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

264 INTIMATE PAPERS OF COLONEL HOUSE

most interesting conversation with him. I found him peculiarly ill-informed regarding America and its institutions. I
will tell you more of this when we meet.
I am lunching with the Prime Minister on Thursday of
next week, and I will write you again when anything further
of importance follows....
Your faithful and affectionate
E. M. HOUSE
House not merely emphasized the negative aspect of the
problem, the necessity of removing the factors that threatened war in Europe, but also urged the importance of a positive policy of international cooperation with a constructive
purpose. It was the same plan he had discussed with Page
and Bernstorff, a plan designed to bring the Great Powers of
the world into a general undertaking for the development and
protection of the backward regions of the world, and it contained the germ of the mandatary scheme later worked out
in the League of Nations. He suggested the plan one cool
evening as he sat with Sir Cecil Spring-Rice and Sir William
Tyrrell before the open fire in Tyrrell's country home.
Spring-Rice and Tyrrell approved, and House carried his
plan to Grey.
Colonel House to the President
LONDON, June 26, 1914
DEAR GOVERNOR:
There is another matter I have taken up, which I hope may
have your approval. I have suggested that America, England, France, Germany, and the other money-lending and
developing nations, have some sort of tentative understanding among themselves for the purpose of establishing a plan
by which investors on the one hand may be encouraged to
lend money at reasonable rates and to develop, under favorable terms, the waste places of the earth, and on the other