I
Some extracts from a diary of the next two months will give the history of the mission's movements and may recall, to those who had occasion to travel during the unrestricted submarine campaign, the sometimes romantic mystery and the always exasperating uncertainty of those days.
Wednesday, April 11th, 1917.
Non-stop to Crewe and again to Carlisle, where we changed engines in a hidden backwater of the station. Dormer [Mr. Balfour's assistant private secretary] explained programme: viz. dine on train, reach unnamed port at 11.0 p.m., embark, land to-morrow at second unnamed port, train till mid-day to third unnamed port and embark in real earnest. Query: Stranraer, Larne, Loch Swilly and the "Olympic?" ... Rival rumour speaks of a cruiser or two. At Carlisle we stretch our legs....
Left Carlisle 15 minutes before scheduled time, thus missing Admiralty telegram. This, however, caught us at Dumfries, where, dining agreeably and looking out over measureless wastes of snow, we were told that we must wait four-and-twenty hours, as the weather was impossible. Mission, which is so far taking everything in best spirit, clutched its despatch boxes and F.O. bags, indicated heavier luggage to obliging soldier-servants and tramped through snow to Dumfries Station Hotel....
Until mid-day no orders were received.... Dormer then announced that we board train for dinner at 7.15 and start at 8.45. The mission is so much wrapped in mystery, and the S. of State so well known that he has been confined to his own room all morning....
On reaching station at 7.15 we were presented with further Admiralty telegrams suspending our departure ... then told that we were to proceed to Greenock. It was low water when we arrived at 11.0 p.m. and ... illumined by the precarious flash of an electric torch, we descended a perpendicular gangway, much as a vampire descends the rain-water pipe on the outside of a house.... Greenock Station rumour says that our mission of twenty, with ten servants and sixty to eighty pieces of baggage, is carrying bullion.... Some little time on a perishingly cold tender, before boarding "Olympic." This ... has been for some little time a troopship; it is in fact heavily loaded with ... Canadian ... wives who are being repatriated; it contains three hundred to four hundred ... babies, all with ... a yell on their lips; finally, it has been waiting for the mission some six days, being ready to sail last Friday.... Consequently, when the Secretary of State mounted the gangway, followed by a score of men carrying a despatch-box in either hand ... the cheers rang out over the grey waters of the Clyde. "I cannot help feeling that they were ironical," murmured A. J. B., as we sat down to sardines on toast, cold ham and whiskey at midnight.... Unconscious of their doom, the little victims cheered, not guessing that the Admiralty's reason for stopping us yesterday was the discovery of a brand-new minefield outside Loch Swilly. I am told that we shall not start till Saturday, as a further mission, principally from the W.O. and M. of M. is due to start on that day; perhaps we shall wait for it. When, therefore, we arrive or start back, no man can say. Drummond [Mr. Balfour's principal private secretary] thinks it probable that we shall spend a week in Canada before returning.
Friday, April 13th.
An inauspicious day for starting, say the superstitious; but, though the Blue Peter tremble in the breeze, I see no likelihood of our moving.... Rumour, which is as busy on board the "Olympic" as elsewhere, has discovered that the midnight mission was not a mission at all, but a clandestine escape and that the £800 suite 'midships contains not the Secretary of State, but the ex-Czar of all the Russias.... No hopes of a start till to-morrow....
Saturday, April 14th.
Worked industriously ... until noon, when ears were caught by welcome sound of anchor being raised. Guns, four forward and two aft, were swung into position; three destroyers, like angry dragon-flies, appeared from nowhere and flew ahead; orders issued for every man, woman and child to put, and keep, on life-belt. Bidden by Drummond to lunch with Secretary of State in his cabin....
Sunday, April 15th.
Twenty hours out from Greenock. Our escort has left us, we no longer steer a zigzag course; and high speed, coupled with a bit of a roll, a bit of a pitch and considerable cold has thinned the ranks of the passengers.... The Atlantic, considering its size, is amazingly deserted.
Monday, April 16th.
