Authors: Edmund Morris
80
As the Prime Minister
Taft-Katsura Memorandum.
81
Allowing Koreans
Ibid. For Japan’s previous efforts, diplomatic and military, to colonize Korea, see Dennett,
Roosevelt
, 96–111. See also M. Hane, “Theodore Roosevelt and Korea: The U.S. Response to the Japanese Policy to Make Korea Its Protectorate,”
Journal of American History
82.4 (1996).
82
Regarding the Philippines
Taft-Katsura Memorandum.
83
Taft said that
Ibid. For reactions to Root’s appointment, see Jessup,
Elihu Root
, vol. 1, 47–51.
84
“If I have”
Taft-Katsura Memorandum.
85
YOUR CONVERSATION
TR,
Letters
, vol. 4, 1293; Dennett,
Roosevelt
, 110–11.
86
ALICE, UNAWARE
Alice Roosevelt diary, 27 July and
passim
1905 (ARL).
87
At a dinner entertainment
Griscom,
Diplomatically Speaking
, 259.
88
Since her father
Teague,
Mrs. L.
, 4–5; Morris,
Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
, 122.
89
Her last impression
Longworth,
Crowded Hours
, 85.
90
a sketch of his daughter
Facsimile from family collection, privately held. TR’s superscript reads
“Not
a posterity letter.”
91
At the time
Dennett,
Roosevelt
, 198–200.
92
Washington was, of
TR,
Letters
, vol. 4, 1226.
93
Only one met
Trani,
Treaty of Portsmouth
, 66. The choice of Portsmouth was announced officially on 12 July 1904.
94
The pretty, little
Ibid., 67–70. The building (no. 86) still stands.
95
Their respective
Trani,
Treaty of Portsmouth
, 115–16.
96
AT SIX AND A
half
Ibid., 74–76; Adams,
Letters
, vol. 5, 284; E. J. Dillon, “Sergius Witte,”
Review of Reviews
, Sept. 1905.
97
Henry Adams had
Adams,
Letters
, vol. 5, 284; John Hay diary, 16 Feb. 1905 (JH); Charles Hardinge to Lord Lansdowne, 4 Jan. 1905, in
British Documents on Foreign Affairs
, vol. 1
A
, 3, 1. The best contemporary portrait of Witte is in Smalley,
Anglo-American Memories
, chap. 30.
98
Roosevelt had hoped
Dennett,
Roosevelt
, 42–43; TR,
Letters
, vol. 4, 1276. Ito had actually proposed a Russo-Japanese alliance in 1902, when Witte was the Tsar’s finance minister.
99
Komura was, like
Trani,
Treaty of Portsmouth
, 72; Smalley,
Anglo-American
Memories
, 398. The latter memorably describes Komura as having “an intelligent face, but of parchment written all over with hieroglyphics.”
100
Not only that
Griscom,
Diplomatically Speaking
, 225–26.
101
The four plenipotentiaries
For a complete list of delegates to the Portsmouth Conference, see Trani,
Treaty of Portsmouth
, 72–73, 76–77.
102
That solemn engagement
Philip G. Thompson notes (Portsmouth Conference) (HKB). The date of this visit was 27 July.
The New York Times
, 28 July 1905.
103
a space both deep and high
The following description is based on David H. Wallace,
Historic Furnishings Report: Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
(Harpers Ferry, W. Va., 1989), vol. 1, 51–52, 246–52 (photographs taken in July 1905). See also Hermann Hagedorn,
The Roosevelt Family of Sagamore Hill
(New York, 1954), 232–35. Komura was the first VIP received by TR in the North Room.
104
heavy Philippine hardwoods
The Roosevelts took pride in the fact that “every bit of wood or stone [in the North Room] came from the United States or her possessions.” Roosevelt,
All in the Family
, 7–9.
105
“Framed” thus in
Japan’s terms are reproduced in Dennett,
Roosevelt
, 231–32. See also Trani,
Treaty of Portsmouth
, 95–96.
106
Arrogant though these
Trani,
Treaty of Portsmouth
, 96.
