The intimate papers of Colonel House arranged as a narrative by Charles Seymour.

JAMES W. GERARD

185

holm wrote frequently to him, and House evidently spared
neither time nor effort in keeping them informed of political
developments at home.
The Colonel's correspondence with Gerard' at Berlin and
Walter Page at London was voluminous.
'I told Gerard [recorded House] that he would get very
meagre information from the State Department concerning
the happenings in Administration circles, and I promised to
keep him measurably well-posted in order that he might confer without embarrassment with the Kaiser or the Minister
for Foreign Affairs. In turn, he said he would write me
every ten days.'
Colonel House's relations with Mr. Gerard became of
great political importance in the stirring days that were to
come, for the Ambassador kept his promise. His war letters
to House were pungent and prophetic, and through them
President Wilson was to be informed accurately of the complicated forces that governed Germany. Nothing is further
from fact than the legend that the President lacked available
and authentic information of the political underworld on the
continent of Europe. Mr. Gerard was excelled by none in
the dignity and capacity with which he maintained the
interests and furthered the policy of his Government in the
most trying diplomatic situation of the war zone. He knew
how to establish cordial relations with the Berlin Government, and he gave thought to the details that make for
friendliness. But he never forgot Bismarck's aphorism: 'A
good Ambassador ought not to be too popular in the country
to which he is accredited.'