The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 84, July 1980 - April, 1981 Page: 433
502 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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A Texan in London
defeated on land there will be no chance of bargaining left. If they
hold their own on land then an intact Navy might be of considerable
use in the negotiations. But if they once reached the last stage, House
held that they would put all their cards down at once. Ships, Zeppelins,
horse, foot and artillery would all rush out together like a swarm of
angry bees.
Of course nothing ever comes quite so pat in reality as in talk, but
anyway that I am sure was the impression House brought away from
Berlin. He said amongst other things that he had talked to three of the
very highest German officials, one of whom I gathered must have been
Bethman-Hollweg [sic]." When they had asked him about the state of
things in England he had told them that he had watched and studied
English people for many years and he was sure they were the stubborn-
est people in the world. Then he added, sotto voce: 'I did not remind
them that I knew this because I was one of them['] a remark which I
was pleased to see was greeted with an assenting smile by Page. (After
all what could be more English than Page and House?) Then the high-
est of the three officials added: 'Yes, but are they not very stupid people
also?' 'To this' he said, 'I of [course] agreed.' House then went on to
say--evidently delighting in pulling the German leg, and as an exam-
ple of our stubbornness, that people here quite seriously talked of the
war going on for another five years. The three officials apparently
looked at each other and seemed anything but pleased at the prospect.
I need not trouble with the rest of Houses's [sic] conversation. The
essential part was his evident conviction that things were going to move
very quickly just now and that there would very soon be a supreme
effort on the West. Of course it is always possible that the Germans
divined or knew that House was really at heart pro-Allies and that they
'filled him up' with stories of immediate action, which they did not
mean to take, knowing that they would be reported in London.15 Cer-
tainly if that was their game it was not seen through by House for I
am sure he is an absolutely sincere man and would not lend himself to
any intrigue of that kind, even if he were pro-German which he cer-
tainly is not.
14Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg (1856-1921) was the chancellor of Germany. Kon-
rad H. Jarausch, The Enigmatic Chancellor: Bethmann Hollweg and the Hubris of Im-
perial Germany (New Haven, 1973).
15Strachey used House's information in The Spectator, CXVI (Feb. 19, 1916), 241.433
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 84, July 1980 - April, 1981, periodical, 1980/1981; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101225/m1/493/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.