107
As for the indemnity
TR,
Letters
, vol. 4, 1293.
108
hard numbers of yen
A member of the Japanese delegation hinted that the indemnity request might run as high as three million yen. J. J. Korostovetz,
Pre-War Diplomacy: The Russo-Japanese Problem: Diary of J. J. Korostovetz
(London, 1920), 28 (hereafter Korostovetz,
Diary)
.
109
After Komura and Takahira
TR,
Letters
, vol. 4, 1293. Philippe Bunau-Varilla to Francis B. Loomis, 27 July 1905 (FBL); Loomis to TR, 28 July 1905 (TRP).
110
Roosevelt was worried
TR,
Letters
, vol. 4, 1293. TR here displayed acute intuition. According to Baron Rosen, Witte “would not have hesitated to consent to the payment of a war indemnity provided it could be accomplished under some plausible disguise.” Roman Rosen,
Forty Years of Diplomacy
(London, 1922), vol. 1, 263–64.
111
his friend Kentaro
See above, Interlude, p. 368.
112
The Russian plenipotentiaries
Korostovetz,
Diary
, 31.
113
His guests arrived
Ibid.
114
Still less could
Trani,
Treaty of Portsmouth
, 112, quotes some of the Tsar’s adamant instructions, which formed the basis of Witte’s negotiating brief.
115
Their country
Rosen,
Forty Years
, vol. 1, 263–64. Sakhalin was to remain a Russian strategic trigger-spot for most of the rest of the century:
vide
the downing of Korean Airlines Flight 007 in 1983.
116
Paradoxically, the
Ibid., 264.
117
Baron Rosen’s suspicion
Ibid.
118
Witte was enormous
Smalley,
Anglo-American Memories
, 386–87; TR,
Letters
, vol. 5, 61. TR’s impression of Witte was not altogether pleasant, and turned to outright dislike as the peace conference progressed. TR,
Letters
, vol. 5, 22–23.
119
“We are not”
Korostovetz,
Diary
, 31, qu. Witte’s own repetition, later that day, of his words to TR.
120
However, Witte
Ibid., 32.
121
Witte watched
Witte,
Memoirs
, vol. 2, 442. It is probable that Witte told TR, for example, that Japan had just as many imperialistic designs in Manchuria as Russia did, and considerably more in Korea. And by her very nature, she was likely to close the Open Doors in both those countries with louder slams than any yet heard. After Portsmouth, Japan did indeed immediately close the door on Korea, and by the time TR left office she had begun to shut it in Manchuria, too. By 1938, Japan had used her military power to close off all of China to the West, and her
subsequent moves upon the Philippines, not to mention Pearl Harbor, made wastepaper of the Taft-Katsura Memorandum. It is moot, of course, whether China and Korea would have fared any better under Russian domination. See Dennett,
Roosevelt
, 238–39, for the role of public relations in formulating American attitudes in 1905.
122
Roosevelt said
Korostovetz,
Diary
, 32.
123
The plenipotentiaries
Dennett,
Roosevelt
, 240 “I have brought them to a cool spring,” TR said later that afternoon. “It remains to be seen whether they will drink of it or not.” Smalley,
Anglo-American Memories
, 362.
124
Tweedledum and Tweedledee
See above, p. 168.
125
from next Wednesday
When the delegations got to Portsmouth, they found that TR had made no arrangements for meetings, leaving them to construct their own schedule. Trani,
Treaty of Portsmouth
, 127.
126
He sent two
Korostovetz,
Diary
, 35. Except where otherwise indicated, the following is taken from this source, plus New York
Sun
, 6 Aug. 1905, and Henry J. Forman’s excellent oral history of his coverage of the
Mayflower
reception for the
Sun
syndicate. Forman was one of the bright young reporters TR liked to cultivate with exclusive favors. He was given a presidential pass to remain on board during the ceremonies, and permission to dispatch bulletins ashore by rowboat shuttle (dropping them out through a porthole). A transcript of Forman’s memoir, “So Brief a Time” (1959–1960), conducted by Doyce B. Nunis, is in the Department of Special Collections, Young Research Library, UCLA.
