Under such circumstances, with Europe none too well-disposed and the Kaiser watching events with a jealous eye, it was very important to the United States not to be without a friend.In England sympathy for America ran strong and deep.The British Government was somewhat in alarm over the political solitude in which Great Britain found herself, even though its head, Lord Salisbury, described the position as one of "splendid isolation."The unexpected reaction of friendliness on the part of Great Britain which had followed the Venezuela affair continued to augment, and relations between the two countries were kept smooth by the new American Ambassador, John Hay, whom Queen Victoria described as "the most interesting of all the ambassadors I have known." More important still, in Great Britain alone was there a public who appreciated the real sentiment of humanity underlying the entrance of the United States into the war with Spain; and this public actually had some weight in politics.The people of both Great Britain and the United States were easily moved to respond with money and personal service to the cry of suffering anywhere in the world.Just before the Spanish American War, Gladstone had made his last great campaign protesting against the new massacres in Armenia; and in the United States the Republican platform of 1896 had declared that "the massacres in Armenia have aroused the deep sympathy and just indignation of the American people, and we believe that the United States should exercise all the influence it can properly exert to bring these atrocities to an end."John Hay wrote to Henry Cabot Lodge, of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, April 5, 1898, as follows: "For the first time in my life I find the drawing-room sentiment altogether with us.
If we wanted it--which, of course, we do not--we could have the practical assistance of the British Navy--on the do ut des principle, naturally." On the 25th of May he added: "It is a moment of immense importance, not only for the present, but for all the future.It is hardly too much to say the interests of civilization are bound up in the direction the relations of England and America are to take in the next few months." Already on the 15th of May, Joseph Chamberlain, the Colonial Secretary, had said to the Birmingham Liberal Unionists: "What is our next duty? It is to establish and to maintain bonds of permanent amity with our kinsmen across the Atlantic.There is a powerful and a generous nation....Their laws, their literature, their standpoint upon every question are the same as ours."In Manila Harbor, where Dewey lay with his squadron, these distant forces of European colonial policy were at work.The presence of representative foreign warships to observe the maintenance of the blockade was a natural and usual naval circumstance.The arrival of two German vessels therefore caused no remark, although they failed to pay the usual respects to the blockading squadron.On the 12th of May a third arrived and created some technical inconvenience by being commanded by an officer who outranked Commodore Dewey.A German transport which was in the harbor made the total number of German personnel superior to that of the Americans, and the arrival of the Kaiser on the 12th of June gave the Germans distinct naval preponderance.
The presence of so powerful a squadron in itself closely approached an international discourtesy.Disregarding the laws of blockade, as Dewey, trained in the Civil War blockade of the South, interpreted them, the German officers were actively familiar both with the Spanish officials of Manila and with the insurgents.Finally they ensconced themselves in the quarantine station at the entrance of the Bay, and Admiral Diedrichs took up land quarters.Further, they interfered between the insurgents and the Spaniards outside of Manila Bay.In the controversy between Diedrichs and Dewey which grew out of these difficulties, Captain Chichester, commanding the British squadron, supported Dewey's course unqualifiedly and, moreover, let it be clearly known that, in the event of hostilities, the British vessels would take their stand with the Americans.