Fairly smooth, settled down to work in earnest.... Dormer told me that, the night we were due to sail, every British west-coast port was carefully mined. Hence our stay at Dumfries. The ship's company has been very busy making a wood-and-canvas imitation of a submarine periscope; this is to be flung overboard to-morrow, and punctually at 11.0 our guns will try to sink it. Hope they succeed; otherwise, a lifelike periscope cruising at large over wide Atlantic will distress a number of innocent packets.
Tuesday, April 17th.
Delightfully warm; steaming well south. This an agreeable surprise after being told that we were due to run into a cold patch over the Banks.... Gun practise took place, as advertised; £7 per shell. As the wood-and-canvas mock-periscope sank shortly after being launched, there was no very satisfactory target, but the gunners had still the wide Atlantic at which to shoot and on several occasions I observed them hit it. Noise disconcerting, but nothing to consequent uproar, when 400 children all began to cry at once. However, if they had not been crying at the guns, they would have cried at something else.... Vernon Castle, who in happier times waltzes in and out the supper-tables of New York and London in company with his wife, happens to be on board, as an airman.
Wednesday, April 18th.
Weather getting warmer each day. Sighted first ship of any kind since leaving territorial waters.... The F.O. News Department is apparently collecting a series of autobiographical sketches of the mission. Infinite possibilities in this.... Dined with Secretary of State. A concert on behalf of Sailors' Families Fund....
Thursday, April 19th.
Passing over Banks: bitterly cold; going slow to make Halifax early to-morrow morning.... The wireless communiqués seem to grow more satisfactory each day. Confidential memorandum circulated to mission, hinting what should and what should not be communicated with members of pertinacious U.S.A. press.[38]
Friday, April 20th.
We came in sight of land this morning between 7.0 and 8.0. Yesterday evening was beautifully calm and clear, and, shortly before sundown, we met four transports and a cruiser escort steaming parallel to us to the south. By midnight we ran into a dense fog and spent the night almost motionless with the fog-horn blowing at three-minute intervals. An escort came out to meet us, but turned tail on failing to find us. Halifax harbour is imposing[39]—an immense stretch of water with hills on either side and an October-morning haze gradually disappearing before the sun. The mission will shortly disintegrate, as the M. of M. and the Wheat Commission are going to New York. On dropping anchor, we were boarded by an embassage from the Governor-General of Canada, consisting of Admiral Browning, his naval staff, the G. G.'s military secretary and others. We are bidden to lunch on the "Leviathan." Telegrams are flying between Halifax and Washington to discover when the U.S.A. Government would like us to arrive....
Went on board "Leviathan" ... and was entertained most hospitably by ward-room officers; taken ashore in launch and spent hour inspecting Halifax. Returned to tea on board "Leviathan"; then ashore again and entered private car. Expect to reach Washington in forty-eight hours. Papers full of mission and arrangements for its reception....
Saturday, April 21st.
An airless and seismic night ... until we lay in St. John siding for an hour or two.... Due to cross frontier at 9.0 a.m....
Meeting at frontier between mission, press, secret police and representatives of State Department and Embassy, Secretary of State and Long, Assistant Secretary of State Department.... Mission must not arrive before 3.0 p.m. Accordingly drew up in siding for three hours....
Sunday, April 22nd.
Crossed the Hell Gate Bridge, an amazing piece of railway construction, only opened three weeks ago, into New York, where we put down the Ministry of Munitions and the Chairman of the Wheat Commission, who will join us at Washington to-morrow night. Part of the Mission will be bedded out in a house provided ad hoc, the rest will go to the Shoreham Hotel.... Two days in the hottest train on record rather trying....
Arrived safely at Washington.... We had a pilot engine running from the frontier before us, another following, the line guarded and the route not disclosed. Despite this, the U.S. head of the Eastern Command states that sleepers were laid across the line last night with intent to wreck the train.
The mission was received by Secretary Lansing and most of the British Embassy Staff, a U.S. naval band, a crowd and several cars, which were then escorted by troops of cavalry.... Called at Embassy.... Summer weather prevailing; and spring leaves and flowers everywhere.