127
glittered like a ballroom
The simile is Forman’s.
128
From then on
It is not likely that a peace conference ever began more noisily. The
Mayflower
’s logbook records twenty-one guns for TR, nineteen each for the plenipotentiaries, then respective honors for every Cabinet officer, admiral, and general who came aboard. O.H.M. McPherson, “The U.S.S.
Mayflower
, a Presidential Prerogative,”
Yachting
, July 1992.
129
the Stars and Stripes
This flag now hangs at in the North Room at Sagamore Hill.
130
Since Komura and
Rosen,
Forty Years
, vol. 1, 265.
131
The door to
Witte,
Memoirs
, vol. 2, 434, 439.
132
As the President handled
The simile of a hostess is again that of Forman, who was stationed in the room with a notebook. It was the first decisive moment of the peace conference, a pas de deux or pas de quatre, a symbolic crossing of the threshold between formality and conviviality. The subsequent relaxation of tension was not to last.
133
Asia and Russia
“Two and two they came, arm in arm.” Forman’s original eyewitness account makes plain that TR and his senior guests did not, as often stated, enter all in a row. He led the way, as President of the United States, and the plenipotentiaries followed, “Baron Komura’s shoulder touching Mr. Witte’s elbow.” Witte managed, by means of his longer stride, to get a foot over the threshold first.
134
Those set aside
Not even the punctilious Rosen recalled his orientation. “We were seated all in a group surrounding our genial host”
(Forty Years
, vol. 1, 265). Hagedorn,
Roosevelt Family
, 222, says without attribution that the principals shared a long wall seat, while TR took “the only chair in the room, facing them.”
135
To Komura, he
Rosen tried to interpret, but was ignored.
Historical Note:
TR read French easily, as indicated by his consumption of all of La Corce and Cahun’s
Turcs et Mongols
in 1905 (“with such thoroughness … that at the end it was dangling out of the covers”). He spoke the language with equal ease (“Je le parle comme une langue touranienne”), although John Hay noticed that his grammar was “entirely lawless,” and Jules Jusserand was amused by his occasional, entirely unself-conscious pauses before settling on
le mot juste
(TR,
Letters
, vol.
4, 1268; André Zardieu, “Trois Visites à M. Roosevelt,”
Le Temps
, 15 Apr. 1908; Thayer,
John Hay
, vol. 2, 356; Jusserand,
What Me Befell
, 338).
According to Ethel Roosevelt Derby (interview, 1962 [TRB]), her father read German “equally well”—works of literature, history, and science, as well as poetry. In youth, he could recite stretches of the
Nibelungenlied
by heart. As President, TR often conversed in German with Germans (Dunn,
From Harrison to Harding
, vol. 1, 373; Butt,
Letters
, 116). He was less versed in Italian, although, as noted above, he read E. de Michelis’s
L’Origine degli Indo-Europei
from cover to cover in 1904. For more on TR’s “not inconsiderable” linguistic achievements, see Wagenknecht,
Seven Worlds
, 34–35.
134
Other guests
Review of Reviews
, Sept. 1905.
135
Roosevelt went on
See TR,
Works
, vol. 18, 409.
136
When lunch was
Rosen’s position right next to the President, opposite Komura, was not accidental. As Russian Ambassador to the United States, “I was the ranking person of both delegations.” Rosen,
Forty Years
, vol. 1, 265.
137
AT TWENTY MINUTES
New York
Sun
, 6 Aug. 1905, precisely gives departure times. In what is possibly a jingoistic slip of the pen, Korostovetz has the
Dolphin
wallowing in the
Mayflower
’s wake.
Diary
, 37.
138
“I think we”
Hagedorn,
Roosevelt Family
, 223, qu. Joseph Bucklin Bishop.
139
The self-important
New York
Sun
, 19 Aug. 1905; Forman, “So Brief a Time,” 34–35. For the negotiations up to this point, see Trani,
Treaty of Portsmouth
, 128–38. Trani’s overall account of the conference is the only one based on Japanese and Russian, as well as American, primary sources.