the very table where we are seated, that some 

 hundred and forty years ago Lord North, then the Prime Minister of His Majesty, King 

 George III, stirred up a great deal of trouble for your ancestors." (Applause.) Then he 

 quickly added : — "But I think I should observe that he stirred up a great deal more for him- 

 self." (Applause.) 



I remember on our return it was my duty to attend an executive session of one of the 

 Senate committees to lay before the Senate information that had been imparted to us in the 

 strictest confidence by the British Admiralty, as to the true extent of the submarine destruc- 

 tion, and the figi^ires were, indeed, appalling. We had no realization in this country of the 

 extent of the destruction of commercial tonnage by the submarine, and it was not deemed ad- 

 visable that the true extent of the submarine's ravages should be disclosed to the world. But 

 it was considered not only permissible but proper that the Senate should have the truth be- 

 fore it for its own guidance. I remember making as simple and unvarnished a relation of 

 these facts to the Senate Committee as I could — the facts were so glaring and plain that they 

 needed no embellishment. It was not necessary for any man to endeavor to present them in 

 other than a plain and straightforward way, and I could almost see the pressure grow on the 



