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CHAPTER V
SENDING SIMS TO EUROPE
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COÖPERATION WITH ALLIES THE KEYNOTE OF OUR POLICY—ADMIRAL WILSON FIRST CHOSEN—SIMS' MISSION AND INSTRUCTIONS—SAILED AS "S. W. DAVIDSON," PRIVATE CITIZEN—BRITISH HAD NO PLANS THAT PROMISED SUCCESS, LORD JELLICOE TOLD HIM—CARSON PRAISED AMERICA'S "SPEEDY ACTION."
The most important thing, perhaps, that I discussed with the President when he visited the Navy Department March 24th was sending to London an officer of high rank who would put us in more intimate touch with the British Admiralty.
The text of that discussion was the following cablegram just received from the American Ambassador:
London, March 23, 1917, 7 p. m.
Secretary of State,
Washington.
Mr. Balfour has shown me the informal suggestion conveyed by the Navy Department through Gaunt [British naval attaché on duty in Washington] regarding closer relations and his reply. The British Government will heartily fall in with any plan we propose as soon as coöperation can be formally established. It was intimated to me that a submarine base on the coast of Ireland would then be assented to.