CHAPTER XII 



WHAT THE MISSION ACCOMPLISHED 



There is a novel, which achieved some notoriety, 

 entitled Six Chapters of a Man's Life. My aim in 

 compiling this work is to give a succinct account of 

 " One Chapter " of a man's life, and by no means 

 an unimportant chapter either ; for not only did 

 Mr. Chamberlain meet with a lady of incomparable 

 worth, who subsequently became his devoted wife, 

 but he practically found a peaceful solution of an in- 

 tricate and complicated problem that at one moment 

 had reached a point which threatened to imperil the 

 friendly relations now happily subsisting between 

 this country and the United States. It is only 

 right, therefore, to explain in some detail precisely 

 what the mission accomplished, otherwise the 

 record would be incomplete. I am not divulging 

 any official secrets in saying that at one moment 

 the negotiations practically came to a deadlock. In 

 his speech at Birmingham on March 20, Mr. 

 Chamberlain himself said : " Although there were 



times when our task appeared to be almost hopeless, 



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