When our country entered the war Mrs Whitehouse was appointed by George Creel as representative for Switzerland of the Committee on public information. Her duties were to give every possible publicity to American news through the press, through special articles and pamphlets and motion-picture reels. The book is an accurate, honest account of her experiences, throwing interesting sidelights on diplomacy open and otherwise. Not until the difficulties she encountered in the American legation at Berne drove her to abandon her undertaking and return to America, did she in her second attempt succeed in breaking through the diplomatic armor plate and in gaining a foothold for her work. The contents are: My appointment; Diplomatic methods; The vanishing news service; Apparent defeat; To America and back; At work; Success under difficulties; One thing after another; Swiss problems; The approaching end; Grief and adventure; Strife and confusion; The end of the year. There are illustrations and appendices containing the correspondence and cablegrams between Washington and the American legation on the one hand and Mrs Whitehouse on the other.
Boston Transcript p6 Mr 13 ’20 460w
“She writes of important international work from an agreeably personal angle.”
+ Ind 104:244 N 13 ’20 220w
“Our conviction that her story is essentially true is not only because of her own definiteness and of the evidence the older diplomatic tradition gives about itself in the appendix, but also because of our general experience throughout the reign of war psychology. Mrs Whitehouse has the gift of taking the reader along with her in her adventure.” Edith Borie
+ New Repub 23:67 Je 9 ’20 1100w
“Aside from its historical interest, the book has fascination as a narrative, for Mrs Whitehouse possesses the very great gift of unconsciousness. The story runs as simply as though she were telling it over a table, and there is a delightful, if somewhat caustic, vein of humor that gives color to the whole.” G: Creel
+ N Y Times 25:1 F 22 ’20 1700w
“A reading of her book, interesting as it is, leaves one in doubt as to whether it is an apologia or a suffrage tract. Further, it exposes again the error of creating an extra-legal government department, the Committee on public information, with authority to act abroad in matters of foreign policy independently of the Department of state.”